We finally made it to Austin and the Lone Star RV Park on Saturday, February 5. As soon as we had settled in to this very high touch RV Resort (more about that later) we went off to meet Leigh and Patrick at the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA). The exhibit —and we spent over an hour there before going to their home for a breather and a beer until it was time to go to dinner at Z Tejas. This is a very Texas place with fine southwestern cooking that is a substantial cut above the normal Tex-Mex one gets here. Sunday morning we had breakfast on board and joined them for Brunch at Shady Grove, another funky place that is mostly outdoors.

It used to be the reception area for a trailer park. The park now serves mostly as parking for the restaurant. We wandered through interesting parts of Austin and walked the South Congress area which has many interesting shops. At last as Super Bowl time approached we parted and Carol and I returned to Gee 2 to clean up and make preparations for the next stage of the trip.

This is the first campground we have been to that had greeters and assistants always around. We were met at the gate by a gent wearing the blue shirt uniform that came to be familiar. He had our name on a reservation list and it had our site number too. He lead us directly to the site and saw that we were getting set up while he gave us all the necessary information about getting registered and about what activities were scheduled. The kitchen offered pancake breakfast included in the price of the site and on Monday, as we were preparing to leave, it was a nice addition to the service and it helped us avoid the breakfast cleanup on board.

Upon departure we had a route to LA that in our usual indirect manner included a visit to Big Bend National Park. First we stopped in Del Rio, TX at Buzzards Roost CG, don’t ask. If you look at a map of Texas, you will soon come to the conclusion that if you go to Big Bend that is where you are going. It is at least 85 miles out of the way from anyplace, in this case anyplace is McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains. There are two roads that lead to Big Bend and both of them end there. For variety, one can come in by one route and leave by the other, in either event you will find yourself back on US 90 within the same 30 miles. The material for the park warns that distances are vast and always start out with a full tank of gas. This is not a laughing matter. In addition to great distances there is no cell phone service and the mountains block most other radio service as well. We set up in the Rio Grande Village campground run by the Park Service. It is primitive; this means there are no services other than a fresh water supply. We recharged our batteries each day with the generator, about 90 minutes in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening.

The park is huge and magnificent. From the St Elena canyon in the west where the Rio Grande enters the park through a 1,500 foot gorge cut in the cliff

to the Boquillas gorge in the east where the river enters another huge gorge cut in the highlands. We hiked both of these canyons as far as the trail permitted as well as several other modest hikes of 1 to 2 miles. Here is Carol at the end of the trail.

Through out our stay we enjoyed the company of many interesting people and shared trails and stories with many. The most thoughtful people are still unknown to us. On our first day we did a newby stunt. We left for the day with our awning extended and without any storm fittings. It was a mild sunny day, what was the worry? As we drove back to the campground eight hour later, the temperature dropped a little, clouds moved in and the wind picked up. As we approached the campground the wind was strong enough that I began to worry about my awing being ripped. When I parked in front of Gee 2 I still couldn’t see the awning and it wasn’t until I walked around the side that I could see that someone had stowed it properly in our absence. The Camp Hosts denied any knowledge so I printed up a large “Thank You” and posted it on the windshield.

As we approached the banks of the Rio Grande in places that had been traditional “soft crossings” before 9/11/01 we were greeted by hopeful salesmen displaying their wares on the far shore.

After two days and three nights, our food supplies were getting low and we needed to move on to keep our schedule with Yechiel through Alpine and Ft Davis to go to the McDonald Observatory. We have passed this way before but never with time or inclination to stop. This time it was in our mind to make the stop and we had noted that near the observatory was a camp ground at “Historic” Prude Ranch. We called ahead for a spot and were assured that they were open and empty. How true, we were the only RV in the campground when we arrived and remained so the following morning on our departure. They won’t last long on $10.00 a night. However they have been there for over 50 years serving guests so they must know what they are doing. We went up to the Observatory and took the Solar Tour (that’s the day time tour). Since it was cold and grey we decided not to come back for the “Star Party” beginning at 7:30 in the open amphitheater. It was really impressive going onto the dome floor of the 107 inch telescope and watching it move and watching the dome revolve. They couldn’t even open the observation slit because the wind was too high. We then went to the 432 inch segmented mirror HET scope, WOW. No useful pictures because there was no was to get far enough from any of these instruments. Check out the observatory website for pictures.

I will cut this off here and post. Next I will be writing about getting together with other RVers we met last year.