New England/New York Video
Jan 9 - We visit the last two missions in San Antonio, San Juan and Espada. The small church in Espada is particularly pretty with its small beamed ceiling.
Near Austin, we visit Hamilton Pool Preserve Park in Dripping Springs. This is a beautiful pool/grotto with green water and a large waterfall. We walk around the back of the waterfall along he cauldron walls. We can imagine how this is a popular swimming hole in the summer.
Jan 10 - We continue driving through Texas Hill Country full of rolling hills with live oaks, peach orchards, and vineyards everywhere. We stop in Luckenbach, population of 3, with its famous country music dance hall.
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area near Fredericksburg is home of a large pink granite batholith at 425 feet high. We enjoy a lovely hike up the steep face in the warm sun. We overnight in a free campsite on the river in Junction.
Jan 11 - We turn south towards the Rio Grande on the Mexican border. The land here is very barren, vast with scrub/sage, and cacti. Very few services or people out here. Judge Roy Bean was the Justice of the Peace out here in Langtry using his own rules to keep order. There was no jail, so drunks were tied up to cactus out front until they sobered up.
Jan 12-14
We get to Big Bend National Park which is only partially open, again due to the government shutdown. We are able to drive around most of the roads and even manage to find a campsite in the park. There are some trails still open, but there is not much parking on the street for an RV. At night we hear the coyotes very closeby.
After leaving the national park, we head to Big Bend State Park. The beautiful River Road drive along highway 170 takes us along the Rio Grande. There are lots of pull-offs to view nearby Mexico, which is sometimes less than 50 feet away. The road is very narrow with lots of dips and rises. We find the scenery nicer than the national park. It reminds us of South Dakota Badlands with hoodoos and colored rocks in caverns. We see lots of border patrols along the way; they even use horses to patrol.
Other side of the river is Mexico
We overnight in Marfa at the Marfa Lights Viewing Center where strange lights have been seen at night. We don't see much out of the ordinary, however, but do talk with lots of other RV travelers.
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