After leaving Missouri for Christmas, we quickly headed south. We stopped for a bit in Lakeway, TX to downsize and organize our storage unit. Now that we are coming upon our 1st Year Anniversary as Full-Timers, we wish we would have sold more things. That will be a future project to eliminate the storage unit.
Our next stop was Mason, TX. We stayed a few days at Dos Rios RV Park on the Llano River. This is the type of campground I love–remote feel, beautiful scenery and close to nature and wildlife. Beau also loved it, he had a great time swimming in the Llano River.
I’m a rock hound and always looking for cool finds. One of my bucket-list items was to look for the beautiful Texas Topaz, only found in Mason, TX. I enjoyed a day digging in the dirt at The Seaquist Family Ranch. Unfortunately, I came home empty handed, but enjoyed a great hike on a beautiful Texas Hill Country ranch! If you’re interested in topaz hunting, learn more here.
We had an appointment to have the roof sealed on the Itasca Horizon and we were going to meet our Technician in Fort Stockton, TX to have it done. Due to some scheduling changes, we had a few extra days so we ventured over to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We stayed at the Carlsbad RV Park and Campground. It was cold while we were there so we didn’t explore the campground, but they did have 2 dog runs which was nice.
We are so grateful to our Realtor Extraordinaire, Teresa Ward for gifting us with a Senior National Park pass. What a cool gift. The National Park Pass is now $80, but it is a lifetime pass and will allow the holder and 3 guests to enter all of our National Parks and Federal Recreation sites at no cost.
The day we visited Carlsbad the elevator was down. We entered the cave at the historic natural entrance where the bats fly out. Unfortunately, the bats hadn’t arrived yet, they live in the caverns from April to October. Carlsbad is home to about 17 bat species.
We did the Big Room self-guided tour. The Big Room is the largest underground chamber in the United States. We trekked about a 1.5 miles down to a depth of about 1,000 feet (and back upJ). The Big Room is approximately 8.2 acres, to put that into perspective, it is about 6.2 football fields. We loved Carlsbad and would absolutely go again!
While in Carlsbad, we also visited the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. All the animals are either rescue or captive born and cannot be released into the wild. The Zoo does a nice job with humane care of their animals and education.
Beau enjoyed swimming in the Pecos River. It had to be one of the cleanest, most beautiful rivers we have ever seen. Carlsbad does an awesome job maintaining the Lake Carlsbad Recreation Area and Park along the Pecos.
We’ve been through Fort Stockton, TX many times on I-10, but have never explored. While getting the RV roof sealed, we were here for 4 days. We stayed at the Hilltop RV Park. Beau loved the roomy dog park. They also had a desert hiking trail right from the campground that we enjoyed. A nice bonus is an onsite restaurant serving dinner and breakfast. Very handy for travelers to get off I-10 and not have to worry about cooking or finding a restaurant for an overnight stay.
Fort Stockton’s most photographed resident is Paisano Pete. Pete is a giant Roadrunner statue, standing 11 feet tall and 22 feet long. Until 1993 Pete was the largest Roadrunner statue until one was erected in Las Cruces, NM taking the title.
If you ever wanted to visit a true old west water hole, you’ll have to stop by the Grey Mule Saloon. The Saloon was built in the 1880’s as a watering hole for cowboys. Today it is owned by Mesa Vineyards who is the largest winemaker in the state (I was surprised by this). It’s now a very quaint tasting room for Ste. Genevieve, Mesa Vineyard’s most popular brand.
We also did the Historic Self Guided Driving Tour of Fort Stockton. During our travels we are love finding information about the areas we are visiting online. We often find self-guided tours and even podcasts with a wealth of information.
Adventure Toward Freedom 