Big Bend - Day 1

April 1, 2011-Couple items I forgot from yesterday's blog.  John called to let me know Tampa was having severe weather and that he had watched the storm (tornado) come across the bridge from his office.  Fortunately, he didn't have any damage at home or work, but the storm took out several fences in his subdivision.  Second, on our scenic ride, we did see a roadrunner.

Today We broke camp and headed into town to poke around Ft. Davis, which is the highest town (elevation 5,050) in Texas.

 First we toured the actual fort, which is in the process of being restored.  It is an interesting fort, and we got to tour the barracks, 3 houses which were officers quarters, and the hospital. We got there just as a video was starting, narrated by Karem Abdul-Jabbar, so we learned some of its history, which includes occupancy by both the Confederate and Union armies, including the buffalo soldiers, mostly there to protect the San Antonio-El Paso route from raiding Apaches.
 

We learned a few things.  The early soldiers did not have any civilian clothing and the only way you could tell if they were off duty was by wearing a straw hat.  They had 4 different hats they wore when on duty.  This may have been the beginning of the saying about wearning many hats.

The mattress on the very narrow cots was made of hay, and it was very thin.  This is probably the origination of the saying, "hit the hay," or "hit the sack."  The bed wasn't too uncomfortable, but the pillow was awful.

After we toured those buildings, we went back to the officer's quarters.  Joe decided to take advantage of his fragile status after foot surgery, so we used the golf cart.





Then we toured the hospital, where I made a "deposit" in the bedpan/urinal depository (while talking on the phone to John).

We left there and drove into town to look around.  We toured the library which was pretty old-fashioned, and a nearby hotel which had antique furnishings. 




Joe found his replacement cell phone in the library.


We had lunch at a little Mexican restaurant, then stopped at a broom shop.

Finally, we headed out of town to Big Bend National Park.  As we were driving through the park, we saw 2 fighter jets overhead, don't know where they were out of.  We arrived there about 6:00 p.m., and it was probably 100 degrees.  I think Joe may have been right about making a left turn in Arizona -- we would probably be in Colorado now.  We are staying at the National Park campground, which does not have any hook-ups, and We can only run the generator between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., so we got both air conditioners running right away to try to cool the RV down so we could sleep.  Our camping neighbors (a young couple with 2 small kids, camping in a tent!) told us it is supposed to be 103 tomorrow.  Our visit to Big Bend National Park may be a short one!