We passed through El Paso around 1:30 pm which was just a little before the tragic shootings at the VA hospital in El Paso. The news was full of the shooting that night. El Paso is an interesting city; it has lots of modern amenities like state of the art hospitals, but mixed in are terribly poor neighborhoods. In addition, Juarez is “across” the border. Frankly, the place looks like one city where a very tall fence separates the “haves” and “have nots” from the “really have nots.” It does a kind of trick on my mind; making it seem like the fence is a curtain beyond which you see the apocalyptic future of our world if opportunity, kindness and generosity do not prevail.
Made it to Van Horn around dark and settled in for the night. It was dark and about 100 miles west of Fort Stockton. We don’t travel at night unless it is absolutely necessary. The weather forecast has progressively grown grimmer, with predictions of 25 miles per hour winds and wind gusts of 50 mph the next day (not to mention 20-25 degree lows.) We decided to stay an extra day in Van Horn to allow the winds to die down. Do not want to experience those kinds of winds with our trailer.
VERY cold the next morning. We are going through the propane in our trailer very quickly. Just to give you an idea; towards the end of our journey through Alaska when temps were dropping quickly, we went through a tank of propane about every 7 days. On this trip (granted the trailer is bigger, but it is supposed to be better insulated), we are going through a tank every 3 days!
Took advantage of the day layover to explore the area a little bit. Not a lot to see that is different from what we saw on the I-10; sagebrush, road kill and Guadalupe Mountains in the distance. Drove north on Texas State Highway 54 for about an hour until we got to the entrance to the Figure 2 Ranch. Did not encounter a single car on the trip. And didn’t see any cattle or other critters either. We did see a historical marker about a major Indian battle that took place nearby and a little history about the ranch which was over 175,000 acres at its largest. Scattered snow was along the road and a dusting could be seen on the mountains. The roads are clear though.
Downtown Van Horn has pretty much nothing. We ate lunch at Chuy’s Mexican Restaurant which John Madden liked to stop at on his ramblings around the area (he used an RV to get to his assignments during football season.) The food tasted ok but my system did not like it very much.
Van Horn has been around since the mid-1850s. It was a military command garrison, as well as an overland mail route and train route (and now a pit stop in the I-10.). Even so, it has not grown much. An early settler, attempting to attract new residents, said that the town was so healthy; someone would have to be shot to start a cemetery. He was something of a prophesier; some time after his advert, he was shot and became Van Horn’s first cemetery resident.
Day 6 of our trip saw us leaving Van Horn in very cold temps but reasonable winds. We continued east, passing Fort Stockton and staying the night in Junction which is west of San Antonio, in Hill country. Our campground was along the North Llano River and it would have been nice to take a little walk along the banks, but Russ and I both agreed that it was just too darn cold for these Californians. The local area has lots of trees and is very picturesque.
Since it was so cold; highs were in the mid-30s and lows in the low 20s, and our progress was slower than I originally planned, we decided to skip San Antonio and hope we can stop for a visit on our way back (hopefully it will be warmer in late March.) The weather forecast is indicating that we might be able to stay away from the brunt of the cold front if we keep moving – we are a bit ahead of it.
Leaving Junction, Texas on Day 7, we started encountering short showers of light rain. Temps are climbing – the day was in the 40s so I am not too concerned about icy roads but we have slowed our speed a bit because the winds are still higher than I like to be traveling in (about 15 mph.) The weather channels are saying that we are experiencing the same weather front that hit Chicago. Luckily, the impact isn’t as severe as what we are seeing on TV for the north and northeast part of the country. This weather makes for a challenging travel day with a trailer – lots of bouncing around.
We spent the night in Brookshire, Texas, about an hour west of Houston. Traffic has really picked up and towns are much closer. A stark contrast to west Texas and its emptiness. Rain is continuing and starting to get stronger, while temps are climbing. We are pretty consistently in the 40s and nights are in the high 30s. No freezing temps in the morning, though it is still pretty cold for this Southern Californian. We had delicious Texas BBQ for dinner and were entertained with some live country music. So we enjoyed ourselves even though we were being stared down by about 50 stuffed creatures on the walls (including my favorite, a mastodon.) Suspect that one was a replica.
Got an early start on Day 8 with the theory that if we get to Lake Charles, Louisiana by evening, we will have gotten out of the worse of the bad weather. Well, stuff happens, you know. About an hour west of Lake Charles, a car pulls up next to us on the freeway and the passenger is making frantic gestures. We roll down the window and hear the terrible words, “You have a flat tire on your trailer!” We got off the freeway quickly and limped to a stop in an empty parking lot. Sure enough, the left front tire on the trailer was very flat. Fortunately, we carry RV coverage on our AAA and a truck appeared within a half hour. The young man had a terrible time jacking the trailer up high enough to get the tire off, but between him and Russ, they got the spare put on. I did not want to travel without a good spare, so I called around to find a tire store with a correctly sized tire. We got to the tire store with 10 minutes to spare before it closed and got the spare replaced. It isn’t the same brand as the other ones, but it will work in a pinch.
Of course, the rain is coming down steadily now and it is 2 hours later and almost dark. So I found a campground that is only 6 miles away, just off the I-10. By the next day, we were smack in the middle of the front so we decided to spend an extra day (just outside of Beaumont, TX) to let the rain go through. It will give us a day to rest and do some errands. After this, the weather should improve dramatically. I was very glad we spent the extra day, Sunday has been mostly heavy rain – it would not have been fun to be driving through, especially pulling a trailer. We went to breakfast at a nearby Cracker Barrel and the ride home was thrilling – could not see the road or the cars in front of us because of the downpour. Glad to get back to the trailer – decided to stay in and not try to go see a movie later in the day.
Tomorrow, we head to Louisiana, hoping to stay in Baton Rouge. This will be our first trailer stay in Louisiana – a new state on our traveling map!
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| Headed into El Paso. Very cold temps! |
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| Our wonderful driver! |
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| Texas does a good job decorating their overpasses. |
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| The clouds are getting lower and lower. A very isolated road - we saw no vehicles on our little adventure. No cattle roaming on the open desert either. |
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| The mountains were getting a dusting of snow. We could see patches on snow on the side of the road also. |
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| Russ takes no chances with getting frostbite. It was about 25 degrees this morning. |
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| Created our very own stalagmite! |
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