The long long drive
On Tuesday morning we made our escape from Big Bend and spent the work day at a city park in Fort Stockton, Texas. The night was spent another half hour down the Interstate at a rest area. In the morning we made the couple-hour jump to Sonora, Texas where we were going to spend the day and night at the local RV park. Instead, we opted for the rest area just one exit further down the road. Not only was it free, but they had Wifi, a nice area for the dogs, a free dump station, and we could be ready to go even faster the following morning. The dump station, however, ended up being my first ever dump-spillage-experience as the dump was full, so only a few gallons of our tanks made it in before percolating out the top. While I caught it quickly, the need for an extra-effort hand washing was warranted.
The next morning was a jump to Fredricksburg, Texas where we decided to stay two nights at the Lady Bird Johnson RV Park. Here I got some errands done in town while Kerri put the hours in during the day. It was only at the tail end of my day running around town that I realized I knew this place… quietly exclaiming to myself, “hey, I know this place!” I came here with my Mother in 2012 on our way to the San Antonio/Austin area, and spent a morning walking around the downtown area. Soon, I wont be able to stumble onto places I’ve been too in my past. Once we get past Austin it is all new for me.
We didn’t make it too far down the road for the next night. Kerri found a Harvest Host winery to stay at just down the road, which became our home for that night – after a round of wine tasting of course. As a bonus, only three miles away was Luckenbach, Texas; a town with a population of only three, but nightly concerts in the barn. So I strapped on my boots and accompanied my girl to a barn-concert…. yeehaw!
The next morning, we were in no rush to get moving. Sleeping in until 8am, and taking a few more hours to get hitched up and ready to roll out, we were still going to arrive at our destination in the Austin area too early. Unknown to us, Lyndon B. Johnson (yes, that Lydon Johnson) would come to our rescue as we were driving right past his ranch, which happens also to be a National Historic Site. Who knew?! A quick hike out to tour of the historic homestead, and an auto-tour of the rest of the ranch (huge, by the way) soaked up a few hours perfectly.
Finally, after 5 days of hopping our way through Western Texas, we made it to our destination of McKinney Falls State Park not far our of Austin, Texas. Here we will be staying the week while we explore, work, and resupply.
