Travel Day to Fort Stockton

Big Bend National Park has been one of our main travel destinations this winter, and we are finally heading that direction.  We left Kerrville on Saturday morning, driving west down I-10.  We made a stop at the visitor's center in Ozona, Texas.  We decided to stretch our legs and make the walk to the downtown square in this small town.  Denisa loves the beautiful county court houses in Texas, and Crockett County has a very nice one.

This county is named after Davy Crockett, and his statue adorns the town square as well.

We love stops in little towns!  Then we were back on the interstate for the long and lonely drive through western Texas.  This was our view from that big windshield today.  The speed limit is 80 in this part of Texas, but when you are piloting your home it seems like a somewhat slower speed is more appropriate.

We spent the night in Fort Stockton--a little over half way to our Big Bend destination.  Fort Stockton's most famous photo op is the 22-foot roadrunner on Main Street.  Mark first called it a rooster, then a peacock, and before we left town he named it a turkey.  I'm not sure their Chamber of Commerce would approve.

Mark also tried to strike up a conversation with a couple of cowboys downtown, but was not successful.  Since they were both packing heat, we mosied on to the car to continue the historic Fort Stockton tour. 

There is a numbered tour that takes you to 17 different sites throughout town.  We are proud that we made it to all 17, but Denisa was a little uncomfortable that we didn't do them in numerical order.

As we passed by the local Walmart, we saw that RVs were sifting into the parking lot for a free overnight stay.  When we passed around 6:30, we were surprised to see 20 RVs in the parking lot!  We went to eat supper, then stopped by Walmart for a few things.  By the time we left the parking lot, the sun was setting and we counted 30 RVs now parked there!

We returned to our paid parking place at a local park, thinking that perhaps we would join the throng at Walmart next time.