When it is said that Texas is big, it is hard to get a handle on that statement until you drive around it. We
Stayed in many of the state parks which we recommend, a few RV parks, a National park, but so far no Walmarts.
A week ago we were in San Antonio. It was HOT and the Women's Final Four was in town. We found a RV park just south of downtown and jumped on a city bus to head to the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The Alamo was enlightening in that I had no idea that people from so many different countries were there, even a soldier from Denmark during Santa Anna's attack.
Also the independence of the Texas region (which included our part of Colorado, if I read the map right) really came to the forefront.
The Alamo was one of a chain of Mission's during the mid-180's, but more on that later.
The Riverwalk was jammed with soldiers and there families from Lackland AFB and Final Four'rs. We walked the entire length (actually 3/4 quarters) on both sides. By then we were pretty crapped out and got a bus back to the RV park. BTW this was a nice park, except that we have never seen rigs parked so close together, but it was only for one night.
The next morning we visited another one of the Missions, This one named Mission San Jose. It was located just south of the RV Park about 3 miles from the Alamo. These Missions are different from the one seen in California in that they were more fortified against attach and closer together (3 miles vs. 35) to provide support to one another.
Mission San Jose was the largest mission and is still and operating Catholic Parish today.
We finally got on the road to the coast. We were in search of a place called Magnolia Beach, that we knew the general where abouts of, but the directions were more of the go down this road make a right then drive until you can go no further....
We headed for a near by town called Port Lavaca and while out in the middle of no where saw a sign that said Magnolia and found the beach official name is Indianola County Park). There were a few hundred RV's parked along the shore, so we just found a place and plopped down. It was humid, hot everyone around us spoke french and there were four oyster boats combing the sea bottom about 1000 feet off shore.
The price was right in that it was free.
On Sunday we headed for another shore front location at Goose Island State Park. We found that in the coastal areas it would be overcast and gloomy until mid afternoon then the sun would break through it would clear up and the temperature would soar.
At Goose Island we parked about 40 feet from the seawall. The wind was blowing 20+ the whole time.
We decided that we needed to get back to more arrid conditions on Monday morning, but we wanted to drive down some of the barrier islands outside of Corpus Cristie. To do that we needed to load the camper on a ferry at Aransas Pass for a short trip to Mustang Island which turned out to be much like Coco Beach in Florida, e.g. bright colors and t-shirt shops.We ended the day in Loredo in a state park that when rated against what we had been in was at the bottom of the scale. It was a mess from the Easter revelers with confetti and broken plastic eggs everywhere. It was also located under the glide path to the airport. We were glad to get out of there the next day.
The next day up along the Rio Grande river we pulled into Seminole Canyon State Park, which by far was out favorite. We made a 6 hike down to the River to view some pictographs on the canyon wall. There was no one on the trail so Dusty got to run around a little, but as the sign said going in we had to be on the look out for rattlers.
This is Pecos River county and we had to stop in Langtry to visit Judge Roy Beans courthouse and bar. This is the original building (historical site). I was surprised it was still able to stand up, as there are not many trees in the area so when it was built in the late 1800's the framing practices were what I would call just enough to keep the roof up/
If you have seen the movie with Paul Newman, reading the materials on Judge Bean would indicate that he played him pretty true to the history.
Our last stop in Texas would be Big Bend National Park. Let me start by saying I didn't know that Texas had mountains, but this area would convince you otherwise. It had been 104 here the day before, but it was down to the mid-80s when we arrived.
The escarpments over the Rio Grande were gigantic. In looking at this picture everything to the right of the river is Mexico, actually this area is part of the Sonoran desert.
We took a eight mile hike out to a hot springs along the river. We did not have enough water, so by the time we got back, be b-lined it to the camp store bought a couple of beers and slammed them down.
From here up to El Paso and beyond in to New Mexico it seems much more Arizona like. I can also say that the US Border Patrol seems to be everywhere and watching them patrol is interesting in that they are looking at disrupted dirt roads along the fences, manholes and some time just walking in a field looking at signs.
There are chained up tires in places along the road that are towed behind their trucks to smooth the surface so that tracks become more apparent. The Air Force even had a radar blimp tethered out near Alpine Texas.
Enough for now, we are off to a hummingbird canyon in southern Arizona.
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