Monday, 23 April 2018
Fort Stockton RV Park — Fort Stockton, Texas
Temps: 97F (36C) / 59F (15C)
Even though we were up at our usual early hour, the morning got away from us somehow — probably because we squeezed in a walk before we left the famcamp. It was 9:15a by the time we pulled out. We should be able to do better on our 1- and 2-night stands, which tend to be more minimalistic.
We set off from Fort Sam Houston under blue skies and sunshine … and a comfy temp of 70F (21C). Following Harry Wurzbach Road to I-410 and getting on I-10W at Exit 16 made for an easy egress from San Antonio. In other words, a very nice start to our driving day.
We stopped at the Kerrville rest area to give Mui a break … fueled up at the Pilot truck stop in Junction …
Nestled amongst trucker friends, we Feed Phaeton.
… had lunch at one of the picnic shelters at the Sonora rest area …
A neat rest area … the picnic shelters have ‘wagon wheels’ holding up the roofs.
I get out from underfoot and do some writing while Mui prepares …
our lunch … nice break at the Sonora Rest Area.
… and gave Mui one more stretch-your-legs break at the East Pecos rest area. That was the extent of our stops along the way.
Has to be the most interesting truck art we’ve seen on our road trips.
This being our first time heading west since switching from Verizon to T-Mobile, I was interested to see how we’d do with our data package. There were some dead spots — brief periods after Junction … and a couple of longer stretches on and off after Sonora. Otherwise mostly strong 4G/LTE. I really don’t remember whether we had a similar experience with Verizon when we came through here in 2016. In any event, I’ll be monitoring throughout the trip and will try to remember to make a note in the journal of what we find for future comparison.
We arrived at the Ft Stockton RV Park right around 4:15p … after what started to feel like a long drive during the last 40 miles (64 km) or so. We really like to keep our daily moves in the 250-mile (400 km) range, but sometimes we have to make exceptions. Today we drove 311 miles (~500 km). At least traffic was negligible … and the drive was a straight shot on I-10W.
The main section of the campground is behind us.
The place is nothing special. Decently spaced dusty sites … none look very level. Certainly ours isn’t, but somehow we managed to get ourselves situated well enough that we didn’t have to bring down the jacks. What this place has going for it is convenience to the interstate, but far enough away that we are are not hearing much traffic noise. We’re in site #50 — a 50A pull- through FHU that overlooks the frontage road. We’re going to be covered in a film of dust by the time we leave tomorrow. At least it will be an easy exit … no maneuvering needed.
Site 50 is the second one from the right.
We have an equal amount of space on the other side … and a picnic table of our own.
On the technology front, we only have one bar LTE signal on our T-Mobile phones … not sure if other carriers fare better. But the RV park provides wi-fi with a surprisingly strong signal … especially considering we are in the middle of nowhere … or so it seems. Cable TV is included in the rate as well … good news for those without a satellite.
I was almost going to wing tonight’s stay here. I’m glad we made reservations. The steady stream of RVs that followed us in filled the place up. We verified this for ourselves when we went out for a walk around 8:30p. By then the temp had dropped down to 82F (28C) … no humidity … light breeze. A nice change from the 97F (36C) we arrived to four hours earlier. That’s the beauty of being in the desert … the heat of the day dissipates almost immediately after the sun goes down.
Mui gave the windshield and front cap a good scrub before night fell … the bugs that splattered themselves on the Phaeton during today’s drive are all washed away. We’re ready to start with a clean slate tomorrow.
© 2004-2018 Two to Travel's Phaeton Journeys. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED by ERIN ERKUN.
No comments:
Post a Comment