There were a couple of remarkable things that happened today that I am grateful for. We both woke up healthy, and we drove to our destination without incident. Usually we take those things for granted. But today we’re especially thankful for those remarkable things, because that’s about as good as it gets!
Last night was not as busy around the Offroad Park as I thought it would be. It stayed pretty quiet. I think today and tonight will provide a little more action. I told Kenny that the only good thing about being here on a Saturday would be the entertainment. We could go park at some of the big obstacles, chunky rocky hills, and just watch. But, we had about 340 miles to travel today, so we needed to get going. While we were loading up, our new neighbors’ dogs were woofing me. They had two female Rottweilers about two years old. I kept talking to the dogs and they kept woofing back, and finally I asked if I could come meet them. They were just doing their job…. but I really think they were telling me to come visit. They were sweet dogs. Not nearly as big as our male Rott granddog, but they were good girls and were wiggly-butts just like our Diesel dog.
We were loaded up and gone before 9:00, and boy oh boy, were there ever a lot of rigs coming IN! Jeeps, trucks, trailers, campers. Wow- the place will be lively today!
Marble Falls is about a hundred miles from Interstate 10, so I routed us on Highway 290 through Johnson City and Fredericksburg. Johnson City is near where Former President Lyndon B. Johnson was born, and it has a lot of historical stuff. Fredericksburg was settled by Germans in 1846, so it has a LOT of touristy stuff…. the place was crawling with people this morning. I guess it IS Saturday. But the most amazing thing we saw was the number of WINERIES! It was mind-boggling! 🤯 So I asked The Google:
How many wineries are there between Johnson City and Fredericksburg?
You will find most of the almost 100 wineries somewhere in between Johnson City and Fredericksburg on Highway 290 (aka the 290 Wine Trail) or just a few miles down a side road off 290. May 17, 2022
We’re only talking a THIRTY mile stretch of highway!! Apparently the soil and climate RIGHT HERE is very good for grapes! 🍇🍷 I didn’t take any pictures, but I should have! I did search “winery” on the map while we were driving along, and here is what I got.
As we motored along, the vegitation got less lush, and soon we were in the desolate brown desert part of Texas. Our destination was Fort Stockton, because it is the only place with anything for a very long stretch. I don’t know why in the world, or why in Texas, anyone would choose to live here. But I’m glad somebody does, because it is THE stop-over place on I-10 for food, water, gas and rest. We saw miles and miles of this:
There actually is one Harvest Host in Fort Stockton, so when I knew we’d be coming this way, I made a reservation. It was a beergarden with a parking lot big enough for three rigs, and they are only open when they have an ‘event’. This being Saturday, they had a band scheduled to play tonight but not until 9:30. Hmmmm. We may not get any early sleep tonight. We do want to leave early with the sunrise tomorrow, because tomorrow afternoon is forecasted to be windy and gusty… not fun while towing!
We were the first to arrive at our parking spot lot, so we were able to turn around and get level without any problem. We left Henry hooked up to Nitro for a fast getaway tomorrow morning. Two other rigs came in during the afternoon.
Dude. This is our view of the beergarden. It is old southwest, that’s for sure!! YIKES!
Part of why it looks run down around here is this old historic building that has been left unattended for some time.
The sign says that this is Young’s Store, circa 1900, but the building is much older than that. At one time, the building housed an officer’s club for the Fort. Yes, there really was a fort here in the 1850’s. It was a key stopover (just like today!) along the San Antonio – El Paso route due to the Comanche Springs which provided an abundant water supply in this dry forsaken land.
This is the logo out front of the beergarden: The Old 76. What an unusual place!!
This is it! That’s all there is!! A dirt lot with a container bar and picnic tables, and a small stage that would fit a drummer and not much else. It will be interesting to see what it looks like tonight. As I’m writing this, we just turned off our generator and air conditioning at 8:00pm. It’s still about 80 degrees outside, but we can hear the band setting up. Stay tuned. We’re going to have to sleep with the windows open tonight because it’s only supposed to get down to about 60 degrees, so we may need earplugs. 😏
We were surprised when we saw the bar was open at about 8:30 with a few people there. We wandered over to see what they had. Only 3 craft beers on tap, a few bottled. Nothing darker than a Bock beer. Well, we’re in Texas Cowboy country. The owner said that he once had a really nice porter on draft, but it just didn’t sell, so he actually still has the keg, but not tapped. Oh well, I had a glass of white wine. The wind was really blowing so we had to put on our fuzzies. We found a seat and the band started to play at about 9:00. They were good! They played a variety of rock and country, and did a few songs in Spanish. They said they were from Chihuahua Mexico. We wondered if this was a normal crowd for the beergarden… there were only about 20 people, and six of us were camping here. Oh well. It was fun and the music was good. We were happy that they quit playing at 11:30, so we weren’t kept awake all night.
Overall it wasn’t a remarkable day – at least scenery wise! But it ended fun at a place we never would have found if it wasn’t for Harvest Host. Tomorrow we’re headed to New Mexico.