Drove to Weatherford TX, west of Ft. Worth.  Stayed off interstate, instead driving through Ballinger/ Comanche/ Stephenville on US 67 and 322.  Cut back up TX171 at Cresson to Weatherford.  Pleasant drive, but rough road. Stayed at Weatherford / Fort Worth West KOA, which is barely okay.  Underground septic piping patched, but still leaking.  LP tank (for filling customer tanks) inoperative.  Nice flat, graveled sites.  Has the look of a long-term residency park, and those campers have let their situations get run down.  Generally only good for a quick stop, not as a place to explore the surrounding area.

Comanche TX architecture

Comanche TX town hall

Courthouse in the center of Weatherford TX

Drove away at 10am.  Saw a vermillion flycatcher at a picnic stop just south of Alpine on TX-188.  Fueled at Alpine.  Took US-67 to San Angelo.  Oil fields, solar farms and wind turbines as we crossed the Permian Basin.  Fuel prices are way up, with diesel > $5/gallon (Ukraine invasion effect).  Fueled for less at Murphy’s in San Angelo. We are staying at Goodfellow AFB Rec Camp, which is outside the AFB right on Lake Nasworthy.  $15/ night and they have a laundry!

On our second day at Goodfellow AFB RecCamp, we woke at usual time.  Clouds are an unusual sight since we’ve had desert blue sky for days.  We did two loads of laundry and paged through Escapees magazines left by others.  Otherwise, we spent the whole day inside.  We ate leftovers for dinner and watched pawn store shows on TV.  Crossing the grass, we picked up nasty burrs that stuck to the bottom of our shoes and came off on the rugs!

We are away from Paisano by 9am, heading to Santa Elena canyon, which was cut by the action of the Rio Grande River.  Arrived at park gate at 0930 and at the canyon by 1040.  Up 2000 ft, down 2000 ft over some stomach-clenching downhill grades.  We hiked into the canyon about a mile, crossing the Rio Grande river at the entrance to get to the path.  Up big hiking switchback, down the other side.  Finally, into the shade and on the flat.  Saw mama/ baby mountain goat on the way in, but they were gone on the way back.  At lands end/ end of the trail, we saw canoers floating downstream.  Where they were the river was so shallow their paddles touched bottom at two-foot depth.  Hiked back across the switchback.  Saw cave swallows on the far bank at the entrance.  The wind picked up, stinging Jim’s eyes, so we got back in the RV and left.  The trip back across the mountains was not as bad, as the RV was climbing instead of descending.  Extremely windy at camp.

Dumped tanks, then drove to the Terlingua ghost town.  Not much to see in this ex-mining town (cinnabar that yields mercury).  Terlingua Trading Post is a tourist attraction, with folks sitting on the porch to drink beer.  We bought a lovely butterfly ceramic plate at an art gallery.  We left the ghost town, went to the Cottonwoods Market, buying beer (El Chingon) and other essentials.  Deb made jambalaya for dinner.

We drove into Big Bend National Park, stopping at Panther Junction (23 miles) for gew-gaws and bird-watching advice.  Elevation change from 4000 ft down to 2000 ft at Rio Grande Villages (another 20 miles or so).  Had lunch on whole wheat tortillas and lemon ice tea bought at the camp store.  Lots of adventure bikers riding KTMs and looking hot and dusty.

We found nature trail parking, so walked the nature trail over beaver ponds.  Took the spur trail down to the Rio Grande river.  Saw birds hunting insects under the land edge on the Mexican side (yellow rumped warber).  We walked the overlook trail, though Deb didn’t go to the top.

Birds seen today:  Roadrunner.  Golden fronted woodpecker.  Yellow rumped warbler.  Common raven.  Black-tailed gnatcatcher.  Great blue heron. Animals seen today:  burros.  Blue tilapia fish in the beaver pond.

Just over the mountains

From mountains down toward river

Chisos mountains

Deb on overlook trail

Roadrunner

Rio Grande

Rio Grande

Looking down on Rio Grande

Burros in Boquillas, Mexico

Chihuahua, Mexico

Chisos mountains redux

Extremely long day of driving.  We left Garner SP, taking US-183 to Uvalde, then again on 90 west.  We stopped at Del Rio for lunch at El Patio:  Mexican food mildly/ flavorfully spiced.  Got cash at the ATM and diesel.  West to Langtry, a loop off 90 west where we thought there would be info on Big Bend.  We didn’t find that but did drive by the Judge Roy Bean museum, though we didn’t go into the museum. 

90W to Marathon, a simple crossroads with diesel above $4/ gallon.  This is the easterly entrance to the park, but we’re not sure the road is good.  We continued to Alpine TX, a much larger town.  Diesel at the Stripes, groceries at Parkers, then south to Terlingua. We made it to the Paisano RV park, deciding that 400 miles is too long a driving day!  TX-118 south from Alpine to Terlingua is bumpy and twisty.  We have a nice, level site.  We chatted with the camp host.  We ate the chicken that now has been marinating for 24 hours.  No TV reception, but good Wi-Fi and roaming cell service.

Underway at 0922 CT.  Refuel at Uvalde TX, then westward.  We saw the first cactus approximately 50 miles east of San Antonio.  Lunch at R-BBQ (brisket) in Sabinal.  Huge sandwich and tacos.  I-10 through San Antonio, then 90 West.  All the country is very dry, little water in the many creeks.  Flat, yet the elevation is rising.  We started at 100 feet elevation, San Antonio at 650 ft, Garner SP at 1000 ft.  While driving, we saw “mountains” in the distance that turned out to be the hills of Hill Country which were about 700-1000 feet above the plain.  Gray swaths of what we think are mesquite trees.  Lots of air plants on the trees, balls that are not moss.

Birds we’ve seen today:

• Titmice.  Weren’t sure if they were eastern or black capped, so we’ll have to look for the dark crest.
• Black vulture.
• More of those confusing hawks.
• House finches, cardinals, doves.
• Some kind of towhee:  gray cap, rufous/orang-y/ red breast and shoulders, white belly.  Size of sparrow.

Garner State Park is on the Frio River.  We walked to the overlook of the Frio River, then down the original entrance road built by the CCC in the 1930s to the old entrance.  Back through the cedar and mesquite on the rocky Wild Horse Creek Trail.  We sat outside listening to birds while our chicken dinner marinated.  The air is very dry.  Ultimately, Deb ate her leftover brisket taco.  Jim’s slug of the Bob Senior brisket burger sat heavy in his stomach, so he had carrots and hummus. No cell service for Verizon, but we found later that one of the camp buildings has Wi-Fi.  Jim did an online meeting and we did some email, but it was getting cold to be outside.  No TV reception, so we had a low-tech night on tablets in the RV.  In bed at 11pm for a long drive to Big Bend tomorrow.

MMBT

The “mountains” in the distance.

Well, actually they are hills.