Marathon, TX

September 26, 2010

We left Hondo this morning in rain and the memory of heat from yesterday. Not the case in Marathon! We spent the day following the Rio Grande, west and north, to much cooler temps and very few clouds in sight. The wind, however, is at its usual west Texas gustiness.We spent a very nice week in Houston, rain daily, but family and friends are well worth the humidity.

We elected to drive US 90 for an alternate route west to Reserve, NM. and glad we did. Staying on I-10 through San Antonio is painful in an RV, but staying west on US 90 was a breeze! This was our easiest trip thurough SA, TX. First stop was Hondo and the Alamo Area Escapees Co-op. It was our first visit to both. Hondo is a pretty nice town located in terrain somewhere between hill country and south Texas plains. They have a whole bunch of cotton in that area and farmers busy getting it in while others are plowing for the next season. As members of Escapees, the co-ops are a very good deal. You spend $15+elec to stay at someone's improved site. The advantage to this is a very wide, well-maintained RV site. The clubhouse is usually nice and folks are friendly. We are looking at a few co-ops on this trip to see if we want to settle into one of them, but no time soon, we are ready to roam!

On the trip today we had very little traffic, a good thing on a 2-lane road. But what we did see was wonderful. We went through Sabinal, Uvalde, Bracketteville, DelRio and Sanderson. Sabinal was a nice small town, Uvalde, however, however, was way better than expected. What a nice town, very clean, and very busy. We were looking forward to seeing Bracketteville, the setting for the Alamo movie. We were impressed with Fort Clark Springs but never saw an indication of the filming location. I guess that was a long time ago. The Fort has a museum of John Nance Garner, we really should have stopped, but then we would have missed the very best part of the day....

A BALD EAGLE! Russell spotted him in a mesquite tree along the road. He was a beauty! I don't know if he sweated out the summer here or had just arrived for the season, but he looked happy. We saw a smiling bald eagle in south Texas.

Spending tonight in Marathon, home of the Gage Hotel, which I understand has marvelous buffalo steak. This is according to our world-traveling friend, Nick. We may walk down there for dessert.