Amazing Texas

Going through Texas (all 800+ miles of I-10) has been fascinating! Although Don knows most of Texas from his 10 years in Houston, I have found the drive to be enlightening because my view of Texas has been from flying in and out of Houston and Dallas.



The drive from Sulphur, LA to San Antonio was in the rain all the way. We drove through gator country east of Houston and managed to have no accidents going through Houston. Just below Houston is the Gulf of Mexico and all of the great boating places before last year's hurricane. Anyway, as we snaked our way through San Antonio to our 2nd RV stop in Berne (pronounced Burn), the sun came out! Since we stayed for 2 nights, we relaxed, showered and drank cheerfully with no expectations of a decent dinner on board the bus. That was Thursday evening.



We spent yesterday (Friday) in downtown San Antonio doing the tourist things like seeing the Alamo (which is a great piece of history even if it is in the middle of skyscrapers and surrounded by some of the worst tourist traps this side of New Orleans) and taking a boat ride along the river walk. During the 30 minute boat ride we met a couple from Columbia, SC who were camping through Texas. They identified us as boaters because we both had on boat shoes -- duh -- though we were sad to explain that we were former boaters who have lots of boat shoes. Well, we were on a boat at the time.



Last evening we went into Berne to a charming B&B type Inn for dinner. We gave it a 'B-' for pretty good food at a decent price and an 'A+' for friendly staff and a great setting.



To say a front came through last night would be an understatement. Winds about 40 mph and the temp dropped to freezing. It was so cold Don had to keep coming inside to get warm between his 'get ready to go' chores.



Today we drove through plateaus (I've never seen them) and short mountains on our way to Van Horn, TX. We saw over a thousand wind mills generating energy. The 'wind farms' went on for miles located on the tops of the plateaus and co-existed with the oil pumping machines in the valleys along the highway. The Texas blue bells were in fine form although we drove for miles and miles without seeing anything resembling houses or farms. I think there were exits for the express purpose of putting up a gas station. And don't even get me started on Texas off and on ramps and how you have to do some of them. We did sight herds of longhorns a couple of times (well, not exactly herds but maybe a dozen wandering cows with big horns) and I spied some sheep well hidden within scrub trees. Every now and then we would see a single old windmill evidently pumping water into cisterns. The land is really dry here -- even worse then central FL.



The KOA RV park we're staying at is great if you're not looking for lots of grass and trees. It's actually away from the interstate and you can see the mountains surrounding the whole area. We will leave early tomorrow morning as we head to Tucson, AR for 2 nights.