TrailerQuest 2010 - Days 10-12

Bye Bye Bandera, Bats, BFE and Beswankyment

We got up on Sunday for the final morning of the Casita Rally, had our coffee and began our goodbyes.  There were many nice folks involved in the Rally and we enjoyed meeting people from all over the country - Texas, Virginia, Florida, Utah, Oregon, Arizona.  I could go on.....

A couple of hours north and we were in Austin - a truly unique and vibrant town.  On the eastern outskirts of town, down a long road which becomes MLK Blvd., sits the Oak Forest RV Park.  Mind you we have never stayed in an RV park prior to this trip - its just not the way we "camp".  But since this was the shakedown trip and I wanted to make sure all was well, we are hanging with the full time, Class A, retiree crowd.  Generally speaking they have no idea what to make of us and our little 17 foot camper.  A few motorhomes appear as if I could simply back my camper into their storage hold and have them take it to our next waypoint for us.

We were also very close to a great neighborhood of new, modern homes called "Agave".  We took a quick side trip down the streets and it reminded me of the neighborhoods in Palm Springs, although it was decidedly more experimental and of course more recent.

Back at Ock Forest I actually had one RV-er tell me she was shocked to see three people come out of the Casita, as if we have just emerged from a single refrigerator box underneath a bridge.  I don't think she meant it as shittily as it sounded but I can tell you without hesitation that most people have really big RVs.  Really really really big.  So the whole notion of little camping trailers befuddles them.

Anyway back to Austin.  We drove into town in the evening and enjoyed a fine Mexican dinner at Chuy's on Barton Springs and drove to the Congress street bridge to witness the nightly emergence of one and a half million Mexican free-tail bats.  It was awesome!  Just before dark they begin to fly from underneath the bridge in a large stream of black floppiness.  Truly spectacular.

The next morning was a grind of a driving day - Austin to Ft. Stockton, TX.  It's not a huge distance, but with a 20 month old and with a tire speed limit of 60 MPH it can be slow going.  We stopped every so often to stretch, pick flowers and run around and generally get out of the car.

Coming into Ft. Stockton as we made our way to the Hilltop RV Park we spotted what first appeared to be a group of young calves wandering on the side of the road.  Upon closer proximity it turned out to be a family of javelina - probably 7 or 8 of them.  All that Laura and I could think of was that we had just seen the ROUSes.

We met lots of people living temporarily at the Hilltop park.  They were in the area getting some kind of plant started up.  They descended upon the happy Utah family with their Shriner clowncar-sized camper immediately upon our arrival.  All very nice.

Tuesday morning we headed for Las Cruces, NM as we begin the daily pack and grind driving to get home.  We have the trailer setup process down to about 7 minutes from the time we pull into a spot.  Tonight we are staying at the Hacienda RV Resort, a truly top shelf experience.  The park is immaculate.  We are by far the smallest camper onsite but don't really feel out of place or unwelcome.  We are like a novelty act.

We are showered, fed and heading off to sleep and trundle to Tucson tomorrow.  We'll be staying at a State Park so it will be like actual camping!  Maybe I'll go soak in the hot tub before our complimentary breakfast tomorrow morning.  This RV park "camping" is really odd for us but it is comfy.  As nice as this resort is, there is something wrong about being in a camper and seeing a WalMart sign across the highway.  But at least we got to watch more bats - not millions, but 5 or 6 circling a streetlight catching bugs.  Bats are cool.