March 12-24, 2020

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour through Texas! The first night, we stayed at a winery in Anahuac, about 45 minutes east of Houston. Our campsite was a Harvest Host location. As we mentioned before, a Harvest Host is a local business that will let you camp on their land with the understanding you will patronize their place of business. The winery owner, Jim, was a nice and most interesting man. Upon arrival, he welcomed us and led us to our parking space, which happened to be almost ¼ of a mile behind us. He said we would have to back the camper up the road and assured us we all had plenty of time and that it would be good experience for Craig. 😳 Craig put the truck in reverse and Jim rode along beside Craig in a golf cart, the entire distance telling him how he was doing just fine. As soon as we got settled in, Jim opened the winery for us and two other couples that were lodging there. We enjoyed the wine tasting, and the alligator egg rolls his wife made for us. He was quite a character and told interesting stories, including the story of Neil Diamond, the singer, giving him the home he has now after he lost everything to Hurricane Ike, in 2008. It seems Neil developed a soft spot for Houston some fifty years ago. Neil flew into Houston to do a show, but realized he had no credit card. When Neil told the car rental clerk he didn't have a way to pay, she recognized him and said, "Well, Mr. Diamond, We'll be happy to let you use one of our fine cars, and to welcome you to the great state of Texas." Neil Diamond said he never forgot that act of "pure kindness and warmth". In 2008, Neil happened to be back in Texas right after Hurricane Ike, and heard of the extensive damage to the Houston area. He went and visited the area for himself, and decided to give back to the city that had shown him kindness years before. And that’s how Jim and 13 other families in the area received new homes from Neil Diamond.

 That evening, we went to our camper and realized Jim's power connections didn't work very well. We had no power, which also meant no air conditioning. After opening all the windows and getting settled into bed, we heard what sounded like choirs of mosquitoes singing all around us. We turned the lights back on to find about 30 mosquitoes on the ceiling, walls, and all around our bed. We killed mosquitoes with wet washcloths until we thought it was safe to lay back down and try to rest. Our blinds banged on the windows in the breeze, and dogs barked nearby all night long, and we could still hear the buzz of one lone and lucky mosquito around our heads. Lying there awake during the night, I couldn't help but wonder if the power issue was somehow Neil Diamond's fault. 

 Our next stop was in San Antonio. We went to see the town, not realizing it was St. Patrick's Day weekend. We understand traditionally there is a huge celebration on the Riverwalk in each year for this event, but the parade had been canceled. To us, it looked like an average day, with many in town, but not especially crowded. It was while we were in San Antonio that things began to change quickly with virus recommendations, closures, and press conferences from leadership throughout the country. We also learned a toilet paper craze had started a few days ago. The Riverwalk in San Antonio was our last day around people as the situation continued to change rapidly. 

 Next, we traveled to the city of Del Rio. Along the way, saw signs near prisons that said not to pick up hitchhikers-they may be escaping inmates. We also went through a few border control stops while in Texas. Signs about immigrants and prisoners posted everywhere were unusual to us, and we found ourselves looking in the bushes along the highway for folks running or hiding! Our RV Park in Del Rio was six miles from the border of Mexico. It was also six miles from Walmart.😉 We went and got a few things we needed, and saw many empty shelves. We were thankful we didn't need much. 

After leaving Del Rio, we continued heading west. We crossed over the Pecos River via the Pecos River High Bridge. The Pecos River feeds into the Rio Grande. Not knowing what a beautiful bridge we were approaching, we passed the designated overlook area, so we pulled the camper over on the other side of the bridge—the side where it is fenced off and you are not actually supposed to observe. We quickly took many beautiful pictures. We are enjoying having the opportunity to ride along and discover new things we never knew we cared about.

We stayed in Alpine, Texas, for one night and then headed toward the neat little town of Terlingua (population 58!) right outside of Big Bend National Park. Our RV site was in the Study-Butte/Terlingua area. We enjoyed so much spending time in Big Bend. This was our first chance to enjoy nature and to be in big wide-open spaces. We hiked The 4.5-mile Window Trail and then took a bumpy dirt road six miles to the Balancing Rock hike. Since Clay was not allowed in the National Park, we came home and took him for a walk near our campsite. There we found an abandoned Oldsmobile, Airstream camper, and a couch out in the middle of a desert-like area. It was a great photography opportunity. We enjoyed it so much; Study Butte was so peaceful. I never wanted to leave. It has been one of my favorite places so far. After a few days there, we heard the county officials had a meeting, and the residents voted that due to the virus, all the tourists should go home! Everyone needed to be out of the RV parks by noon on Monday.  We had been officially voted off the island!  At sundown the next day, we went back to the abandoned car with Craig's drone and camera. While we were walking, we met the 75-year-old owner of the nearby Rock Store. He told us how his health has declined the last couple of years but said he was still in pretty good shape, and then proceeded to show us how high he could kick his legs in the air. That was amusing. He also told us not to rush off because the rumor was the sheriff said it would be a lot of work to enforce the evacuation and had requested town officials meet again and reconsider. The store owner offered to let us stay behind his rock store if we needed a place to go. We thanked him, bought a cactus, and continued our walk. 

Craig decided that since we were in a remote area with few city lights, he would try his first attempt at astrophotography. He planned to drive back into Big Bend National Park for the photos, where it was darker still. It was amazing to me how dark it would get at night, just at the RV park. He has a phone app that helps find the Milky Way and the constellations. Before he went to Big Bend, we laid on the ground in the blackness, and looked up at the sky with his phone app, seeing where the named stars were. That didn't last long, though, because we heard what sounded like a dog coming toward us, so we jumped up real fast. Craig took some beautiful pictures that night in the park. 

Another new thing we've experienced in Texas is windstorms! We had no idea! Two of the evenings in Study-Butte, the wind got up to around 25 miles an hour. The first night the winds ripped one of the awnings that protect the top of our camper slide-out. After talking to a local, we learned this is a regular thing. 

Upon being exiled out of Turlinguia and ready to see more of the wild west, we headed to Fort Stockton—another Texas treasure rich in history. Our RV site in Fort Stockton had a swimming pool, and it was 85 degrees there, so we enjoyed a private pool day, as no one else was around the entire day. And we are constantly amazed at how much you can learn and see while almost nothing is open. 

We came to Fort Stockton to give ourselves a little more time to see what would happen with the virus recommendations and future closings of parks and such. We felt if we could continue to hike and be in the outdoors, we would stay on the road, but if national and state parks, RV parks, and other businesses closed, perhaps we should head home. After watching the news and talking to our kids, we've decided to continue our journey for the time being. 

We have several remote locations in our plans, and even though most restaurants, museums, and other attractions have closed, we are finding traveling to be extremely easy. We have not had issues with heavy traffic and are having no trouble getting last-minute reservations at RV parks, which affords us flexibility. In many of the remote places we go, we have the mountains and hiking trails all to ourselves. Also, social-distancing is being practiced in the most remote areas; when hikers see on-coming hikers, one will stand off the path until the other hiker passes. Since isolation seems to be the best thing we can be doing, we feel very fortunate to be on this trip during this time. We have been sheltered from many things and have had the opportunity to isolate ourselves, yet stay busy and see beautiful places. We wish you were all with us...in your own camper...and then we could all hike this beautiful country together....6 feet apart. Stay safe and stay strong! We love you all!