TRAVELS & MORE

Day 1

Today, starts our road trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas. During our last trip, Jacob made the comment “Texas is so big it takes a day or more to just get out of the state itself.” He also stated “ There is not a lot to see in Texas because it’s all flat and people own all the land so no BLM camping is available.” I know Texas has a lot to see and do. But, we have to just do it and explore this state we reside in. So, Big Bend seems like to best place to start.

Big Bend is a named for the great curve of the Rio Grande. It is located in the remote southwest of Texas. And surprise Jacob, it has a million acres of public land, which includes the Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park.

We that being said, we pack up The Shack and headed out. There was not much to admire along the long, flat industrial windmill and oil company filled roads. Jacob was trying to avoid the Black Gold areas. The was one area that the smell of oil was strong. But, oil is a huge part of the ‘Texas Tea or Black Gold” Texas tea is a slang term for crude oil or petroleum, that originated during the oil rush in Texas. I prefer the windmill pictured.

Our first stop was a place in Alpine, Texas. A hotel called Holland Hotel. Jacob learned about it hotel on a YouTube video. It seemed appropriate to stay here since, he is from Holland. The hotel is old and small. But, has a lot of charm. It was built in 1912 during the Spanish Colonial Revival. It was named after a successful cattleman, John R. Holland.

Our overnight stay here was nice. We walked around town admiring some art and reading interesting facts about Alpine. Something we read about Alpine was titled “Segregated by the Tracks”: It describe a time when Hispanic resident were confined to the south of the railroad tracks. Those who ventured to the north of the tracks were expected to carry their US ID cards. They were not allowed across the tracks after dark. Interestingly, many of the important businesses were located on the south side of the tracks. Therefore, those parts of Alpine were integrated. Oh, how moments of the past still continue to play a role today in our society. Just making it more relevant those times have not changed totally.

We went to a local restaurant for dinner, Sazzon. It was in the Texas Monthly Magazine. Plus, besides fast food it seemed like the only restaurant open.

We settled in the hotel room with a nice soak in the jacuzzi located in our room.

The morning met us with cold temperatures of 36 degrees and cloudy. But, our two boys (Jaxon and Dean) need to go potty. So, we will continue this later.