The Back Road East

Ellen's ankle was rather stiff and swollen when we left Guadelupe Mountains NP this morning, but my back is feeling better. It was time to head a bit south and east and became a day of changing plans. Our overall route is to go south on TX 54 to Van Horn, where the road south becomes US 90. We would then take US 90 all the way to San Antonio, but not all in one day. The idea was that we'd drive to a possible stop, then decide how we felt and whether or not to carry on further.

The first stop (other than a gas stop at the Pilot in Van Horn) was Marfa. We visited there on our previous trip through Texas to do laundry (at a combination laundromat and espresso bar) and have lunch on our way to Guadelupe National Park. It was a pretty sleepy county seat then, but had an artsy reputation. It was a bit livelier now, with more art and more coffee. We stopped to buy milk at the local supermarket, at a local bank for cash and lunch at Marfa Burritos, a little Mexican restaurant where the staff didn't speak English but the burritos were excellent.

We also stopped at a new coffee place after lunch, Do Your Own Thing. It was hidden in the back of an ex-hardware store and seemed a bit trendy when we walked in. They had both pour-over filter coffee (which they called slow coffee) and espresso drinks. Ellen had the "slow coffee"and I had my usual, a cafe latte. Neither was as good as what we make in Speedy in the morning. Maybe we should have gone back to the laundromat.

We'd initially thought that we might detour from US 90 from here and stop at Davis Mountains State Park, about 20 miles away, but it was only noon, so we decided to push on. We stopped in Alpine, which was bigger than I'd expected, and Marathon, which was smaller, mostly to try and get a Texas road map from their visitor centers. We had asked at the visitor center in Marfa. In all cases, there was no luck. According to the woman at the Marfa Visitor Center, the state had recalled all of the road maps in order to re-issue them with the picture of the new Governor but the new ones were on back order. What a waste for a bit of political PR!

After Marathon, we decided that the place that would be a good stop, distance and time-wise, was Seminole Canyon State Park, along the Rio Grande and the Amistad National Recreation Area. There were also some NPS campgrounds in the Amistad NRA, but the state park has hot showers and electricity. This last amenity turns out to be quite useful since it started raining on the way and it seems to be continuing.

US 90 was definitely an empty road compared to the I-10 alternative to San Antonio. We didn't see much traffic until we were almost at our destination when it seemed to pick up a little. The drive went through some pretty empty country, open range with quite a bit of crosswind. Speedy, with its recently upgraded steering and the new ball joints, performed better that it has in years in the crosswinds. What's more the squeak has not reappeared since the ball joints were replaced. It started raining about a half hour from the state park and it is still raining now. We haven't seen any rain in over two months, but I hope it lets up by morning. There is no cell service here and the park-wide WiFi seems to only work just outside the restrooms, so I can't check the weather forecast.

There is a short birding trail here and we are hoping that Ellen's ankle will be okay to walk it in the morning (rain permitting), then we should be off to San Antonio.

Photos of Marfa