Day 3, on to Alpine

Sunday, March 14

With clear and sunny skies, we set out bright and early for the Journey Leg 2--La Vista RV Park in Alpine. The drive was pleasant, but not especially scenic. At times we went through a bit of "interesting" terrain and a few long, slow uphills that made Mammoth groan, but nothing spectacular.

 

 

 

 

It mostly looked like this 

 

 

 

 

 

The most unusual thing we saw were the solar farms:

Alpine was in a high valley with a few small mountains here and there on the horizon. Desert mountains, that is--very bare, not super high but with air so clear you feel like you can reach out and touch the trees on the top--until your eyes focus down and you realize that's a long, long way away. From Alpine we headed south on highway 118. We'll spend a lot of time on Texas Highway 118, but let me just say that despite the diminutive number (three digits), it's a big road. Wide and fast with good shoulders and a speed limit of 75 mph, if I remember correctly. Most people go 80.

The RV park was up a steep slope, just over the hilltop. If we hadn't been using the GPS on our phone, we'd have passed it up and had to circle back. But we made the turn easily and didn't get hit by anyone coming up the slope.

The park's interior was gravel and very typical for an RV park--fourteen drives lined up side-by-side in a cleared field. No shade but they'd left a few cedars here and there to give it a homey feel.

Overall, though, I was disappointed. Yes, it had a nice view.

But the entire property was tiny and the only place for dogs to walk was round and round inside the barbed wire fence that circled it all. Barely adequate space for Zack, the Shi-tzu; no room at all for Molly. And no birds.

Later I found few birds and I realized I could get a slightly longer walk using a path they'd cleared for some construction trucks. The whole circle around the barbed-wire fence took Molly and me about 20 minutes. Next day we tried jogging on the highway, but it was too scary. Yes, the shoulder was very wide but the noise of trucks zooming by at eighty miles per hour was unnerving.  We tried stepping off onto the mowed grass beside the road and found it full of thorns and evil stickers. So, no.

I should probably review La Vista RV park, but I'm conflicted. For what we wanted--a place to park our Mammoth while we explored the border of Texas, it was perfect. But as a destination? Nope. And I found it eerily odd that I never saw the owners or any assistants of theirs. I talked to one on the phone to verify my reservation; that was all.  In fact, for the four nights we were there, II don't think I talked to another human being at all.

(Note that it had sewer hookup and very good Wi-fi. The Wi-fi was better than the phone service, which was spotty at best.)