Texas

After an unplanned week in Fort Stockton, Texas, Tom and I were happy to be on the road again. Our truck was running well and we were trying to make up for lost time. We were already several days late for our reservations at an RV park in South Padre. However, we took our time leaving Fort Stockton in the morning because the roads were just starting to dry from the ice storm.

Driving

As we made our way toward San Antonio we saw several overturned semi trucks... reminders of the storm. But, the roads were in good shape as we passed through.

We drove until hunger forced us to stop. As we approached the town of Ozona, Tom jokingly asked if it has a salad bar. We didn’t even know if it had a restaurant! A quick search on “Salad bar” brought up the Hitchin’ Post Steakhouse and I called just to confirm that they really did have a salad bar. I’m vegetarian and was too hungry to settle for side dishes at a steakhouse!

The unassuming restaurant is in an old barn and much bigger than it looks. It also has a bar that looks like it has potential to get rowdy at night. The salad bar wasn’t the Sizzler but it was pretty good. Tom said his burger was especially good.

We continued our drive toward San Antonio and were surprised to see how hilly it is. And, much prettier than we expected. Aly even enjoyed the views!

Boondocking

We drove until after dark to get through San Antonio and avoid morning rush hour. When we turned off the highway, hoping to find a quiet dirt road to boondock, we discovered a huge dirt parking lot that was, conveniently, attached to a saloon. We stepped into the Coyote Crossing Saloon for a few beers then turned in for an early night’s sleep. All was good until 1:45 am when the saloon closed and the party moved to the parking lot. The rowdy crowd eventually left and we fell back asleep for a few more hours.

More Driving

Back on the road, and finally heading more south than east, we were all happy to have the windows down and the sun shining!

Aly is a great traveler… and by that, I mean she is great when we’re actually traveling/driving. She doesn’t mind driving long distances because she has us right there within paw’s reach. Aly is not, however, so good about the non-traveling part of the trip… the part where we leave her alone and do human-only things. So, this trip has become as much a tour of dog parks as anything else. Knowing we’d be busy and tired when we reach our destination on South Padre Island, we started looking for dog parks along the way to try and wear Aly out. The dog park we found in Kingsville, Texas, about halfway between San Antonio and South Padre, was our favorite of the trip, so far. It has two fenced areas, one for small dogs and one for large dogs. Both are huge and, even in the middle of day, they were full of dogs. We stayed for at least an hour while Aly ran with the big dogs until she couldn’t run any more.

We continued south until we saw palm trees. We’d have preferred not to see a sign for potentially icy roads. But, for now, it was blue skies and warm weather as we crossed the bridge and onto South Padre Island, Texas.