Two More Days

As we were trying to decide where to go when, I asked Dave about his priorities. Scenery not sights was basically his answer. He could drive 4-5 hours a day without stopping for anything other than food or gas and be content. When we stop for the night he’d prefer the neighbors not be too close and the wifi be good. If the spot is cheap as well, so much the better.

So we stopped that night at  Eagle’s Nest RV Park in Van Horn, Texas. We had space around us only because they did not park anyone on either side of us. Our wifi was intermittent with the park’s wifi usually being better. And we paid $27 a night which is not cheap camping. Yet we stayed two nights. Because the park was where we needed it to be and the weather forecast was for strong winds and rain. And the park we were headed for, Davis Mountains State Park, was guaranteed to not have any internet at all and I had lots of research about the road ahead of us to do.

We arrived at Eagle’s Nest in the midst of a rush. People come in mostly between 2 and 7 p.m. At 11:30 the next morning we were the only rig still in the park. This is definitely an overnight type of place. I wonder what the owners though of us weirdos who stayed two nights?

The storm hit with lots of wind but just enough rain to make a mess of our RV without washing it off again. I got lots of research done so feel like I can relax for a bit. And they had these unusual picnic tables which I thought would be good for playing games if the weather had been fine and we had known any of our neighbors.

We left Van Horn on U.S. 90 headed towards Marfa, Texas. Along the way we saw some clever anti-littering signs. One said “Drive Clear Across Texas.” And the other said, “LITTERING IS unlAWFUL”

Today’s dot in the sky turned out to be another blimp.  

I figured there must be another Border Patrol Checkpoint ahead since that’s where we saw the previous blimp several times. Dave said there’s a checkpoint south of Marfa. But we were wrong. According to the signs it was a United States Air Force Tethered Aerostat Radar Site. 

Which is probably what the previous blimp was as well. The fact that both blimps are located near Border Patrol Checkpoints appears to be coincidence. We did see a Border Patrol truck, though. It was pulling a thing behind it that smoothed the gravel road it was on between us and the railroad tracks. Dave’s theory is that it was erasing previous footprints so they could identify any new ones.

Marfa’s claim to fame is the Marfa Lights. These are a phenomena something like the Northern Lights except no one has yet been able to explain them. The first reported sighting was in 1883 so they can’t be explained as aircraft lights even though they appear at a former U.S. Army Air Field.  

So may people stop along the highway here in hopes of trying to see them the Texas Dept. of Transportation finally built a viewing area on donated land. It provides restrooms and a variety of choices of places to roost while you wait in hopes of seeing the lights.

Since they can only be seen at night, not every night, with no way to predict which night, we decided not to wait for them.

So we moved on to Alpine, Texas, to the Lost Alaskan RV Park. No we didn’t go to Davis Mountains. It’s supposed to have winds gusting to 60 miles an hour up there and still no internet. So we’ll sit here a couple more days in hopes the weather will get better. Texas has winter storms, they just don’t look like Minnesota ones. Dave would really like to go to the McDonald Observatory up there and I’d like to see their displays as well. Wish us better weather soon, please.

TTYL,

Linda