Seminole's city parks are the easiest everyday outdoor stops

There's no state park in Gaines County to drive the family to on a Saturday, so the everyday outdoors here is municipal and it's close in. City Park on Northwest 5th Street is the busy one: playground, a sand volleyball court, basketball, covered picnic tables, and in summer the splash pad that does a lot of work in July. There are even RV hookups at the north end, handy when relatives come through for a wedding or a funeral.

When you just want to move, S. S. Forrest Park out on Southwest 21st Street is the walking park, and there are quieter corners scattered around town: Pioneer Park over on N.W. Avenue H with a playground and a basketball court, the little Garden Club Park and Tri-Corners. For ball, the soccer field is on S.E. 3rd.

It's an unglamorous list, but it's the real one — the splash pad after a hot afternoon, a loop around Forrest before supper, a birthday at the covered tables. That's what outdoors looks like day to day in a farming county, and Seminole keeps enough of it within a few blocks that you don't have to plan an expedition to use it.