Marfa Lights, Alpine, Tx & Fort Davis National Historic Site

   

     Well, we've made it into Texas, and despite the cooler weather we've been experiencing, everything is going just fine.  Debbie stumbled the other day and started talking about missing home, but then she looked at the temps up there, compared to down here, and she finally snapped out of it.  A nice dish of Blue Bell ice cream can fix just about anything!  Actually we did some sightseeing yesterday just north of Alpine, TX, and Debbie remembered a soda shop she had read about in Fort Davis, Tx.  And look, we're driving right through the middle of Fort Davis! Can you believe it??  "Park right there" Debbie said, and to my right was the Fort Davis Drug Store, an eclectic soda shop/hotel, located right on the main drag of Fort Davis.

 As we enjoyed our afternoon treat, we struck up a conversation with the owner, originally from Iowa, transplant from North Carolina.  Quite a transition to Texas!  If you've ever traveled through this part of Texas, you'll understand when I say there's not a lot of people out here.  But there are HUGE ranches!  A 30,000 acre ranch is considered a small ranch by the way.  Spread out amongst these ranches are tiny towns, with stores carrying the basic necessities for living out here.  But every once in a while, if you're lucky, you stumble on these little soda shops that remind you of days gone by.

      We passed through Marfa yesterday, which seemed to be a little dot along the highway.  Off of the highway, we spotted a magnificent courthouse, which many of these towns seem to have.  Interestingly, there was a nice bullet hole through the window in the front door.  Bet there has to be a story there!

Of course, everyone knows that Marfa is famous for the  Marfa Lights, a unexplained phenomenon of lights in the desert dancing across the horizon. If you don't, just follow the link, and discover the secrets of Marfa.  And of course, we had to give it a try.  So last night, Debbie and I climbed out of our nice warm coach, and ventured a few miles south of Marfa, to where the State has built a viewing area for all of us tourists in the area.  We waited a couple of hours, but we didn't see anything, which isn't unusual.  They don't appear every night.

Debbie was very brave checking out the viewing stand during daylight hours.  But as soon as it got dark, she was much more comfortable sitting in her locked car in the parking lot.
      We had checked into the Lost Alaskan RV Park, which is located about 2 miles north of Alpine.  It seems to be a stop before heading into the Big Bend National Park, which is about 100 miles to the south.  There seemed to be lots of RV's either heading to or returning from the Park.  The lots are gravel and seemed to be pretty level.  We were escorted to our 90' long pull-thru site, and set up camp without any issues.  The weather was going to dip down into the 20's, so I didn't hook up the water.  I had my tanks full, so it wasn't an issue.

Over in Alpine, we found some beautiful murals painted on the sides of building all over the downtown area.  Dan Blocker from Bonanza days was prominently displayed on one of the murals.  Seems that he was a football star at the local college.

This afternoon we headed out for Alpine and located Kokernot Field, out behind the local high school.  Texas Monthly magazine has described the baseball field as the Yankee Stadium of Texas.  In 1951, 6000 people crammed into this stadium that holds about 1500, to watch Satchel Paige's St Louis Browns play the Chicago White Sox.  The Stadium was built in 1947 for the local semi-pro baseball team, and I'm told, they will be returning to play here this summer.  

     Our next stop for the day was the Fort Davis National Historic Site, located in Fort Davis, Tx.  This fort is the classic example of the Indian Wars frontier military post.  From 1854 to 1861, the soldier of the fort spent most of their time in the field fighting Apache war parties.

     At the outbreak of the Civil War, the fort was abandoned and Confederate Soldiers occupied the fort.  But they soon tired of fighting the Apache's also, and abandoned the fort.  In 1867, the all black regiments known as the "Buffalo Soldiers" returned and rebuilt the fort.  They were eventually successful in forcing Victorio, the Apache leader, to move south into Mexico.  There they were massacred by the Mexican Army.   The National Park Service has done a commendable job in preserving the barracks, officer's quarters and hospital.  There were meticulous records kept by the Army, and the NPS has been able to label each bed with a soldier's name.  The volunteer guide did a great job leading us around the post, and was able to answer each question thrown at him.  Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.
     Tomorrow we are heading down to the Big Bend National Park for a 4 day visit.  I don't believe there is any cell service down there, so the blog will be a few days behind.  Our campground is putting us right down on the Rio Grande.  Should be a great few days!