The Sandcastle

We’ve been traveling in west Texas for quite some time now so here’s some of my observations during those travels.

We stayed at the Lost Alaskan RV Park in Alpine, Texas, before and after our visit to the McDonald Observatory. Apparently, lots of other people do too. Among that RV park’s facility was this:

When we stopped for diesel, Dave used their window washing equipment to wash my side windows, too. They needed it after that little bit of rain with lots of dust storm we had.

We are not having the problems getting diesel I was afraid we might have. Most stations seem to have it now. Even the little two pump Fina station had one pump of unleaded and one of diesel.

We saw a herd of white cows. Dave said, “They’ve been bleached by the sun.”

The sign said this section of road is maintained by “The Raunchy Road Ranch.” Do you suppose Raunchy Road is where the bordellos used to be? Or still are?

Kids nowadays have no sense of tradition. I saw a cowboy wearing a baseball cap!

The road runner was doing just that until he saw us then he hesitated a moment. But he ran on before we had to wonder if we were going to hit him or not.

Coming down a hill we could see the road ahead of us made a 90 degree turn left then right. We could see no reason for it. There were no hills or fields to go around. And, if we were following a section line, wouldn’t it continue straight? We’ll never know the answer to that one.

I saw a sign that said, “Cowboy Mining Company.” I didn’t know you could mine for cowboys. I know some women who would like to do that.

We stopped at a Fina Station/mini mart/cafe in Terlingua/Study Butte for lunch. The people were very friendly. When I commented on that one guy told me, “Stop here and meet friendly strangers. Stay here and meet strange friends.” That was the same guy who responded to Dave’s big sneeze by saying, “Good one!”

There was an RV park right behind the Fina Station/mini mart/cafe. If we stayed there even I could walk to the store. But we were headed into Big Bend National Park and you already know how that turned out.

Well, most of how it turned out. I didn’t tell you about waving to the motorcycle riders only to realize it was our Escapees classmates, Mike & Julie. We stopped for a very short visit alongside the road.

And about the Burro Mesa Pouroff. In Minnesota that would be called a waterfall. Even if there was no water falling today. It only falls here during heavy rains.

We stayed the first night in Big Bend at Cottonwood campground down by the recently flooded Rio Grande River.  In that campground you are not allowed to run generators. Since our batteries were fully charged and we had no internet signal we had no problem having no extra source of electricity.  

The next night we stayed in the Chisos Basin campground where we could run our generator during approved hours but still had no internet signal so still didn’t need to run the generator. That campground was in the highlands so each campsite had a bear box to put your food in if you were tent camping.

It’s interesting that the computers appear to be the main reason we need supplemental power.

It was fun seeing so many people in the campgrounds doing what we grew up thinking of as “camping.” Tents and popup trailers everywhere. People cooking and eating outside. People hiking for the entertainment value of it. People actually camping, not traveling like us.

While traveling on down the road I found myself thinking about the people who cross from Mexico illegally and those who help them. I could suddenly hear some English teacher asking us to write a paper comparing and contrasting this with the Underground Railroad. I wonder what I would write? I wonder what you would write?

The sign said, “Longfellow Draw.” I knew he wrote. Did he draw?  With a pencil?  Or did that mean draw his gun?  This is Texas, you know.

We stopped in Langtry, Texas, to visit the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center. He was quite a character. Here’s a couple of photos from there.

We spent a night in Seminole Canyon State Park. $17 for full hookups and the park had wifi. I got caught up on my computer reading but not on my posting. We probably should have stayed there another night just to do that since we are so often without any internet signal lately.

We did some driving around in the Amistad National Recreation Area checking out potential campsites. Governor’s Landing had water but no other hookups and only about half the sites come close to being level but they are cheap and private and we’ll likely come back here sometime.

In Del Rio, Texas, we stopped at the first WalMart we’ve seen in a long time to restock our supplies. After having no cell phone service for about a week, I suddenly had five bars of my carrier, T-Mobile. So I checked my messages and returned a call from our daughter. We talked for almost an hour so we may be caught up with each other again.

Driving south from Del Rio on Hwy 277 we drove out of the desert for the first time in months. Creeks have water in them. Trees are tall. They sky started leaking; it became what the Irish call a “soft” day. I had the urge to go out and let my skin soak up water but we were in the middle of nowhere so I had to wait.

We headed to Eagle Pass, Texas, to a casino offering 20 free RV sites with hookups hoping it would be something like Firelake Grand Casino back in Oklahoma. The roads in were terrible! Narrow, bumpy, winding, with construction making one lane traffic in part of it and that lane wasn’t full width. To add insult to injury, the RV parking was horrible which was probably OK because it was also full. So we moved on.

My phone keeps ringing the tone that says I have a message. T-Mobile keeps calling to tell me how I can stay connected with them while traveling. They are being such a nuisance about me staying connected that I actually turned my phone off. Dave thought that was hilarious. After awhile, so did I.

So now we are in Carrizo Springs, Texas, at the Brush County RV Park and, once again, we have an intermittent internet connection. I am writing this as a text document that I will upload when we get a better connection. Boy, have I gotten spoiled.

TTYL,

Linda

We’ve had three days with no internet connection but lots of scenery. Big Bend National Park is in the bend of the Rio Grande River in Western Texas. Across the river is Mexico but all the crossings within the park have been closed. This park is so big it is easy to forget how close you are to another country because this part of our country has such a variety of land within it. Without further ado may I, please, present three days of Big Bend National Park.

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

TTYL,

Linda

About 6 a.m. this morning the wind finally quit rocking the RV so today we headed up into the Davis Mountains at last. We took Texas 118 up from Alpine. It’s a good way to go. The road is smooth asphalt all the way up and there are lots of picnic areas, scenic overlooks, and historical markers along the way.

Our primary destination was the McDonald Observatory. We reached it about 12:45 p.m. as you can see on this huge sundial.

The visitor center has participatory exhibits, a theater, a cafe, and a gift shop. The big telescopes are on the hill behind the visitor center.

The next program was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and would last until 4:30 p.m. so we had lunch in the Star Date Cafe. As we often do in museum cafes we shared one sandwich, one beverage, and one desert. Dave, of course, voted for ham and cheese but I talked him into chicken with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and cheddar cheese on focacia. Mmmm. I bribed him with a brownie.

Then we watched a video about the observatory. After a short break, the observatory’s version of a ranger presented a talk about stars with excellent slides. Then the speaker, Dave, and six others climbed into a shuttle bus and headed up the hill to see the big telescopes.  

He took my camera with him so you’ll have to ask him about these photos. He said something about big mirrors and a windbreak in front of the opening when I asked.

While Dave was off on that 90 minute tour I played with the interactive exhibits, explored the gift shop, went back to the RV and took a nap, and ate chocolate. We both had a good afternoon.

Then we headed back down the hill to Davis Mountains State Park campground after having decided we could spend one night without internet. We pulled in just minutes after the office closed. The late registration instructions gave us our choice. We could self-register if we were going to leave before 8 a.m. or we could come back between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. to register in person. Right. Like that’s going to happen. For those of you who don’t remember, I am NOT a morning person. There aren’t many places I’m willing to be by 9 a.m. and campground registration is not one of them.

So we are back in Alpine, Texas, at the Lost Alaskan RV Resort and check-out is noon, thank you very much.

TTYL,

Linda

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