As mentioned in the last post, it was spitting rain as we departed City of Rocks. As we were exiting the park, I took a wrong turn right off the bat. I had forgotten that we had turned right off Hwy 180 and traveled about three miles to a left turn into the park. I immediately turned left, thinking I was heading back toward Deming, but I was actually heading the opposite way. And to make things more confusing, the route looked familiar as we had traveled it last year on our way to Faywood, San Lorenzo, and Silver City. After about eight miles, I woke up, realized my mistake, and turned around. So much for an early start.
We stopped in Las Cruces at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and to pick up an audio book. Our journeys across Texas are made much more enjoyable by listening to a book by one of our favorite good guys, or gals.
We planned to stop for the night at Balmorhea state park just East of Van Horn, TX. We called to make sure there was a vacancy and found out the park was closed for renovations. What to do now? We decided it would be either Monahans, or Fort Davis state parks. It wasn’t much of a decision. Mountains, or sand dunes? Mountains will always win.
We were able to get a really nice site at Fort Davis state park. Sorry that I didn’t get any pictures of it. After arriving, we made the decision to stay two nights.
The weather was pleasant, but cloudy. The next morning I made the hike from the campground to the overlook high above the campground. A much different landscape than the one we had enjoyed the past few weeks.
That’s Big Bend country way down there.
The Indian Lodge within the park. Original building constructed by the CCC in the 1930’s. Later remodeled sometime in the 60’s, it’s now undergoing another renovation.
Looking down on the campground.
An unusual thing happened while we were in the campground. When we were staying at Lake Havasu state park in Arizona, I would walk Sally through the campground a number of times each day. There was a couple there from Maine which I spoke with one time. Imagine my surprise when they pulled into the site next to us at Fort Davis. We had a mini reunion while sharing a couple of beverages.
The town of Fort Davis is also worth a visit if you’re ever in the area. It still looks much the same as it did in 1950. The Court House square is surrounded by a fence with turnstiles in the center of each block. I was told the turnstiles were to keep livestock off the lawn. Makes sense to me.
There was also an old drug store downtown that still has a working soda fountain.
I wish we could have spent more time in the area, but doctors and dentists had to be appeased. From Fort Davis, we made it to Inks Lake state park, North of Austin. Not my cup of tea. Too big, too many sites, too many people.
Then it was on to our old standby. Our last stop before home. Sandy Creek CoE, near Jasper, Texas. It was very windy, so we asked for one of the sites in the woods.
We had a quiet evening, talking about all the fun we had, and all the fun to come. We weren’t in Arizona anymore.
……….jc
