Texas - Day 9 - to Fort Stockton, Marathon and Alpine

KC's Quick Mart & RV Park, Alpine
Wednesday, 11 November 2020

I heard yesterday that the Vatican had issued a report including more details about the sexual abuse committed by former cardinal McCarrick.  I immediately thought of the movie Spotlight which details one of the most prominent efforts by the media - in this case, the Boston Globe - to bring to light not only the sexual abuses committed by priests but also the cover-up by church authorities.  That was nearly 20 years ago and many in the Catholic church are still trying to minimize or deny the problem.  I know Pope Francis has an uphill job trying to clean up this mess, but good for him for trying.  So in the spirit of this new information, last night I watched Spotlight, which is one of my favorite movies.  An illustration of the evil that can be perpetrated when good people stay silent.

I think the birds I saw yesterday at the watering hole on the park's nature trail were Pine Siskins.  I remember them from Alaska and this area is barely within their winter range, although the bird book says that range is pretty sporadic.  I didn't see them very well, because they were hiding in the nearby trees when the dogs and I were there.  But I saw them later flying away and with the flash of yellow I saw, and the otherwise streaks on their bodies and their size - well, this is my best guess.

Pine Siskin

Today is Veterans Day, and I join all those who honor their service and sacrifice on our behalf.

today's route

On the road
From the state park, we drove through Monahans and past a sign saying, "Downtown Monahans - Oasis of the West Texas Desert."  Monahans seems to have as many RV parks as it does residents (pop. 7,638).  The only reason I can figure is that they're for transient workers on oil drilling equipment.

Driving south on TX 18, I saw lots of flat land - all scrub land - a couple of horses, and another collection of working oil wells - maybe 20 or 25 of them.

I passed through the town of Royalty, which seemed almost to not be there, and then Grandfalls (pop. 360) which shares a school with Royalty.  Grandfalls (it really is all one word) bills itself as "Small Town, Big Heart."

I crossed the Pecos River.

On today's drive I saw very few birds, and the lack became unnerving after a while.  Throughout all the area I covered today I saw 3 hawks, 2 Loggerhead Shrikes and 2 Ravens, which apparently were Chihuahuan Ravens.  And that was it.

Loggerhead Shrike

Chihuahuan Raven

I don't know how I knew those shrikes were shrikes.  They just looked like them.  They remind me of Mockingbirds, though they've got less white on their tails, and their tails are shorter, and Mockingbirds don't have that black mask.  And the raven just looks like a raven, and also like a crow which doesn't help.  The Chihuahuan Raven is smaller than a regular raven and larger than a crow, but the real point is that it belongs in this area.  Which is where my guess came from.

Anyway, it was really odd to see so few birds of any kind.

For much of the way south, I was accompanied by a line of old-fashioned telephone poles - the kind with creosote and 1 crossbar that I've seen all my life.  And for all I know, these poles have been here since before I was born.  It was a stark contrast to see an east/west line of high power metal utility lines.

Fort Stockton

This town of 8,283 is a flat, small town with a US Border Patrol Station.  Also welding companies and other oil industry related businesses.  Also a large feed & supply store.  That kind of town.  But they also have a great public dog park, and the dogs and I enjoyed a nice little rest there.

Back on the road

At Fort Stockton I switched to US 385 for the rest of my southerly trip.  The farther south I got, the more mountains I saw.

I drove nearly 60 miles of this,
except the mountains kept getting closer.

what the land looks like

The only other oddity I had to keep me company as I drove was an occasional sign saying "Road May Flood."  

I learned that these signs meant a dip in the road was coming, and the dip would be deep enough to warrant a flood gauge up to 5'.  By actual count, I know there were 21 of these in this 56 miles.  For the life of me, I can't figure out where all the water would come from to warrant these flood gauges.  Aside from the Pecos back before Ft. Stockton, I didn't see any rivers or lakes.  In a really odd note, I saw one of these signs when I was climbing a fairly steep hill.  I also saw 2 "Watch for Water on the Road" signs.  I understand the folks around there'd be mighty happy if I could've found some water for them.

I passed a sign saying "Weed Wash Required."  I can't even imagine what that's about, and when I looked it up I got nothing.

For many miles, the land on either side of the road was labeled for III Ranch.  I didn't find anything in a quick search so don't know where the extensive holding came from.

I passed a sign saying "Entering Sierra Madera Astrobleme" which was meaningless to me.  Fortunately, when I looked this one up I got something from the Austin Chronicle - it's a meteor crater.  This link gives the basics and includes another link to some real information.   https://www.austinchronicle.com/sierra-madera-astrobleme

I passed what looked like a major plant labeled Occidental West Texas Overthrust.  Such a bizarre name, but it turns out to be some kind of oil and gas company.  It sure was out in the middle of nothing.

I had to stop for a javelina that moseyed across the road (really), seriously alerting Dexter who'd never seen such a thing.  But when I came to a stop, it suddenly ran to the barbed wire fence, somehow got under the wire and disappeared into the scrub.  Nice disappearing act.

We came across a strong skunk smell - by no means our first time, but this time Dext looked at me like he thought I should fix it.  It must have been a fresh, nearby smell.

According to the map, the mountains I could see to the south were the Glass Mountains, and included Bird Mountain, elev. 6,066'.  Those lie between Marathon and Alpine.

I stopped to take a look at a couple of signs about ranching in the Big Bend area.

sign, part #1

sign, part #1

sign, part #3

sign, part #4

sign, part #5

sign, part #6

sign, part #7

There are still some big ranches operating in this area (witness: the III Ranch).

Marathon & back on the road

This town isn't pronounced like a marathon race.  Instead, it's MARE-ih-thin.

I expected Marathon would bill itself as the Gateway to the Big Bend, but if it does I missed the signs. 

Marathon has about 430 residents and the historic Gage Hotel, built 1927.  It was one of the locations for the film Paris, Texas and for the Kevin Costner film Fandango.

At Marathon I joined US 90 W and traveled northwest for the 22 miles to Alpine, surrounded by mountains the whole way.

I passed another of those La Entrada al Pacifico signs.

Alpine

You can sort of see on today's route map that Marathon and Alpine are in the far north part of Brewster County.  I found a sign that said Brewster is the largest county in area in the state, which I have no trouble believing because it extends all the way south to the Rio Grande River and includes all of Big Bend National Park.

Alpine, with a population of right at 6,000, is also the home of Sul Ross State University.  I've heard of this school most of my life but didn't know that it was named for Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross, who was a governor of Texas, a Confederate general, and a president of Texas A&M.  (Being a UT graduate, I can say it figures.)  His family founded the town of Waco.  Naturally there's a statue of him in the middle of the A&M campus.  

This summer a petition was started proposing the statue's relocation, in light of George Floyd's death and increasing awareness among some that prominent symbols celebrating the Confederacy, which existed to promote slavery (aka: a state's right to have laws protecting slavery), don't belong in our increasingly diverse American society.  Equally naturally there's a strong feeling among many students that they don't see what the problem is and it's tradition.  Currently, only 4% of the A&M student body is Black, certainly less than the 12% of Texans that are Black.  (I'm happy to report that similar statues are being removed from prominent positions on the UT campus, though UT's student body is only 5% Black so, not exactly an improvement.)  It's hard to understand another point of view when you're only presented with the one you're already familiar with.

I drove through town on my way to a campground called the Lost Alaskan RV Park, where I could buy propane.  The lost Alaskan no longer owns it, and every space was taken for the next 2 days.  This seemed impossible, today being a Wednesday for crying out loud, but when I got there I could see it for myself.

Going through town, though, took me past the Big Bend Biker Hotel, with its Old Gringo Coffee Shop and Bar.

I'm not sure why but Alpine seemed like a real town to me, with a real life to it.  Maybe it was the extras that having a college brings.

When I stopped for gas, I barely was allowed to pay cash - I was the last customer they allowed in the store because they closed for disinfecting.  It was clearly going to be a major process because they brought in a disinfecting company with its equipment and locked the doors.  Not something I'd run across before.