We were still a little sleepy from Christmas shenanigans, so we weren’t in a rush this morning. Evan and I headed over to HEB (Evan’s first trip to an HEB!) for various provisions while George worked on adding some mounting brackets to his roof rack. Back at the hotel, Evan broke out a new round of stickers for us, which we applied before getting going. Oh and also he still has that infernal fuzzy steering wheel cover he gave the Xterra 1.0 for Christmas on OAT West last year, so he popped that on while I wasn’t looking.
We headed out for Fort Davis but ended up making a handful of stops because of fuel issues. Our “oh shit George is literally out of gas right now” stop had $4 unleaded, so we got a partial fill before heading to Fort Stockton. There, the first filling station had 7 out of 8 pumps out of order, then a Love’s Truck Stop that was so crowded it may as well have been an overpriced music festival, and finally we ended up able to get gas at a little crack shack on the edge of town.
Finally, we rolled into Fort Davis and drove up to Skyline Drive in the Davis Mountain State Park. Beautiful as always! I do love that area.
I tried getting a heroic photo of the cars but a couple touristy types were having trouble turning around in the parking lot and after ten minutes of waiting for them to sort themselves out, I gave up. Then we hiked over to the canyon overlook at the top of the park for a little rest stop.
After the break, we drove over to Marfa for dinner at the swanky Hotel St. George. We figure that’s probably the last chance we’ll have for a nice dinner or vegetables of any kind for the next few days.
From there, it was just under two hours into Terlingua where we’re staying for the next few days. It’s a humble little place which is just perfect. The woman who checked us into the place had to drive up from her house because we got in at 10, but she seems pretty cool. Even in the parking lot of the motel, we can see more stars than I’m used to being able to see at once. I think this will be a neat place to base our next couple days.
We ended the day with a drink and me giving the boys their Christmas presents; since this is their first time in Texas for a trip I wanted them to feel as native as possible. I got Evan a straw cowboy hat and George got a big Jeep belt buckle. Also, since he made me put a Sooners sticker on my car last year (UT played OU in a bowl game), I decided to give the Jeep an Alabama sticker because I think he needs one (OU plays Bama this week).
Tomorrow is a Big Bend day, with more off-road driving than hiking. If nothing else, we’ll hit Black Gap Road (George’s Jeep trail) and a section of Old River Road which kinda runs along the south edge of the park a few miles inland from the river over toward Santa Elena Canyon.