Last we checked in, we had just left Arizona to start our eastward trek to Florida. We’ve done this cross country repositioning many times over the years, and are always looking for new-to-us routes across the great state of Texas.
One place we’ve never been is Big Bend, and we really had it in our intentions to explore it this spring. However, with the book re-write taking longer than anticipated – we just didn’t feel we had the time available to do it right without feeling rushed the rest of the way.
But we weren’t going to let that get us down, there still has to be plenty of awesome to discover!
For this trip across the country, we have about a month to play around with. We’ll be mixing it up with long driving days (which for us is usually around 200-250 miles) and multi-day stays in-between.
We like to find balance in making miles, getting work done, exploring the areas we pass through and hopefully social time with friends along the way.
So, here’s the tales of the first segment of our journey to Florida:
Making Miles: Anthony & Van Horn, TX
Since we had the opportunity to explore New Mexico on our westward trek last fall, we decided to kick start the repositioning by getting some significant miles under our tires.
We left Willcox, AZ after completing our Elks membership, and started heading east. We considered overnight stops in Deming or Las Cruces, but we were making good time and called ahead to a Harvest Hosts location closer to El Paso to see if they had room for us that evening.
We arrived just in time to enjoy a wine tasting and a lovely sunset walk around the vineyards.
In the morning, we tackled El Paso – one of our least favorite cities to pass through. Even mid-morning the traffic was horrible, and many parts of I-10 under construction.
By the time we were approaching Van Horn, TX – we were both ready to get off the road for the night. I checked ahead and found 3 RV parks in the area offering a 50% off Passport America rates under $15/night.
We pulled into Southern Star RV Park (our review) and snagged an easy pull-thru site for the evening.
A perfect stop to rest and do some routing to our next destination.
In the morning we set out for a relatively shorter drive to Davis Mountains State Park, with a stop at the roadside attraction Prada Marfa ‘store’. It’s a cool permanent art installation in the middle of nowhere.
We had mistakeningly thought it was actually in Marfa. But while browsing Yelp, we serendipitously discovered that it would actually be on our route just north of Valentine. If you’re not looking for it, you could drive right by otherwise!
Interestingly, we had a local stop and ask what the big deal was about this place and why so many stopped to see this little building on the side of the road.
We just answered – ‘It’s internet famous‘.
Davis Mountains State Park
Since we’re heading east back into the lands of denser population, and thus more abundant cellular signal – we really wanted to find a couple stops with poor signal for our cellular antenna testing project.
Davis Mountains State Park (our review) fit the bill perfectly, as many of the reviews we read noted the lack of cell service without a booster. I initially made a reservation for 3 nights to cover the weekend, and we’d play it by ear from there.
True to word, we could not get much signal at all on our phones and hotspots. But when we turned on our weBoost 4G-X cellular booster with the included antenna we were able to stream video.
The nearby town of Ft. Davis is right over this mountain thing in front of us – perfectly blocking line of sight to AT&T and Verizon’s towers. However, some signal does get over the mountain and bounces around the canyon where the campground sits.
This was going to be a perfect testing location! We spent a full day doing nothing but take readings on different configurations of antennas, boosters and amplifiers.
And we had a book to get formatted for Kindle & iBooks and get officially launched! Which we successfully managed to do by driving up to the top of Skyline Drive to get even better signal for upload speeds to submit the files.
We were also guests on the Geeks on Tour weekly hang-out talking about mobile internet (you can catch the archive here), and had to drive into town to do the broadcast.
But our stop wasnt all work… we also made sure there was plenty of time for play.
We booked a Star Party at the nearby McDonald Observatory – which was absolutely fabulous. So glad we made that stop at Prada on the way in so I could pick up some fancy shoes and a purse to attend.
Nah, not a party in the sense of cocktails, live band and fancy clothing. It was all about gazing at the stars and using many of their telescopes.
This geek girl was in constant amazement peering into nebulas, clusters and watching Jupiter rise over the horizon. Very well done, and a definite must-do if you’re in the area.
And blog followers and fellow nomads Crystal & Pete happened to be in the park and invited us over to share in a meal. They both work online in their day jobs (veterinary consultant and software developer), and are also exploring their musical passions by performing folk music in their touring duo called ordinary elephant.
We enjoyed getting know these two, and hope to catch them on down the road again!
And of course there was a lot of bike riding and hiking to be had. We’re really enjoying our folding electric bikes, and they impressed us by getting us to the top of Skyline Drive a couple of times.
Our stay at Davis Mountains State Park was delightful – such a lovely area of Texas. We ended up extending 3 additional days, and could have easily talked ourselves into more. We’ll have to come back to this area again, and especially get down to Big Bend!
What’s Next?
We’ve made our way to the Texas Hill Country, and will be hanging around the Austin area about a week before we continue eastward. We have made reservations for a stop in New Orleans along the way, but other than that – the routes and stops are still unplanned.
We are going to Davis Mountain State Park and Big Bend later this month. Did the WeBoost Drive 4g-x work with the standard mini mag antenna? Also our travel trailer is not metal and wonder what booster antenna to use. Was going to just get the the RV4G and use it with the mini mag in our truck while not in the in the RV driving around but apparently since the RV4G is 60db instead of 50db however the RV4G is against FCC regulations while moving because of the extra db gain. 4G LTE service is critical for my wife as she will still be working remotely while we are on vacation.
Hi Jason – we handle all our mobile internet questions over at RVMobileInternet.com (our booster guide is at: http://www.rvmobileinternet.com/boosters, including our guide to ground planes for non-metal roofs). Our members have access to our in-depth booster reviews, including our field test data we took with various boosters and antenna combos at this specific location.
The RV 4G and mini mag antenna are not compatible any way, as each are different oHMs. And indeed, the RV 4G is not mobile certified.
So glad you enjoyed another Harvest Hosts visit! Have a blast in New Orleans, we just visited during Mardi Gras and found a $40 24-hour parking space for our camper in a lot across from the Convention Center. Not quiet but you couldn’t beat the location or the price! If you’re heading to Florida on I 10 be sure to check out the HH location east of Tallahassee. It’s fantastic.
Thanks for the tips guys! We hope to squeeze in another HH stop or two soon!
Just read your article in the RV Life Style on line magazine and about your overnight stay in Van Horn TX. There are more then 3 RV Parks here. My husband and I live and work at VanHorn RV Park. It used to be a KOA park but was sold last May and the new owner took on the Good Sam brand. We work in the on-site cafe and serve breakfast and dinner. We have corrals for our horse campers, a pool, dog runs, bathhouses, laundry room and much more. We even have a pond for catch and release fishing. We are on the south side of RT 10 far enough away from the interstate that we don’t hear the traffic. It is an awesome RV park. I have followed your blogs and advice for 4 years now and would have loved to have met you. In fact you went right past our park on RT 90 on your way to Fort Davis. We are very proud of our park and would have love the opportunity to show you around. Oh, and by the way, we do have a grocery store in Van Horn so provision away!
Please note, we didn’t say there were only 3 RV Parks… but that there were 3 that offered Passport America discount. Which is true, I do not see yours on Passport America’s site as giving a 50% discount. The listed rate ($38/night) is way too much to pay for just parking overnight (we didn’t even plug in). When looking for a spontaneous overnight, we pretty much default to PA after checking for free options.
We also checked several searches for grocery stores, and found nothing in Van Horn. If there is one, they should make sure they show up in various databases. Missing potential tourist dollars there smile.
Bought my RV in Albuquerque a couple of years ago and headed straight to Fort Davis for the 2nd nite. From there I went down the border to Brownsville. Can’t believe how many times I got stopped at Border Control checkpoints or pulled over for inspections. I guess traveling alone hit a profile or something. Otherwise it was a pretty trip and a lot of very nice folks made it nicer. I won’t be going back because I don’t want to be inspected every 100 miles with the attendant lines and dogs crawling through the vehicle.
We only went through 2 border patrol stations coming east this time. Arizona has tons more of them than Texas. It’s scary, for sure. We once got stopped and asked to leave our home with our cat and stand on the side of the road while they let the dogs sniff the outside (no search). It made us feel so uncomfortable for daring to travel within our own country. It definitely gives us pause traveling near the border.
Texas Hill Country is absolutely gorgeous! If you’re in the Austin area, food and adventure is easy to find! There’s quite a bit to do in Austin, but if you seek to get out. Pedernales Falls State Park is a a great place to go. It’s roughly 40 miles west, and it’s also en route to plenty of wine vineyards! This is a great place to start, then continue your search for more things nearby. Also, the blue bonnets are blooming soon. So don’t miss that!
http://www.thehikinginitiative.com/hillcountryhiking/
We loved our stay at Pedernales Falls last spring. This year will just be a quick pass thru, mostly focused on time with family (I grew up in Austin… and we come through often.)
A New Orleans stop…a must for us is Willie Mae’s Scotch House. Check it out on the WEB. Suggest you go during daylight. And expect a wait that is well worth it. As always enjoy your BLOG and following you two around the country.
We are fulltimers for 6 years and love the nomad lifestyle. In October our Norcold refer caught on fire, $53,000 in damage. We are hoping to have it back this next week and get back on the road. This brick and stick home is boring, love it when our wheels are rolling or we are boon docking somewhere. Hopefully we will meet up some day.
Kay
Oh goodness… so sorry to hear about the fire, and hope you’re back on the road soon!
I’m halfway between Austin and Houston in a small town named Chappell Hill, Horn as you go through our one stop light cause you got a fan that lives there. Be Safe.
We always stop by for a visit of a friend that lives in Chappell Hill when we stay in College Station which we will do again soon…
Before re-routing for family in Roswell, this was the route we had planned. Now I’ll know to look for the store/art when we get back to it 🙂 Davis looks like a pretty spot, glad you were able to extend your time to enjoy it. Safe travels east.
Thanks Jodee… and hoping all is going well with your family visit. One of the wonderful things about this lifestyle is being there when you need to be is just a reroute.
Thanks for all the great info! Dear Him and I just came through the Davis Mountains (camping overnight in our Honda Odyssey), so of course we were excited to see this post about your experiences there. We’ll definitely check out the booster.
One thing: I struggled a little buying the updated Mobile Handbook. You might want to log out of Amazon Associates and then go hit your links on the MH splash page. You’ll see what I mean. 🙂 But I managed to grab the new handbook for Kindle and look forward to digging in.
Thanks for the heads up that there might be a problem… I just tried logging out of Amazon, and everything is looking good on this end. The Kindle link goes to the Amazon book page. What were you seeing on your end?
Ahem!
It turns out that was user error on my part… Amazon remembered my login from about 4 days ago, so I was seeing some very interesting stuff. Totally my bad.
Sorry for the false alarm!
Hi, thanks for the great posts! I have been following you for quite awhile now, in fact your posts were some of the very first that made me decide to go nomad! I see you were behind us for some time, wish I had read your earlier posts, perhaps I could have seen the bus pass us by on I10. We picked up i10 at Quartzsite and took her across Arizona with detours down to Organ Pipe National Monument – A MUST SEE for anyone who loves nature and very nice campgrounds. Our second detour was down to Tombstone, a bit of a disappointment, we could see mostly the same sort of thing in Deadwood SD or at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park in ND. Since our ultimate destination is South Dakota, we left 10 shortly after Deming NM and took a 2 lane up to Truth or Consequences, then on up to Isleta. Stopped a night, then on to Pueblo where we stayed at a wonderful Passport America RV Ranch some 17 miles West on US 50. From the windows of our rig we had a nice view of the Mountains, from the windshield was a view of the corral occupied by a very healthy horse and several dozen cotton tail rabbits all over the park. Now we are in Wheatland Wyoming where we are spending a day of R and R, then it’s onward to South Dakota to see friends and relatives, reload the rig and back to the West Coast. Thanks a million for being our inspiration, without you, I would probably still be sitting and rotting in my old recliner in our sticks and bricks, and watching our TV or playing with a computer. Each of which I can easily do in our 03 Rexair 3 slide 35 foot Class A.
Aww.. thanks Jerry. Always awesome to hear stories like this, and so glad you’re out there exploring instead of rotting away at home 🙂 (We loved Organ Pipe as well..so lovely down there!).
If you’re going to be in the Fredericksburg area, you might want to stay at the city-owned campground adjacent to the airport. Also, I highly recommend a neat restaurant outside of town in an old gas station…it’s called Hilltop Cafe. Owned by Johnny Nicholas, the former lead guitarist for Asleep at the Wheel. Greek/Cajun fusion menu. And if wine’s an interest, try Grape Creek or Beckers vineyards.
Thanks for the recommendations. We’ve already got our spot reserved in Austin, and will be focused on family on this short pass through. We love the area, and it’s where I grew up.
McKinney Falls SP is our go-to campsite in Austin. And please say hi to 6th St. for us.
We absolutely love McKinney Falls, that and Pecan Grove are our two favorites in the area.
Regarding I-10 through El Paso, I agree completely. We have been through there twice, once going east and once going west. On the west-bound trip the road was so broken up that one of our DS bay doors popped open, right in he middle of downtown. It was about 5 miles before I got to an exit that I dared get off. Found a parking lot in a medical office park finally and was able to close the door. A good experience NOT.
Oh gosh, I can totally see that happening on those roads. We were so exhausted after passing through, even not having to deal with something like that.
On your way through West Florida panhandle you might consider Passport American Riversedge Campground, Holt Fl. Easy on/off I10, as the name says on a rivers edge, quiet, shaded, level pull throughs and the nicest people working there. We found it a nice respite from the interstate repositioning phase Florida to Texas this past November.
Thanks for the recommendation.. always nice to find the gems. We’re hoping to be able to hit a Florida state park or two on the way in… they have some lovely ones in that area.
Next time you are in the El Paso area you can go around the traffic using Transmountain Hyw aka 375. A beautiful drive over the Franklin Mountain and Franklin Mountain State Park with dry camping. It is paved and has tables with shelters $8.
Good to know.. we’ll keep that in mind for future trips. And maybe it’ll save someone reading along some traffic frustration too. Thanks!
Actually, Chris just reminded me that we took 375 on our pass thru last year on our way to Guadalupe Mountain NP.. it was a good route.
Thank you for another fun post ! That’s so cool to be driving and have a 4104 pass you.
They are pretty rare, so it must have been nice to run into another cool vintage GM bus.
The photos look beautiful. Stay safe and enjoy the rest of your trip.
It is rare for us to encounter other vintage buses on the road. So fun!
Thanks for the warning about El Paso traffic. I’ve made a mental note to remember it. Have a good trip and enjoy those bikes.
We’ve routed via the north of El Paso before.. but sometimes, you just have to grin and bear it, I suppose. Hope your winter continues to go well!