Texas - Day 137 - South Llano River, via a flat tire, to Kickapoo Cavern

Kickapoo Cavern State Park, Brackettville

Saturday, 20 March 2021

We had a little trouble getting in our early morning walks - I'm sure there was an armadillo nearby - but we eventually got some walking in.

This campground bills itself as a "dark sky park" and asks everybody to "keep outdoor lights to a minimum."  Apparently not everyone bothered to read the sign, and even one of the camp hosts had more lights out than I thought they should.  But in general, it was a nice dark area and I could see plenty of stars.

As we started to drive out of the campground, I heard a noise that made me think I had something wrong with a tire, but the wheel wasn't pulling particularly and they were all fairly new tires.  I had to drive through the entire campground to find a place to stop and take a look (it's a narrow one-lane road and I wasn't the only one moving around).  Sure enough, my front right tire was looking a lot lower than I thought it should.  It wasn't even 7:30 in the morning, on a Saturday, and I knew I didn't have a phone signal even if I could have figured out how to get hold of anybody helpful.  So back down those 4 miles to town I went.

It took me 40 minutes to go that distance, because I was traveling as slowly as I could, with my hazard lights blinking to warn other motorists I wasn't going their speed.  I pulled into the first gas station I found, both because I needed gas and because I wanted directions to a tire place.  I'd no sooner pulled in than another motorist made concerned motions toward my tire and I explained what I was doing.  He and his buddy not only directed me to the only tire shop that they thought might be open today, but also filled up my tire with air they were carrying on their truck.  Now how much luck is that!

And I ended up not getting gas because the gas station owner warned me, when I went in to pay cash in advance, that the regular was coming out so slowly it was one ... penny's ... worth ... at ... a ... time, which was real nice of him to say.  He too worried about my tire and directed me to the tire shop and to another gas station.  Nice town, Junction.

And the guys at the tire place were nice too.  I got there right after they'd opened so they could take me right away.  The one working on my tire found a 1" nail in the tire which, he said, I might have gotten just yesterday afternoon.  My guess is I picked it up in the church parking lot where I went to call my relatives.  He warned me I may have done some real damage by driving it so many miles when it was flat and told me to keep an eye on it to be sure it was holding air.  Quel nuisance.

today's route

I spent 42 miles (per Google) on US 377, and the posted 70 mph speed limit was utterly irrelevant: the road was one long series of curves and s-curves up and down hills with warning signs suggesting speeds on the curves of 20 mph, 25 mph, 30 mph, 35 mph, and (highest of all) 40 mph.  There were also a lot of dips in the road - marked as "Dip" - and being seriously low enough that you wouldn't want to take them too fast.  At each one there was a sign saying, "Caution - Road May Flood."  That was in addition to the signs here and there saying, "Caution - Road May Flood Next 26 Miles" - the number of miles would vary but the message was the same.  I don't know why they even bothered posting the 70 mph sign.  I managed to make the trip in an hour, but it felt a whole lot longer to me than an hour.

At Rocksprings (yes, it's all one word), pop. 1,182, I saw a sign saying, "Welcome to Angora Country."  To support that claim, they have a statue on the courthouse square:

at the base of the statue

There was also this evidence:

office of The Texas Mohair Weekly

And finally, this historical marker in front of the courthouse:

The county claims to be "the angora goat capital of the world."

This is the courthouse itself, by the way.

Edwards County Courthouse
in Rocksprings

As that historical marker (above) explains, this courthouse was built in 1897 and was sturdy enough to make it through a 1927 tornado that killed 72 people.  Serious tornado.

I'm including this historical marker that was also on the courthouse square, because it details the development of the town's telephone service, beginning as far back as 1898.  I didn't know there were phones that far back, let alone phones in a remote area like this.

Speaking of the 1927 tornado, I saw this historical marker on the building we'd parked in front of.  What I found interesting was the bit about the coffins.

As you might be able to tell, this is a small community that's trying to support itself in an agricultural environment.  I may not have seen it at its best, because it was only 10:30 on a Saturday morning, but I didn't see much life in the town.

Back on the road, I passed a sign for the town of Carta Valley which, as far as I could tell, consists of a cemetery and a boarded-up house.

This area isn't far from a place called Devil's Sinkhole, which is now a State Natural Area as well as a National Natural Landmark.  It's a shaft that drops 140' down into a cavern and is home to one of Texas's largest populations of Mexican free-tailed bats.  The state parks dept. has made entry to the area limited to tour reservations only.  The headquarters for this area is on the town square back in Rocksprings.

I was driving southwest back to the border and saw a lot of rocky ground with cedar/juniper and mesquite - the oaks and pecans were left behind us.

I noticed the Border Patrol stopping all northbound traffic.

Today I saw only 2 Trump signs/flags.  And I got 3 light-flashing thank yous.

I passed several access points to the Amistad Reservoir, a shared resource with Mexico.  It's created from the Rio Grande and I noticed the water level was very low, but I don't know if it's low from the drought or low from overuse of the Rio Grande up river.

We came to Del Rio, pop. 35,954.  Now that I was back in the Valley, I saw that most people were still wearing masks, indoors and out, a sign of strong common sense and self-preservation - both qualities I value.  Del Rio is also a county seat.

Val Verde County Courthouse
in Del Rio

And this historical marker describes the town's development as well as the building of the courthouse in 1887.

I also found this historical marker about the Civil War that seemed interesting, though you might find it hard to read.  Those that are carved in granite cause me problems to replicate - when I bring up the contrast so the words can be read, it also brings up the grain in the granite which makes it harder to read.  Anyway, here it is.

While the dogs and I were walking around the square, I suddenly noticed this beautiful building a block away.

Google claims that it's the Methodist Day School, and that the Methodist church itself is in a nondescript building nearby.  Uh-huh.  I used the street view to look for myself and found that, as expected, their labels were reversed.  This building is the First United Methodist Church and it was built in 1931.  Really stunning in person.

By this time I was really tired and much later than I'd planned to be, thanks to that flat tire.  Instead of being on the road by 7:30, I didn't actually get moving until 9:00 - a real difference when I'm traveling as many miles as I have to in this part of the state.  So although I'd planned to go from Del Rio on to Eagle Pass today, I changed my mind.  It would still take me well over an hour to get to Brackettville, and tonight's campground was another half-hour beyond that, so I decided to wait until tomorrow and see how I feel.  If I could, I wanted to go to Eagle Pass, but I'd skip it if it looked like too much.

On US 90, that I took out of Del Rio, I was crossing under the airport landing pattern.  I passed a sign saying: "Watch for Low-flying Aircraft," which seemed a little ominous to me.  I mean, just how low were they planning to fly?  But I made it through okay.

The gasoline prices in this part of the state really fluctuate.  In Junction I paid $2.85/gallon, but in Del Rio the price was $2.58.  When you buy as many gallons as I do, it can make a difference.

There was a strong crosswind when I started heading east, so I was pretty pooped by the time I got to Brackettville, pop. 1,740, and the county seat.

Kinney County Courthouse
in Brackettville

This courthouse was built in 1909 in the Beaux Arts style.  This photo looks odd because the courthouse is situated crosswise on this plot of land.  You can see that the sidewalk from the front door leads straight to the corner of that building which, granted, is used for municipal offices, but the placement of that municipal building where it is has robbed the courthouse of the grandeur it deserves.  Instead it's kind of crowded into its little space.  And it's not as if this were the only plot of land around here - there seemed to be a lot of flat vacant land in the vicinity.  Well, I'm sure they had their reasons.

Although the road from Brackettville to tonight's campground was 21 miles long, it took me the best part of an hour to get there because it was a narrow, hilly, winding road most of the way.  Plus I got held up for a bit at a Border Patrol checkpoint (there were several vehicles ahead of me).  I really had a hard time finishing the drive.

Kickapoo Cavern State Park offers several attractions.  The cavern itself may have been used a very long time ago by Native Americans using this area so it has some artifacts as well as the usual cave attractions.  Nearby is the Stuart Bat Cave that has its own population of Mexican free-tailed bats, and until the late 1950s their guano was mined for use in fertilizer and explosives (which is an odd combination).  There are also 3 endangered species that live in this area: Tobusch fishhook cactus, and 2 birds - the Black-capped Vireo and the Golden-cheeked Warbler.

The campground itself was tiny - only 15 camping spaces, and at least a third of them were empty when we were there.  Since this was a Saturday, I assume that this is a little-known and out-of-the-way place for most tourists.  It worked out okay for us, despite the number of groups that brought large dogs.  The campground was dark and we were comfortable.  I didn't expect and didn't get an internet signal or a phone signal.  I didn't even bother trying TV reception.  It's just quiet here.