Sunday, 11/1/20, was a travel day. 386 miles to Junction,TX as well as grocery restocking day. I left GMNP, shortly after sunrise. Don’t ask what time it was. Between the ending of daylight savings time and the time zone confusion because GMNP is so close to the time zone border, I think it was 7am, but then within 10 miles I crossed into central time zone, so I think it was 8am. Anyway, I was happy with my departure time, whatever it was.

55 miles of driving on the “Texas Mountain Trail”, a really nice 2 lane road thru the desert, but with mountains on both sides, I arrived in Van Horn for a much needed fuel stop at $2.04 a gallon for unleaded. I could have driven a more diagonal route, but I had never been on this road and wanted to check it out. It was worth the extra few miles. I then jumped on I-10 east into a massive headwind.

Next stop was Fort Stockton, for fuel and groceries. I passed by a Walmart super center and hoped to find another grocery store, which I did. I have a personal distaste for Walmart Corporation, so I try to avoid them, at least for groceries. A few miles down the road I found another grocery store, it wasn’t crowded and they had mandatory mask wearing and very helpful staff. Topped off the tank at $1.99, ate some lunch in the truck and headed east.

At 4pm, I arrived in Junction, TX. Fueled at $1.86, found a self serve car wash, gave Enzo a much needed bath, and finally pulled into the city park for a free night of camping along the Llano River. It turned out to be the night the local Lyons Club was lighting the Christmas Lights in the park, Christmas music included. It was awesome. I even met Hoyt, the park manager, who told me he would be on duty at 7:30am, and if I needed anything, just hunt him down. How cool is that.

The day I hiked Guadalupe Peak, a number of hikers and I discussed how good ice cream would be at the end of the hike. Of course, the nearest ice cream to GMNP is 33 miles away, so that didn’t happen. Today I bought a pint of Haggen-daz coffee ice cream and had it for dessert after dinner. I think I deserved it, plus the pint size container is only 14 oz. Damn, I should have bought two. It was a pretty unique experience, eating ice cream, camping free in a city park, trees all aglow with Christmas lights, a day shy of a full moon and 70 degrees. WOW!!!!

Monday, was another travel day, 336 miles or so. This would not be as easy as the day before. I was headed to Rainbow’s End RV Park in Livingston, TX, my domicile and SKP HQ. That wasn’t the problem. Central and east TX have become a travelers nightmare. Traffic, highway construction and just everything I hate. I breezed through Texas wine country but as I got closer to the Hill Country and Austin, traffic increased and it was no longer a relaxing drive. I fueled just outside of Bastrop at Buckee’s, for $1.66 a gallon. By 2pm, I arrived at Rainbow’s End, settled into my site at boondock C for $7.50 a night, grabbed a much needed shower, did a load of laundry and finally relaxed with a glass of wine, then cooked dinner, with vegetables this time.

Tuesday is election day. The polls open at 7am at the park’s clubhouse. I’m camped about 150 yards from the clubhouse, so I plan to be there by 6:55 am. I have a couple of errands to do in Livingston, then I'll leave Wednesday morning,  head to Houston for a dentist appointment and then camp at Brazos Bend State Park. Brazos Bend was one of the places Nancy and I often escaped to during her MD Anderson treatments, both for day hikes and overnight camping, so it has some good memories for me. I'll get some flatlander hiking done while I'm there.

               Below are pictures of my campsite at the Junction city park, it was awesome!

 

Tight lines and safe travels