This is what we woke up to this morning.

Reality sucks. I have been drooling over Big Bend National Park for a year. I went on the website to see about campsites. I knew that the established campgrounds would be full. I was counting on some backcountry dispersed sites to be available. No go on that idea. There are a handful of private, translated, expensive, RV parks just outside of the park. Surprisingly, there aren’t as many as one would think. Just before calling to inquire about vacancies, I checked the weather for this upcoming week. Highs in the triple digits are predicted.

Holy moly, I’m not ready for 100º+ in early April. Plan B was to head for Junction, Texas, in the lovely Hill Country. It is 4 hours away from Magnolia Beach, but there is a free municipal campground that has received decent reviews. Then, I thought, we could go to Davis Mountain State Park, another 4 hours down the road to explore the Texas Alps, a high mountainous desert area with lots of cool formations, like the landmark Sawtooth Mountain. I checked out vacancies at Davis Mountain State Park. Ouch, more bad news.

However, there was one site with Monday and Tuesday open. Wow, that means getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow, high-tailing for 8 hours to get there at a reasonable time of the day, quickly set up, and get 1 1/2 days to explore.

I know, I had vowed not to subject us to those long haul drives anymore. Well, best laid plans, eh? I booked the two nights. We are going with Plan C.

This also puts us within easy striking distance of Jal, New Mexico, another town with free camping, and it even includes free electricity and water. After that, there’s Carlsbad.

OK, Happy Easter!! We hope everyone had great family time. We had a terrifically lazy day. We slowly walked several miles, I played my guitar with my tracks until my fingers hurt, we made a scrumptious meal using Frank’s venison bacon (Frank is our neighbor - thanks Frank, it was terrific), wiped the road grime off V-Jer, and packed up for our early morning launch.

With all the sun we have received, boondocking has been a cinch. The rooftop solar panel is kickin’ out the juice, especially after I wiped the road grime off it.

The plentiful and delightful songs birds around here have serenaded us on our walks and during our lazy time. This has been a terrific relaxing stop over. Time to move on.

Jammin’ on the beach.

This is my favorite house in Magnolia Beach. The trees around this house were full of song birds chatting away with us.

This an example of people building around and living in their RVs and giving up on traditional houses.

This hurricane and bombproof house is completely off-grid. All the windows double as solar panels. They have their own water well and septic. The owner felt pretty smug about his self-sufficiency.

A raised round-house.

The best of both worlds - a home and a home away from home.

The rigs parked out here are Gi-normous. Brand new 5th-wheels and class A bus RVs the size of trains rule at Magnolia Beach. Many of the owners are surprisingly young. Where do they get the money for such mobile mansions? The tow trucks alone for the 5th wheels gotta be $80,000 minimum. Just think of all the luxury hotels you could stay in for the amount of money they have invested.

One popular towing vehicle out here is the snorkel Jeep. Supposedly, you can ford a river up to 30” deep with this gizmo. I can just see these guys dragging their big trailers across a river. Bridge? Who needs a bridge?

Check out this giant 5th wheel. There are a total of 5 bump outs. It has to be 50’ long.

Those Class A RV has the biggest bump out I have seen. The whole side is one big bump out.

Now, this is the ultimate in toy hauling and giant 5th wheel trailers. The truck cab alone is as big as our whole camper. When hooked up with the 5th wheel it must be nearly as long as a football field.

For the first time on the trip, we made our own “snob” coffee using our pour-over Chemex coffee system. I hate to be hoity-toity, but after the disgusting coffee from truck stops like Love’s, Pilot, and Flying J, it was a cup of heavenly Joe. You’d think that truckers would demand better coffee.

We found a couple more info plaques and discovered that this area of Texas is the home of the “camel experiment”. From 1855 to 1866, the army brought over camels to better mobilize the army in the southwestern deserts. The experiment proved to be highly successful, however, politics over the civil war and its immediate aftermath killed the experiment, never to be re-implemented. Too bad, I would have really loved to have studied the the exploits of the famed camel Calvary brigades of the ole West. Ah, it just wasn’t to be.

Correction: I misread the plaque regarding the intense canon lady, Angelina Eberly. Her successful and popular hotel was in Austin. She retired in Port Indianola as a wealthy woman.

Why don’t you build me up, buttercup..... Wanda says these are buttercups. I will take her word for it.

Dave and Wanda

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