Lovely morning at Cottonwood Campground, Big Bend! Woke up around 7am and Amelia was immediately doing art (after cocoa). Jonathan and I enjoyed our coffee in the early morning light and taking note of our surroundings in daylight after having arrived so late last night in the pitch black. We looked up the birds we saw yesterday and also saw a Vermillion Flycatcher in the tree this morning!
More amusing signage about the rascally javelinas in the area. They appear to be quite the nuisance in camps!
Pretty chill morning. Ollie got to work on his Junior Ranger book - having decided that he'd probably do it (he doesn't like having to raise his hand and repeat the oath in front of the ranger and people in the ranger station who happen to be milling around. We've worked a way out of having to do that, so he's more on board).
We then put some more of our stickers on the rig - it's quite a collection now! Kids got the RV ready for departure and pulled the slide in. We left Cottonwood around 9:45am and drove back over to Castalon Visitor Centre to see if it was open for the Jr. Ranger stamps, but the Ranger station was closed.
Headed back eastward through the volcanic ash hills (this white stuff looks like sand, but it's hard as rock!) and made our way back to Panther Junction.
On the long drive over, we saw a tarantula crossing the road. We pulled over and hustled it across so it wouldn't get squished by the next vehicle. It was pretty big! See Jonathan's shoe for comparison.
Further along the road Jonathan saw a big snake on the road (dead unfortunately), but the rest of us missed it. Checked out the Sotol Viewpoint, past Chisos, then onward to Panther Junction so we could check wifi messages and get diesel. We saw another tarantula crossing the road!
At Panther Junction, we filled up with diesel (1/2 tank $72USD), got onto the wifi and sorted more of the AirBnB stuff out and the kiddos went in and chatted with Ranger Jason to show their workbooks and receive their well earned badges and an extra Panther Patch for doing the nature walk. Note the temperature today was 29C. Warm but because it's dry, it was quite nice!
Once business was taking care of, we left around 12:20pm for Terlingua - Home of the International Chili Cookoff which happened last weekend! Terlingua is listed on the map as a ghost town - formerly a busy Mercury mining town. It was just outside the western border of the National Park.
Got to Terlingua around 1pm and pulled over at the High Sierra Bar and Grill for some street tacos and drinks. Got some good advice from the server about avoiding the Hwy 285 because it's a rough road and full of semi-trucks.
After a yummy little lunch, we left Terlingua at 1:45pm and drove back to Study Butte and then jetted up to Alpine (about 60miles). The landscape was very reminisce of the movie No Country For Old Men. We passed Elephant Mountain (looks like an elephant lying down)... our Just Ahead App still giving us information as we drove even though out of the park. We also passed an industrial plant that makes kitty litter from the substrates found in the local area. (also from our Just Ahead app info!)
3pm we drove through another Border Patrol station but didn't have to stop. Got to Alpine Texas and passed the "Yankee Stadium of Texas" ball field. A big fancy ball field that was built in 1947 by Big Bend rancher Herbert Lee Kokernot Jr. for his semi-professional baseball team. Apparently red clay for the infield was hauled in by boxcar from Georgia.
We stopped at the Autozone to pick up oil change stuff (oil pan and oil) but they didn't have what Jonathan wanted and we ended up at the NAPA. While at the Autozone though, the kids were VERY excited to buy daddy some kind of special gift for being so awesome. They were particularly keen on getting him a steering wheel cover for the rig. With some stealth maneuvering, the kids got his opinion on the various kinds and while he was busy, we bought him a "snakeskin" wheel cover as a surprise. Tucked it away for safe keeping until we could put it on for him.
After that it was over to Porter's grocery store where the kids and I shopped while Jonathan took the rig to NAPA. Cute little grocery store with a section with HUGE cans of beans and things. As you can tell by the photos, one kid loves beans and the other does NOT. Haha. An older local gentleman was in that aisle and saw me taking pictures of the kid with the giant cans, and he came over and picked up a huge can of spinach for his cart. He told the kids it makes him strong like popeye and pretended to show his muscles. Then he giggled and rubbed his big tummy and said, "Maybe more like this muscle!" haha.
We ended up back at the Autozone for something (?) and the kids wrestled the steering wheel cover onto the steering wheel while Jonathan was inside the store. After much difficulty we managed to get the thing on before he came back to his surprise. :)
Took the 67/90 West and by 5pm we were driving through Marfa, TX (another 1.25 hours to Van Horn where we had decided to spend the night). This drive took us through more ranchland with actual grass and cows, not just cactus plants. About half hour in we saw a weird white blimp thing in the sky that looked tethered to something. (see sky/cloud photo below). Some kind of weather station? At one point I saw a Pronghorn in a field! kinda cool!
We also passed a very odd little square building with a nice storefront with handbags in the window. It said PRADA on the front. No photo, too fast passing and too stunned to register what it was. Totally on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere with a chainlink fence beside it full of "love locks". Super weird. Oh and we also saw a dead porcupine on the side of the road.
We also passed a big cotton field with fluffy white cotton balls on all the plants. There were bales of cotton rolled up in the field and lots of cotton fluffs along the road side, having blown there by the wind. Opposite the road was a pecan plantation.
At some point around here, I realized I forgot to put the icecream treats (cookies and cream popsicles) in the freezer after our shop. Ack! I quickly ran back and dug them out of the bag and put them in the freezer in hopes they were not ruined.
About 10 miles to go to get to Van Horn, we passed another Border Patrol station (so many around here, being so close to the Mexican/US border). Bu 6:30pm we arrived in Van Horn as it got dark - so tired. We stayed at the Wild West RV Park in town just off the highway. When we pulled up, the office looked closed and we parked by it to look up a phone number. A big guy smoking a cigarette, and his little boy, walked over and asked if we needed help. He went and got his wife (?) from the building across the drive, and she was super lovely and checked us in for a night. She gave us a spot close to the laundry room, knowing I wanted to do laundry. She also offered the kiddos some halloween candy from the big bowl on the front counter. Van Horn seemed like a small quirky town and we asked her what the draw was to Van Horn and she mentioned that Jeff Besos has his Blue Origin/Space Tourism just outside the town. !! We pulled into site #8 in the dirt parking lot and got settled. I put some laundry in and Jay took the kids for a short walk around the RV park (met a friendly cat).
122,000 KM: oil change
Then Jonathan decided (as he does) to just get down to it and change the darn oil! in the dark, at night, in an RV park. The man is a machine. He worked away on it until 10:15pm... We watched youtube videos and set stuff up the best we could for success. The filter was really in there tight and he hurt his hands trying to wrench it out, but managed with some brains-over-braun using his leather belt to wrap around it and pull it loose very slowly. The oil pan he bought worked like a charm. The only pain was the cat kept wanting to see what was going on and was kind of a nuisance! Jay changed the oil like a boss though! Man of many talents. After it was all sorted, he went for a shower. Meanwhile the kids were watching a movie on my phone inside the rig, and Oliver was also working on his virtual model car kits for a bit.
With laundry done ($6 of coins) and Jonathan clean, we all tucked into bed for the night... big day!
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