March 2, 2019
We left Hidden Valley yesterday morning about 10 AM and headed west on Hwy 90 toward Del Rio, TX. We’re staying at the Southwinds Marina on Lake Amistad, the recreation area for Laughlin AFB. Lake Amistad is huge and one of the best bass fisheries west of the Mississippi River.
Things have really changed since the last time we were here in 2008. They have installed all new electrical service and shelters at each site. The office used to be a little snack bar where they sold sandwiches and drinks. it’s now more of an office and not near as appealing. But at $25 a night you can’t beat price in this part of Texas.
This morning I did some checking on the weather in Alpine and Van Horn, our planned stops on the way to Fort Bliss in El Paso.. The temperatures are forecasted to drop down into the 20’s for our planned time there so we extended our stay here for two more days.
March 5, 2019
A couple of days before we left San Antonio I crawled under our rig to lube the leveling jacks. The next day I was feeling a little pain in my left rib area but took a couple of aspirins and went on about my business. I was feeling much better up until yesterday morning when I bent over to pick up a piece of ice from the floor and the pain in my side came back with a vengeance.
Since the pain was persisting Joyce recommended that we go have a doctor check me out. The only urgent care here in Del Rio only has walk-ins in the early mornings so we went to the local emergency room. After having some x-rays taken and a three hour wait to be seen, I actually cracked a rib. So I‘ve got to take it easy for awhile and hopefully I will heal in a month or so. These old bones aren’t as strong as they used to be.
March 8, 2019
We left Del Rio about 9 AM on the 6th, jumped on Hwy 90 and headed west toward Alpine, TX. A few months ago I tried to make a reservation in Big Bend National Park the day after they became available. Wouldn’t you know it, everything that would work for us was already booked. So, I went to Plan B.
Plan B was to book an RV park outside the park but I quickly found out that they are way over-priced so I went to Plan C.
Plan C was to book the BC Ranch RV Park in Alpine. We pulled in there about 2 PM, got set up and Joyce made delicious chicken enchiladas for supper.
There is a famous person that was born and raised in Alpine that some of y’all might know, Bill Baker who flew with the 7th MAS/ALS at Travis AFB, CA. Bill called me and gave us some suggestions about what to see and do in the area.
We got up early yesterday and drove down to Big Bend, one of the places that has been on my “bucket list” for many moons. The drive from Alpine was about 100 miles but I can say it was more that worth the time on the road.
After clearing through the gate we drove to the Panther Junction Visitor Center where we got information on what to do in the short time we had. We then watched a great film about the history of the park and some of the highlights of what to see.
On a recommendation by one of the rangers we decided to take the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. Since this is the very beginning of spring she said that that drive would allow us to see the most wildflowers.
Very shortly after starting down the road we started seeing a lot of Bluebonnets, the Texas state flower along with Desert marigold and some Desert willow. The Yucca cactus plants were especially beautiful. As we drove further along we stopped at several of the scenic lookouts.
If you have not been to Big Bend, put it at the top of your bucket list. Joyce and I highly recommend you go in the spring to get the best of what the park has to offer.
March 9, 2019
We got up early this morning and left Van Horn about 8:30, which is very early for us. But, Fort Bliss RV Park doesn’t take reservations so we wanted to get there early to hopefully get a site.
The drive west on I-40 wasn’t too bad even with all the weekend traffic. On the way Joyce called the RV park to check on their availability and was told they had three sites available. When we pulled in to the park we took one of the last parking site available, a long and wide pull-through.
That was the good news. The bad? Our refrigerator quit cooling during the night. Since it was in AC mode, I switched it over to LP and still no workie-workie. Why is it always when something goes wrong it’s on a either a weekend to a holiday?
After getting setup in our site we drove over to the Post Exchange to get another ice chest so hopefully we can keep some of our stuff from going bad. There’s a mobile RV repair business in the local area that we hope to have come out on Monday and get us running again.
That’s all folks.
Barry & Joyce
