December 1-15,2023 Texas

Finally the cold front pushed through!! Blue skies and warmer temperatures. That’s exactly what I signed up for when we started out on this journey chasing 72°. We decided to stay here at San Pedro Campground. We are now able to spend time outdoors with shorts on in the sun. While we were out side today we got to be a part of law enforcement’s canine training. It’s truly remarkable what these trained dogs can do. And their only reward afterwards is to be called a “good girl” and then play with a toy for 20 seconds.

We decided to drive back into town because we needed to restock our water. While in town we found this awesome iced tea store. They had so many choices. We were able to taste before making a decision. And we both decided on the blueberry sweet tea. It was really good.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise. We’ve been trying to park the van facing the sunrise. It’s pretty chilly overnight here in Texas so when that sun comes up and hits the windshield it makes a big difference.

The campground we stayed at had no running water which is another reason why it was only 6 bucks. They have these water machines in various parking lots in town so we were able to fill up. Water from these machines are 30¢ a gallon.

We decided to head down to the lake before heading further west. There is a major drought going on in this area. Google maps shows water all around us but in reality there is no water. We did finally get to it and it was beautiful and worth the drive.

And the we hit the road for a long 2 and a half hour drive to Marathon, Texas. We have been to this town twice before and really like it a lot. This time we decided to have dinner at the fancy restaurant down the block. It was amazing.

The night skies at the RV park we are staying at are extremely dark and there’s an astronomer telescope guy that has some kind of show here on clear nights. On our walk home from the restaurant, we stopped by the guy to have a look into his gigantic telescope but he was cleaning up so we will go back again tomorrow night. In the meantime though, we set up our chairs and gazed at the stars. It was pretty intense.

We drove another 2 hours to Presidio, Texas which is right on the border of Mexico. We have stayed at this campground twice before. The Loma Paloma RV park. They offer $10 dry camping, meaning no water or electric which is fine for us. They have a small laundry area and shower/bathroom for us. They also do Happy Hour get together every day at 4. You bring a snack and a beverage and hangout with the other people staying here. People like us who enjoy traveling so you get lots of new places to explore just by hanging out at Happy Hour and talking with the others.

We took the bikes over to Big Bend State Park and visited and explored Fort Leaton.

The weather here is absolutely perfect!! 75° today and then in the 40’s at night which is great sleeping weather in the van. Our original plan was to stay a couple of nights but because the weather is so great, we will spend a few more nights. That’s why we don’t make any plans or reservations because you never know when you are going to hit some perfect beautiful weather. Plus we really enjoy the quiet here and the 4:00 get together of the other campers at the Lizard Lounge which is basically a couple of picnic tables with a roof overhead. I’ll put a link below of Greg’s review of the campsite. If you have a YouTube account please subscribe to his channel. He currently has 70 subscribers and needs a thousand in order to become monetized on YouTube.

We met this guy Gary at the Happy Hour here, he’s been coming here for over 20 years. He was kind enough to take us to Mexico for some lunch and a tour of Ojinaga. I picked up a few steaks and some chop meat at the meat market over there. Most all the Snowbirds that stay at this campground will go there shopping over there in Mexico. The prices can’t be beat.

We took a hike across the street to the Rio Grande River which on the other side of the river is Mexico. We came back to this super tame road runner hanging out at our Campsite.

Today we head out to Fort Davis. Our water is full and our laundry is done. The Fort Davis State Park is at 5000 elevation so will probably be chilly up there. I’m glad we had these 5 days here of beautiful clear skies and warm weather. In the way out we stopped at the local Catholic Church. Santa Theresa De Jesus. It was a beautiful old adobe building. A beautiful statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the front. The place was packed with children of all ages and their singing was angelic. Such a beautiful Mass.

We drove a little under two hours to the Fort Davis National Historic Site. It was extremely windy and pretty much the entire place was outdoors. Walking from one structure to another. It was really well restored and quite educational. I don’t usually like being educated but this was actually pretty good.

From there we drove another 10 minutes or so to the State Park up the road. We decided to get an electric site. We needed to pump up the batteries a bit. We had the best site in the park. Site Number 45. It was perfect. Plus they had great hot showers and lots of Hiking trails. We decided to stay 2 nights.

We then drove three hours out of the mountains and towards lower elevation. On the way towards El Paso and literally in the middle of no where, we came across a Prada store.

We decided to spend the night at a Dairy Farm. This is part of our Harvest Host membership. We love the farms and this one was great. We bought some cheese and Taquitis and then fed the animals at the petting zoo and visited the Dairy Cows to thank them for the delicious cheese.

The sun set at 5 pm here. We are now two hours behind NY time zone so need to readjust ourselves again. As I type this, it is 6 pm and it’s pitch black and I’m ready for bed. Gotta force myself to stay up two more hours. Maybe we will watch a movie.

After the Dairy Farm we headed to the State Park just outside the city of El Paso. Again we had the whole park to ourselves which is awesome. We took an amazing hike up to the Aztec Caves. The sunsets here were spectacular.

Today we head into New Mexico. We stopped at Exit 0 and picked up a half dozen Tamales. We heard they only make them once a year right around the holidays.

The first one I ate was delicious. The second one I ate was so spicy I couldn’t finish it.

We are currently sitting in a rest stop in New Mexico. I have a decent enough signal to send this out today. From here we head to some hot Springs for a couple of days.