Ready, Set, Go!

Full Time RV'ing

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

August 2^nd, 2018

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

After a few days in a hotel while Boo (our camper) was getting serviced at the dealership, we had a long list of minor things that needed to be fixed. We spent the weekend below Austin in Buda TX. The trailer dealership is next to Cabela’s so visits can be expensive but it is a place to pass the time…

We picked up the unit on Monday afternoon and headed south. We made a quick overnight at a park on I35 and then on west to Davis Mountain State Park. We made another overnight stay in Sonora Caverns RV park where the deer were so prolific that you sometimes would have to wait for them to move out of the road when you passed. We were the only trailer in the park so we enjoyed the quiet. We got started the next morning and headed for the Davis Mountains.

JoAnn tried her hand at towing the rig after getting her Class A learner’s permit. She did great! We make a stop in Fort Stockton for fuel and groceries before making the final push into Fort Davis and Davis Mountains State Park where we plan to stay for a week. We got setup in a temporary spot for a few days before we moved to a full hookup site. We did meet one of our neighbors who was from Germany over for six weeks. He had picked up a Class C motor coach and he was traveling solo across the western US planning to head to the west coast. He seems a bit to himself and not wanting to interact until after JoAnn approached him and realized he wasn’t from here, so she tried to find common ground which was easy, we have both been to Europe with our jobs. Turns out he is from a small town near Hanover. His English wasn’t as good as he would like it to be so that is why he kept to himself. After JoAnn opened the door he was very friendly.

Fort Davis, Texas

Fort Davis is a small western town build around the late 1800’s frontier fort. Fort Davis is now a National Park Historic Site and joins the Davis Mountains State Park by a trail built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). When the CCC built the park they also built the Indian Lodge, a hotel built in the adobe style with a restaurant and about thirty guest rooms. The Skyline trails at the part take you up on the ridge behind the amphitheater, across the ridge and following the backbone of the mountains. After you get up on the ridge you get cellular service, quite a price to pay for connectivity. We normally just drive the truck up to the overlook of Skyline drive to get service daily.

We had lunch on Thursday in Fort Davis at the Fort Davis Drug Store and Hotel (quite a combination I must admit), but today it is more of a restaurant with some guest rooms. While having lunch, JoAnn spotted Jake Gyllenhaal sitting at a table next to ours. What got our attention was one of the guys with him had a DSLR camera setup with a ‘dead cat’ microphone. After some searching JoAnn found a music festival in the area, Via Big Bend Music festival which could be reason for being in the area.

On Friday we installed much of the electronic hardware on our trailer for WiFi & satellite connectivity. It was good to get all that stuff installed on the roof. After the work day we decided to have date night. My first plan was to go to the Black Bear restaurant at the Indian Lodge but when we arrived it was closed… seems it is only open for breakfast and lunch. Time for plan B, so we rode into Fort Davis and found the Blue Mountain Bistro was open. We were pleasantly surprised to find such a nice place in such a small town. JoAnn ordered a wild mushroom sacchetti with rosemary cream sauce and shrimp dish that she said was one of the best meals she had ever had! The pasta was made by hand and the mushrooms were grated and wrapped into the pockets of pasta served with a hollandaise sauce with the shrimp. Jeff went for the mountain trout which was grilled with a lemon capers sauce, very nice. After dinner we went backup to the mountains to watch the sunset and the blood moon.

After finishing up the projects on Saturday we went back to the Black Bear restaurant for lunch, it was ok but nothing special… glad they were closed for date night! After lunch we rode over to McDonalds Observatory to get information on tours and viewing. We got tickets for the star party this night. JoAnn was feeling tired so she didn’t go back to the star party at 9. The star party was fun but the standout for me was the constellation talk hosted by Frank. One of the best sky tours I have ever had. Saw things I had never seen. After the talk, we went to the telescopes and saw things like M7, M11, M13, the rings of Saturn and Jupiter’s spot.

Sunday, we drove into Alpine, not much to see but had we realize we would have stopped to say HI to Butch and Rooster. Then we drove into Marfa, a small artsy city, one interesting place we found was a place called El Cosmico, a new age venue with overnight accommodations. You can rent anything from a hammock to vintage campers of all shapes and sizes, teepee’s and yurts. The cleaning staff drove ice cream trucks and was one of the most interesting places we’ve been. Next, we drove out to the Prada store in Marfa, an art exhibit, on a lonely highway (Hwy 90) in the middle of the Texas dessert.

And back to the state park for the evening sunset.

On Monday we went to visit the Fort Davis National Historical Site which is one of the best surviving examples of a frontier post. It was active from 1854 to 1891 and was strategically placed to protect the San Antonio to El Paso road, part of the overland road to California. While most of it’s activities were focused around building and protecting it did get engaged in the Indian wars. The post also had a regiment of Buffalo Soldiers, African Americans who enlisted in the Army after the Civil War.

Getting packages has been a challenge, we have a mail service to gives us an address and our mail goes there, they open and scan and we can decide if we can to have it forwarded or scan the contents for all electronic mail. The post office will accept packages called “General Delivery” the will hold it for up to 30 days for you but we found out that FedEx won’t deliver to the post office and Amazon lockers do not exist in this part of the country. We did find out that FedEx and UPS will deliver to the parks front office. So, it’s been a learning curve and getting JoAnn’s monthly order of Young Living Essential Oils will just take a little careful planning. We’ll send it ahead of us to the local post office and have them hold till we get there. All in all, it was a good week, our first week of this new life we have chosen.

Lessons learned: Not everyone whom seems unfriendly is, you can run into someone famous anywhere, connectivity is something we take for granted, when its gone, it can really handicap your lifestyle, getting mail and packages when you are on the move can be a challenge.