 |
| Hwy 385 from Ft. Stockton to Marathon |
Up at 8:30 a.m. and ready to leave the park by about 11. Moving onto Texas today. By the way, Texas is
a BIG state! We wanted to be within an
easy ride to Big Bend National Park…and there are no KOAs in that general area
of Texas. One in El Paso…one in San Angelo….neither of which would do for
riding to and exploring in Big Bend in one day.
We really don’t have a hotel budget so it was pick a city within 50
miles that has a campground. The big
winner was Marathon, TX, which incidentally is known for its dark skies! J Yesterday, I made a reservation at the
Marathon motel/RV park and called it good.
----------
We like to stay at KOAs because I can make reservations on my
phone and there’s a standard of quality…we basically know what to expect. Mixed feelings this morning as we’re pulling
out of the Carlsbad KOA: leaving behind
the new neighbors that stood around their fire pit until close to midnight,
drunk, talking loudly and playing music…no, that wasn’t a hardship. Because, really,
how many times do you need to hear ‘Simple Man’ in the course of an hour…at
night? No, what made me a bit nervous
was not knowing what type of campground we were heading to…what I did was akin
to sticking a pin in a map and saying this is where I want to live. Now three nights doesn’t seem like that big
of a deal but as Kim said when I shared my anxiety with him, “I get it…you’re
worried we might be staying at some shit place”…Yeah, that’s what I was feeling
self-imposed pressure about. But we discussed
it and decided that whatever the quality of the place, we’d be there together
and we’d make it work. Whew!! Load off my mind!
----------
Running southeast on US 285 from Carlsbad into Texas is all
about oil. Miles and miles of big open
fields full of scrub brush and oil field
paraphernalia….derricks, storage tanks, oil pumps and both oil and natural gas
production facilities. Not too many
houses along the way…and the ones we did see appeared to be connected to the
oil fields. Vegetation is stripped away
for roads into the fields and the aforementioned oil field apparatus and the
wind just has a good ol’ time with the exposed dirt. Blowing dust like crazy…although the sun and
sky were always visible. J As we drove into Pecos, TX, it
was evident that oil money hadn’t reached the local residential areas. However, rolling on through on 285, there are
numerous new hotels going up along with restaurants and other retail stores for
the basic out-of-towner. That along with
the fact that we met several people at the Carlsbad KOA that are there from
out-of-state working in the oil fields, makes me wonder how much of the local
communities are hired.
----------
I picked the town of Marathon as our jumping off place
because Rapunzel told me it was about 40 miles from Big Bend. However, the signs along the way indicate a
slightly higher mileage…more like 60 to 70 miles. One of these things is wrong. We’ll know tomorrow how far it is…looks like
a good ride, no matter the distance.
----------
At first glimpse, it looked like the town of Marathon isn’t
in on any prosperous oil boom...but we were looking for the motel and not
paying strict attention to the town. A
gas station and grocery store is really all we’ll need; we’ll find out tomorrow
if we’re in luck on those two items. And
I’m pleased to report that the Marathon Motel/RV Park is not a ‘shit place’. J We’re basically in a big parking gravel
parking lot split into lots but the overall it’s a quaint place…and busy. The motel part consists of 5 individual
buildings with two units per building.
Overall the main part has a hacienda look and feel. Out away from the RV area is a garden/park
area where one can sit and just take in the scenery and the wildlife, mostly
birds. There is the business of being
right next to the road and railroad tracks, though. And I have been told about the possibility of
an early morning train passing by. However, the best part of the whole place is
the area set aside for telescopes…3 or 4 concrete slabs with power outlets set
behind a black cloth fence. There’s also
a college owned dome observatory and what Kim calls a ‘roll off’ observatory. It’s a metal shed whose roof slides sideways
onto a frame built next to the shed. Think carport when it’s in the ‘rolled
off’ position. Anyway, currently there
are 4 guys out there with the telescopes ready to take picture of what’s up
there…Kim being one of them. Can’t wait
to hear what he thinks about it but it’ll probably be in the morning as I don’t
stay up as late as he does when he’s out taking pictures of the heavens.
----------
Separate encounters with women who aren’t like me at all while I was sitting by the outside fireplace…
- · A woman stopped to talk with me about her day, saying that she’d been in the car all day and it was time to walk around and stretch her legs, then she sat at the table with me for about 30 minutes. J She gave me all sorts of tips about going into Big Bend…what to see, which way to go, what area had good hiking trails, etc. Even tips on other places to see in this big ol’ state. Not that I’m going to remember all of it but I did pick up a couple of route options that maybe we’ll try. She also said that the road out of Marathon into Big Bend is just open desert and is actually kind of boring, so don’t go that way. What she doesn’t understand is that we don’t consider the desert to be boring…if the road is open and the day is warm, we’re good to go! She was curious as to what we do for meals, for cooking…”Well, sometimes we eat out but we have a camp stove”, I replied, “and we don’t really get very fancy when we’re camping. No gourmet meals…hot dogs, mac ‘n cheese, lunch meat sandwiches.” She and her husband have recently acquired an RV and they’re still exploring the cooking possibilities…they don’t do hot dogs much and it seemed like she thought our meal choices were rather plain. Then she highly recommended the town of Alpine where there’s an art gallery or two, some shopping, a grocery store and a university that has a museum in it. I thanked her for the information but didn't tell here that shopping and art galleries aren’t really the focus of our exploration.
- Later, another woman came walking by me and stopped to talk to see if I was able to get online, etc. They’re staying at one of the motel units. She asked if we’re in an RV…I replied that we’re in the RV park but actually staying in our bike trailer, which she didn’t understand at all. Bike trailer? What kind is that? I’ve never heard of that! I explained that we pulled a trailer out here with our motorcycles in it…we take the motorcycles out and set up camp in the trailer. The look on her face was priceless! When I explained it wasn’t much different than camping in a tent, she nodded and said, “Oh, okay”. Then she was onto the bike riding part…asked me if I was ever afraid that the bike would tip over when I was riding it…I replied that I have, indeed, ‘tipped over’ and it’s not something that I dwell on when I’m out on the road. J P.S. She favors the tight layered look with the top layer being an off the shoulder shirt and big curly hair…lots of very blond tight curls.
There is no shortage of birds around here. Also saw jack rabbits last night…big ears and
long legs.
No comments:
Post a Comment