27 October 2026 Kerrville to Home

 It was only a 6 hour drive (188 miles) home. We took US87 out of Fredericksburg to Mason where we picked up US377 for a straight shot home. We had a tailwind the whole way, and got 8.8MPG on the way. We still love our Wanderer, but we were happy to be home. We got to use the circle drive with the Wanderer for the first time and pulled straight through the shop. So much easier than backing it in! Kierra was so happy to have her yard back! She ran and ran around in sheer joy! We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset this evening. 

24-27 October 2026 Texas Hill Country

 We love visiting the Texas Hill Country! We spent our days exploring Fredericksburg and Kerrville. We did wine tastings, shopping, drove the beautiful roads and enjoyed ourselves. We had dinner twice at Hilltop Café. The second time we were hoping to see Johnny Nicholas play some of his classic blues during dinner, but unfortunately did not show up. But the backup band was not too bad. While shopping we found a western painting that we decided could replace Norman in the Wanderer so we could move Norman to our fire place mantle! 

Inside Hilltop Cafe

Norman and the painting that will replace him

23 October 2026 Study Butte to Kerrville

 We hit the road about 9:45am. It’s a 386 mile drive. Well beyond our preferred maximum of 300-350 miles in a day. We took TX118 up to Alpine, then US67 to Fort Stockton. In Fort Stockton we ran into issues trying to fill up. The first station we stopped at was having issue with their Diesel pumps. It had a nice truck parking area so we took the opportunity to pull into a slot, walk Kierra and eat lunch. We then tried the Chevron across the highway, but their Diesel pumps were down also. So we drove into town to a Valero. It was pretty tight to get in with the Wanderer and we could only get to the last pump in the row. While David was prepping the pump with the credit card, he accidentally used our old zip code. So he tried again with the correct zip code and it went through. He grabbed the diesel hose at then noticed it was disconnected at the quick disconnect! So he went to the other side of the pump and tried to prep it but this time Visa decided there was something fishy going on (five attempts at three different gas stations in less than 10 minutes) and rejected the card. We began to think the good lord was trying to tell us something! But he tried with another credit card and it went through. He was able to stretch the diesel hose from that side over to our tank and fill us up ($204!). The good news is it was the cheapest price in town. The proprietor came out to see what David was up to and he showed her the disconnected hose and explained it was like that when we pulled up. After finally filling up, we jumped on I-10 east for 268 miles. Finally, around 5:30PM we pulled off I-10 and into Buckhorn Lake RV Resort ($54 per night with Senior Discount). We have stayed here previously. In early July, they suffered a massive flash flood after five dams up stream of them all failed during a heavy rain. The park was devastated. But they have made a remarkable recovery since and most of the damage has been repaired and the resort 90% open again. As we pulled in, we noticed that our neighbors in the Brinkley Fifth Wheel were the same folks that had been parked next to us in Study Butte for several days. We assured them we were not stalking them!

21-22 October 2026 Hanging Out.

 We spent the last two days just enjoying the Big Bend ambiance. Time goes slower here. We spent more time with our friend Rick including a trip out to his property to see the progress on his house. They are building the floor structure out of metal I beams and C channel which requires a lot of welding. He is going to have a fabulous view looking into the mountains in Mexico from his patio when it is all done. He helped us dig up a few Ocotillo sprigs to take home and see if we can grow them on The Ranch when we get home. We went to La Kiva, where we had the Grooms Dinner 14 years ago, on our last night in town with Rick and enjoyed our last evening. 

Rick's foundation

Entrance to La Kiva

20 October 2026 Happy Anniversary to Us!

 Today is our 14^th wedding anniversary! The time has flown by so fast! We took the day to relax a bit before heading over to Lajitas Resort where our wedding was held. We talked the manager into letting us have dinner there since they only allow resort guests to use the Thirsty Goat Saloon and Candelilla Café after 5PM. We went over early to stroll through the shops, have a drink in the Thirsty Goat before dinner at the Candelilla Café. We had the same table on the patio that we had several times leading up to and after our wedding on Star Mesa. The landscaping has grown considerably over the last 14 years, but the view was still amazing. We are looking forward to the next 14 years!

Lajitas Resort

Dinner on the Patio

19 October 2026 Back into the Park

 We went back into the National Park to explore the eastern part of the park which we had not been to in over a decade. We were surprised to see the Grape Vine hills road was closed. We stopped off at the Park Headquarters in Pather Junction to check out the book store there (Leslie bought a book) and use the rest rooms. David talked with the Rangers about the new hiking trail (Lone Mountain) that and opened since our last trip down. Maybe we can hike it next time. We then drove down toward the Rio Grand Village area. We were surprised to see the old Ore Road and Hot Springs roads were closed. The east entrance to the River Road was blocked off as well. We drove up to the Boquillas overlook. We noticed the Boquillas port of entry was closed. We also saw a Mexican man on a donkey riding along with four cattle dogs checking for lost stock on the US side of the river and then noticed 3 of the wild park burros in a dry creek bed. From the overlook we could see the Rio Grand was still flooding and moving very fast. That explained why the Hot Springs and Port of Entry were closed as it was too dangerous. We then went to the Rio Grand Village store to poke around before heading back up toward Panther Junction. Along the way we came across another coyote trotting along the road. Prior to this trip we had never seen any coyotes in the park up close. Usually only at a distance. At Panther Junction we turned toward the east entrance to the park for 10 miles before deciding we were running out of time and made our way back to Study Butte. Later that evening we met up with Rick and some of his local friends for dinner at the High Sierra Bar and Grill.

View from Boquillas Overlook

Coyote along the road to Panther Junction

18 October 2026 Terlingua

 Today we made our way over to the Terlingua Ghost town to peruse the General Store and then met our friend Rick at the Starlight Theater for a wonderful dinner. We always find stuff in the Terlingua General Store we can’t do without and the view from the porch is unbeatable! 

View from the porch of the Starlight Theater

17 October 2026 TX170

 We went for a long drive today.  We took TX170 from Study Butte through Presidio to Ruidosa. That’s about 104 miles paralleling the Rio Grand river through some beautiful scenery. We stopped at the top of the “Big Hill”, west of Lajitas, to take in the scenery and to check that the DOM rock (from the movie Fandango) was still there. We only saw two CPS patrols in that whole 104 mile stretch and no signs of border wall construction. At Ruidosa, we turned onto Pinto Canyon road (Tx2810), a dirt and gravel road for half its length, through Pinto Canyon and Pinto Canyon Ranch to Marfa. There were a few places it was a tight squeeze to get our dually through and a few slopes we had to drop into 4 wheel drive to get up. We were stopped by a FedEx delivery guy driving a small U-Haul Box truck down through the canyon. He must have had a hard go of it considering the road. He wanted to know how to get to Candelaria. He was obviously lost and with no cell coverage was concerned. Fortunately, he was past the hardest part of the road and could make it to TX170 easily from that point.  We stopped in Marfa at Margaret’s for dinner (there were not a lot of options open). Too expensive and not really that great of food. Then took US67 to Alpine where we filled up with fuel ($6.17 a gallon) and TX118 back down to Study Butte. Some of our favorite scenery in Southwest Tx.

Looking down at the Rio Grande from the Big Hill

The DOM rock is still there!

HooDoos along the Rio Grande

Warning Signs going into Pinto Canyon

Looking down into Pinto Canyon

View from top of Pinto Canyon

15-16 October 2026 Rain, Rain, Go Away!

 We took two days off due to the heavy rains. With many of the low water crossings flooded, we decided just to hunker down and catch up on chores around the trailer. 

14 October 2026 Finally Back in BBNP!

 We drove into Big Bend National Park. The heavy rains from the night before had caused Terlingua Creek to flood which flooded the area around the Santa Elena Canyon mouth closing the roads into that area. As we drove into the park, we came across a very healthy coyote trotting down the road. It paid no attention to us and just trotted on past us. We drove up to the Basin planning to have lunch but found out the store and restaurant were closed. They had closed earlier this year in anticipation of the start of the reconstruction which got delayed. It was obvious no maintenance was being done to the buildings or the patios. Everything looked shoddy and unkept. There was a food truck up by the restaurant parking lot and we were able to get some sandwiches to enjoy on the old patio overlooking the Window. We then went to the general store to stock up on Big Bend Swag. We also went over to the visitor center and talked to the volunteer ranger there about conditions in the park. We found out where CPS had started border construction and how stupidly they were doing it. Also learned that Blackgap road had been closed since last summer with no NPS plans to ever open it up again. That’s a shame because it was a fun and challenging route to drive. We then drove back to the Ross Maxwell drive and took it down to Cottonwood Campground (Just before the road was closed due to flooding) and Castellon. At the campground, we checked out the work that CPS and started from the campground. It was pretty rough cut through the thick bushes in the area but nothing close to resembling a road. It only went a little ways back before it was flooded out. The campground looked really run down. We went back and stopped at Castellon to see that status of rebuilding since the fires four years ago burned down the restrooms, historic store and visitor center there. Other than shoring up the adobe walls, it does not look like there was any progress on restoring the buildings at all.  We also saw that the River Road had been closed as well at the west entrance. We drove back to Study Butte with the sinking feeling our favorite park was being left to waste away. We stopped at the station in Study Butte to fill up with diesel ($7.16 a gallon) since we learned last time not to let the tank drop below ½ or you may get stuck until the next fuel shipment comes in. 

 

We later joined Rick for dinner at Long Draw pizza for great pizza and beer. Rick then took us around some of the back roads (South County Road) around Terlingua before the rain again threatened to move in and we head back to the pavement.

Chiso Mountains

Road to the Basin

The Window

Mule Ears

Coyote along the road

13 October 2026 Back in Big Bend Country

 We drove to Study Butte today down through Fort Stockton and Alpine. We topped off the tank in Alpine knowing the fuel prices would be crazy down by the park. We arrived around 3 at the Road Runner RV Park ($49 per night, site #20) where we have stayed several times before. After getting set up and settled in, we called our friend Rick that now lives in the area and met for dinner at Tivo’s Mexican food restaurant for dinner. The Mole Chicken Enchiladas are awesome! Then headed out to his property to see the progress on the foundation for his future house. Followed by Margaritas. We left just as a storm hit and it was raining hard at the ghost town but was dry when we got back to Road Runner. 

Road Runner Site

11-12 October 2026 On the Road to Big Bend

 After saying goodbye to Cynthia and Sidney, we pulled the Wanderer out of the shop, locked up and hit the road for Monahans. We are staying in the Out West RV Park ($49 per night, site #50) just off I-20. We have stayed here before. It took us about 7 hours to get there against a 25mph headwind. We also gained 2000ft in altitude. Our milage was only 7mpg! Temps were in the 90s so the truck was running hot (235F). It’s been a while since we have driven that far with the Wanderer. With it being several thousand pounds lighter since we emptied all our stuff out and only put back in what we needed for the trip, the ride was a bit bouncier. Kiera was happy to be on the road again! The next day we drove into Odessa and had lunch at Leslie’s favorite Mexican food restaurant, La Bodega, where we got the finest Chili Relleno’s in Texas for lunch. Then we drove around Odessa to pick up a few items we had forgotten and for Leslie to see her old home town and neighborhood. 

Out West RV site

Finest Chili Relleno’s in Texas