Moving on to Van Horn

Even though we only had about a 4 hour drive today, we decided to leave Terlingua around 8 am to get ahead of the high winds that were expected to pick up later in the day.  We drove the 77 mile curvy and hilly Hwy 118 back north.

Hwy 118 is a beautiful drive and it seemed like we made it to Alpine which was almost halfway very quickly.

Alpine is off in the distance at the base of the hills.

Fortunately, there were no trains stopped on the tracks in Alpine today and we rode through the town very quickly.  As we headed west on Hwy 90, we noticed the Big Bend Brewing Company on our left.  The yellow flowers were out in full bloom along the road here in Alpine.

After leaving Alpine, we noticed some red rock formations...

...and some of the "dikes" that look like great walled stoned fences.

The road was much flatter now as we were heading to Marfa.

We thought Marfa was just another small town in Texas.

As we learned later from people we talked to in Van Horn, Marfa is famous for its internationally renowned artworks and the Marfa lights -- an unexplained phenomena of seemingly sourceless lights that dance across the horizon and appear randomly.  Marfa even has a viewing area that we passed by for viewing the Marfa lights.

We may have not seen the Marfa lights, but we did pass by this unusual blimp that we later found out was used by the border partrol.

Out here in Texas, the yucca plants, many of which are in full bloom, look more like palm trees than a yucca plant.

As we got closer to Van Horn, we began to notice more farming.  We went by this huge orchard of some kind of trees that we think may have been some type of nut trees.

The grove went on and on but what else would you expect in Texas where they do everything in one size:  BIG!

We knew we were getting near Van Horn when we saw the "V" on the mountain.

We arrived at Southern Star RV Park around noon and got set up in our campsites.

After lunch, Ken suggested we go for a walk into town.  As we walked to the center of town, we noticed how many abandoned businesses and buildings there were.  Like Terlingua, Van Horn almost seemed to be a ghost town too.

At one time, US Hwy 80 went through the center of Van Horn.  As with many small towns, when the interstate (in this case, I-10) was built going around the town rather than through it, a lot of the businesses that depend on the traffic for customers end up failing.

We walked down to the history Clark Hotel Museum to get a little history of the town but the door was locked with a sign saying that a tour was currently being given.  We went into a stained-glass shop next door to the museum and talked with the artist/proprietor for a few minutes.  We asked her for suggestions of things to see around town or near by and she told us about Marfa (mentioned earlier).

We went back to the Clark Hotel Museum and waited for the tour to be over.

While we waited, we took turns playing charades.

Can you guess what TV show Ken is describing?  

Within a few minutes, the lady giving the tours opened the door and we went inside to look around.  We met the couple who had just had the tour.  They had just gotten married.  The guy was from Pennsylvania (and gave Ken a big hug when he found out they were from Pennsylvania) and the girl was from Portland, Oregon.  They were traveling across country on their honeymoon when their car broke down on Hwy 90.  They had to spend the night in their car!  What a way to spend your honeymoon! 

After the honeymoon couple left, we met the lady giving the tours and what a delight she was.  Patricia Golden told us she is German, Dutch, Japanese, and Cherokee (and something else but I can't remember what) and she was born in California.  Not only did she take us through the museum (which used to be a hotel),

she also told us stories about the people of Van Horn (both past and present) and stories of her own life and how she ended up in Van Horn, Texas.  Patricia told us about how when she was a little girl, she had met Marilyn Monroe when the movie "Some Like It Hot" was being filmed near where she lived.  What a fun lady and California girl!

After leaving the Clark Hotel Museum, we walked across the street to El Capitan, a old hotel that has recently gone through a $2.5 million renovation.

We walked behind El Capitan to what Patricia had told us was formerly the Hispanic district when the town forced segregation between the whites and Hispanics.

We walked back to the campground stopping at Chuys Restaurant to look inside at the pictures of the restaurant made famous by John Madden as one of his favorite places to stop when riding his bus across country (because he refused to fly) between NFL football games.

I failed to mention in my post about our trip from San Antonio to Big Bend that we had seen these ladies roller-skating down the interstate pushing what appeared to be a stroller in front of them.

When we got back to the campground, Ken noticed their strollers and we stopped by and talked to them.  Kim, Brenna, and Gracie are skating across America for the cause of ending domestic violence and healing of domestic violence victims.

They started in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on March 5th, and their destination is Santa Monica, California.  Their goal is to skate the 2,800 miles in 78 days averaging about 50 miles a day!  You can learn more about them and their cause at www.statesonskates.com.

Most of the time, they camp in their tents that they carry in the strollers overnight but Kim's in-laws are camping near them for the next few nights and they happened to be staying at the same campground as us tonight.

They were having trouble getting the toe stop off of a couple of their skates and asked if Chuck and Ken had any suggestions.  Ken got his allen wrenches and Chuck got some WD-40 and helped them get their new toe stops on their skates.

Kim, Gracie and Brenna are heading through some of the same towns we will be going through after we leave Van Horn so we hope to see them again along the way.

Today is a PERFECT example of how blessed we are to get to travel and meet so many interesting and wonderful people.