Life in Van Horn, Texas

After having no cell phone service and very limited internet and no sewer hookups for several days, we needed to head to a full-service RV park for a few days.  So we decided to drive part-way to our next destination, and landed in Van Horn, Texas for a while.

As soon as we arrive at a new place, Denisa starts checking with the chamber of commerce or tourist office for fun things to do.  We look for hiking and biking and kayaking possibilities, factory tours, museums, unusual places to eat, local festivals, ball games . . .  I must say that Van Horn is one of the least interesting places we have landed since we retired.  But this was a good thing, because we were really here to get our income taxes and our laundry done.  We have been far too many fun places, and we were way behind on both of those projects!

We did check out the local museum.  It is housed in an old building that had most recently been the Clark Hotel.  It is a work in progress, but we got a personal tour and met an interesting resident curator there.


The other famous hotel in town is the "El Capitan."  It is the sister to the hotel we had just toured in Marfa, and was designed by the same man in 1930.

The lobby looked very familiar to the Hotel Paisano.  They must have had the same interior decorator--there were buffalo and long horn heads mounted at the Paisano, while there were moose and elk heads at the El Capitan.

The El Capitan had a restaurant, with a sample menu from the old coffee shop.  It looks like any way you order it, a cup of coffee is going to cost five cents. But we thought it was interesting that it would cost an extra 5 cents if you wanted your coffee "Saucered and Blowed."  The fine print on the menu also warns, "Please check your ticket.  Our waitresses are not honest."

 


We did some bike riding around town for exercise, but with no public trails, we had to take a break from hiking to give our legs a rest.  Those are the Van Horn Mountains in the background.  Who knew that Texas had so many different mountain ranges?

We spent more time around the RV Park than usual, but we got to know the family that owned it.  We especially enjoyed Teddy, the 75-year-old woman that ran the park.  We gave away dozens of tomatoes and made new RV friends.  We went to a nice Palm Sunday service at the local church.  We got all that laundry finished, and we got our state and federal taxes filed.  It wasn't exciting, but it was a very productive time in Van Horn.  Even when you are living on a permanent vacation, you still have to be productive occasionally.