Kathleen's Window: Looking Back from Luckenbach, Texas

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Today marks four months on the road! I am sitting in the Armadillo Ranch Campground in Luckenbach, Texas enjoying the warm breeze and sunshine. Spring is coming. The birds are singing and I am watching the cars and motorcycles roll on past the camper! They are traveling to, and we are a short walk from, the famous Luckenbach Dance Hall, the third oldest in Texas, and the one made famous by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and the Outlaws and many other country singers who have come here to perform. We hadn't planned to be here, but we are enjoying our two night stay.

We left Pancho Villa State Park on Sunday morning. We followed Rt 9 east to El Paso, TX. It ran along the border with Mexico, so we saw border patrol frequently, and actually saw a fence in several areas. There were also sections where we saw lots of water bottles in the desert on the side of the road, from illegals crossing, and bottles hung from the fence and rock cairns (small rocks piled up) to mark places to cross.

Reaching El Paso we managed to come in through a small suburb that led us directly to I 10. We drove through El Paso along the Rio Grande, just a ditch here, and looked at Juarez, Mexico across the river and the border fence. Juarez looks poor and is huge. We watched it for many miles along the interstate. It stretched off to the horizon. Finally the road pulled away from the border and we headed out into the desert again. The wind was still blowing and at one point we sighted a dozen dust devils (dust tornadoes) in our field of vision.

We had a long afternoon driving across the bleak desert. Our goal was to reach Monahans Sandhills State Park on I 20 west of Odessa and Midlands. The sun was getting low as we reached the park and we discovered that it was full! It began to dawn on us that this was spring break and we were skunked. This was the first time we showed up without a reservation and were unable to get into a park.

There was nowhere else to camp for miles around. We continued on to Odessa/Midland. We were now deep into the Permian Basin oil and gas country. There were oil wells and fracking equipment everywhere. The wind was kicking up the dust and everything was bleak, dusty and industrial. The two campgrounds there wanted $35 a night just for us to sleep for eight hours and move on. We checked out two truck stops that welcome RVs. Both were packed with trucks and the one space we could find was only a few feet from the freeway on ramp where the trucks would be entering the interstate. We decided to try the WalMart parking lot. Arriving there we found a few other RVs and decided to stay. We drove over to a deli for dinner. It was already 8 pm and I didn't want to cook. We buttoned up for the night, and closed the shade on the skylight to block out the parking lot lights and went to sleep.

Greg woke me early. We were already time confused from a three hour change in two days. We left Pacific Time in California and entered Arizona which is always on Mountain daylight savings time. Then we drove into New Mexico and went back to Mountain standard time. While we were there we changed to daylight savings time. Partway into Texas we changed to Central day light savings time. All these changes necessitated going forward in time, so we are still adjusting to a three hour time change in a brief amount of time! We also wanted to get out of the WalMart quickly. New record for me getting up, dressed, everything stowed and me in my seat- 30 minutes!

We watched the sun rise over the west Texas plains as we drove. At Big Springs we left the interstate and headed cross country to San Angelo and on to the Texas Hill Country. We saw oil wells and lots of wind turbines. That was a nice surprise! There is definitely enough wind to power them and we were glad to see an alternative to the oil wells. At Mason on the outer edge of the hill country we stopped for lunch at Cooper's Pit BBQ. Okay, we didn't know what to do to order, so we had to figure it out by watching the people in line in front of us. You stand at the large outdoor grill under the awning and look at what is cooking and point out what you want. They had beef brisket, pork chops, chicken, goat sausage, ribs, and other sausage. Greg pointed to a pork chop and I had the man cut me a slice of the brisket. He dipped them in juice/sauce and took them inside to weigh. We picked out cole slaw, potato salad and blackberry cobbler from the cooler and paid. Then we took it all out to the picnic tables where we found paper towels, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, a jar of Jalapenos, whole unpeeled onions and white bread. He showed us where to find a knife and fork. We finally discovered that a couple sheets of butcher paper were our plates. It was really good, but I have to say, a whole lot pricier than we expected. I think we got the “non-resident's discount”! There were no prices listed anywhere, so we weren't sure.

Back on the road we enjoyed the ride down to Fredericksburg. The terrain was hillier and we were seeing trees. It's been a while since we've seen them! There were cattle and ranches and small towns to drive through. When we finally arrived in Fredericksburg we were in for a shock. The quaint town was crawling with tourists. We decided that it must really be spring break because otherwise we would not have seen so many families and small children on a Monday. The night before at WalMart we had checked on the internet for sites available at the state parks in the Fredericksburg area and they were all full. We drove slowly through town and decided there was no place for us to park. Plus, neither of us wanted to fight the crowds on the sidewalks. There was a private campground outside of town that we were hoping had room. We passed two full private parks on the way. We really wanted some hookups and some time to regroup and rest after our long hectic drives from the last few days.

Armadillo Ranch had a spot for us. The owner told us that is it indeed spring break and this area gets people from out of state as well as Texas. We decided to stay for two nights. The ranch is in a rural area, with cattle next door and a llama across the road. We are camped in a pecan grove. She encouraged us to walk down the road to the Luckenbach Dance Hall and catch the free outdoor concert, so off we went! We crossed the creek and found the town, which is just a few wooden buildings; the old dance hall, the outdoor stage, the bar and gift shop, the restrooms, and the hat shop. We bought two beers and sat at a picnic table in the grove of trees and enjoyed the concert. A married couple accompanied by someone on bass was playing guitars and singing, mostly their own songs, but a few classics too. There was a rooster and two hens roosted 15' up in a tree. Every time the couple started to sing the rooster started crowing. When they stopped, he stopped. Must have been distracting for them as the chickens were only 40' from the stage!

We wandered around during the band break and took pictures and decided to head back to camp. We crossed back over the stream and saw a group of snapping turtles. Next to our campground I stopped to talk to the curious calves and young cattle gathered at the fence to see what we were up to. (Greg didn't talk to them. He didn't have a grandfather with a farm!) The llama across the road came over to its fence to see what the excitement was all about. We settled in for the evening and could hear the music from the concert in the distance.

Today we busied ourselves with odds and ends that we needed to tend to before we head out again. Greg did some maintenance while I did some hand wash and we both ordered things to be sent to Kaylin's to pick up when we arrive. We are stretching out our food and clothing, so we will not buy much or stop to do laundry. We arrive in Maryland a week from tomorrow. Here's hoping the weather is good. We are really enjoying early spring in the Hill Country!