Wilderness Wandering

April 25 thru April 29, 2025

We passed through Dryden, TX (population 33) this morning.  There’s a taxidermy/butcher shop/convenience store there called Stuards. I spoke with the owner for a while and Tim bought some of their award winning beef jerky. The female owner butchers various animals, does taxidermy and runs the convenience store. 

There were no trees for miles and miles. Nothing to block the wind.  No services either!

There is an auto race called the Big Bend Open Road Race,  labeled the most challenging open road race in the world, taking place tomorrow. We saw a few of the cars along the road today and were delayed for about 15 minutes during a time trial. The course is 118 miles total from Ft. Stockton to Sanderson and back again. 

We ended the day in Sanderson, TX (population 678).  We were looking for a bar to have a beer. It seemed that the only place in town that was open at 6 PM was a barbecue food truck. We asked if they had beer and were told that they did not sell alcohol. A patron at a picnic table told us that we could get a beer at The Ranch House. I questioned him, because on line it had said they closed at 5 PM. He responded that the front part of the building that was the restaurant did close at 5 but that the back part of the building which was the bar, opened at 5:00! We walked down to the Ranch House and decided it was almost like a secret speakeasy , because there was no sign anywhere indicating that there was a bar behind the building! But, we walked around back and sure enough, there was a very cute outdoor area and also a back door that lead into a bar. They even had a shuffleboard table! We got our beer and since we were the only patrons, we had an interesting conversation with the owner of the bar!

The next night we camped at Seminole Canyon State Park. We found an empty camp site and went to take wonderful free showers. The wind howled all night. There are still no trees to block the wind.

I started the next day doing the one mile moderate Windmill Nature Trail in Seminole Canyon. I was so happy I did. It was a beautiful nature trail. There were some desert flowers blooming.  I could see the ridge where the park’s pictographs are. The timing of the guided tour to see the pictographs didn’t work for our schedule, so I wasn’t able to do that. 

Next we stopped in Langley at the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center. Judge Roy Bean was a pretty fascinating character. He has been described as Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Pecos Bill combined.  He owned and ran a bar and dabbled in many things. When they needed a lawman in the area, they appointed Roy as judge. He didn’t have any legal training. He often held court from the front porch of the bar. His bar and his home are in back of the visitor center and open for viewing. Legend has it that the town was named Langtry because of his fascination with the actress Lillie Langtry.

We enjoyed a date night in Del Rio. We had wonderful pizza at Lou’s  Wood Fired Pizza. A We followed that with some DQ, and finished the night watching the movie Sinners. We really enjoyed the movie!

The land started to change after we left Del Rio. We saw some trees and green! All the towns we passed through today were very tiny.

We spent a little time in Fort Clark. The town had fallen on hard times. The fort was decommissioned in 1946. The last occupants had been German prisoners of war. I toured the Old Guard House Museum that is in the old jail. One of the cells has a large painting done by one of the POWs.

Some very famous military people served at the fort, General Wainwright, General Patton, and boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Louis.

The fort has had an interesting next chapter. They’ve turned it into a retirement community! People renovated officers’ quarters and homes into townhomes, etc. It is a gated community.

I found an RV park for $25 cash per night and we were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful site on the Nueces River. We really enjoyed it. We enjoyed a bonfire. Only our second of the trip because it’s been VERY dry in the Southwest. 

We have arrived in TX Hill Country now. I love it. Very beautiful! We stopped at Lost Maple State Park and enjoyed a pretty hike after lunch.  The last 10 miles before the small town of  Hunt wound along the river and through horse country. The fields were full of flowers.  It was my favorite part of the trip so far.  

There were no services in Hunt other than a wonderful general store. I asked if we could stay in the parking lot and they said “No.” But they offered that there was a picnic place down the road we could stay at. It wasn’t awful, but there was no water or bathroom facilities. I emailed a Warm Showers host that lived nearby to see if we could stay in their driveway and use their bathroom. 

There was a little girl selling snow cones in front of the store. Tim bought one and we sat on the front porch for him to enjoy it. We started talking to a guy and he ended up being a former student of Tim’s who had gone to NIU! Jimmy was a very nice guy. He told us there are many kids camps in the area.  

In the meantime, we heard back from the Warm Showers host that we were welcome for the night.   What great people! They offered us their guest casita and it was so adorable that we accepted their offer.  We had an entire casita that Lou had built to ourselves.  The frig was stocked with anything we could want to drink. The shower was great. The bed was a cloud. We enjoyed talking with them. We had soup for dinner, showered and went to bed. We listened to showers on the metal roof through the night. 

We left Lou and Linda with promises to see them again. We made a quick stop back at the General Store for Tim to get another brownie. 

After Kerrville, we were on a beautiful narrow road with no traffic that ran through ranches and fields.

We crossed paths with a woman from Maryland who will be cycling for 8 months. She told us to make sure we went through Buckie, LA. She said she had the best ice cream of her life there!

We were in Fredericksburg for lunch. The town is cute, but very touristy. I didn’t know that between Fredericksburg and Johnson City is huge wine country. There had to be more than 30 tasting rooms in 30 miles.  There were many ranches along the route for sale. I wonder why?

Between Fredericksburg and Johnson City was Lyndon Baines Johnson’s birthplace and home after his presidency. We stopped and saw the schoolhouse where he went to school and the home he was born in. 

Tim said he thought today was the prettiest day’s drive of the trip so far. There was so little traffic, the roads weren’t too rough, and the scenery was beautiful. I have to agree it was wonderful!

Next, we will be spending a day or two in Austin, TX with a college buddy of Tim’s.