In the Really Slow Lane

Laredo is the 2nd biggest city along the Rio Grande (population 236,091, bigger than Brownsville). It was the capital of the Republic of Rio Grande, which may be the shortest lived country in history, only 283 days. While Texas claims 'Six Flags over Texas', Laredo proudly claims Seven Flags over Texas. The Republic of the Rio Grande did not want to be subject to Mexico or to the newly-formed Republic of Texas. Mexican General Santa Anna ended that idea of independence.

Laredo is about the least diverse city in the US (excluding Puerto Rico), over 95% Hispanic. The "old" part of town, immediately adjacent to the international crossing, was sad - block after block of mostly empty buildings, almost a ghost town. Buildings seemed to be built around 1900. Did not look like a slum, no boarded up or broken windows, trash, no visible addicts or homeless, just mostly empty.  

Other parts of the city were busy and more modern. We shopped at nice HEB Plus, Walmart, etc., since this was the last big town for a few weeks. 

We left Laredo (and the last Supercharger) a few days ago. We now go from campground to campground for charging: Uvalde, Comstock, Marathon, then Big Bend. Maximum distance between campgrounds is 150 miles.

Trivial Accomplishment: We've driven from Marathon FL to Marathon TX. Google Maps says it takes 29 hours. We took 60 days.

Uvalde, the biggest town in these parts (population 15,751), has a "famous"  Rexall pharmacy - the only soda fountain between between El Paso and San Antonio -  opened in 1877.

We get to Comstock, population 475, one of the strangest campgrounds we've visited.  We made a stop at the Historical Marker.

I am standing on the remains of the Historical Marker in Comstock, with a piece of its foundation

A local told us that trucks keep hitting the sign, and eventually the state stopped replacing it. She didn't remember what it said.

Comstock weird RV Park, almost spooky

We got to our campground, which looked like a movie set for something weird. A drug deal? A mass murder? Lovers reunite surreptitiously? UFOs landing? Someone from NYC falls in love with the girl and decides never to go back? Maybe all of the above, in the same movie? 

Totally "self- serve"; a sign on the "office/clubhouse" said please deposit money in the box. A few Popular Mechanics magazines from year 2000 were on the table; the couch was even older. The freezer was full of ice, "Please take ice and put $2 in box". 

On old windmill water pump clanged away in back. Most (all?) campgrounds have toilets, and most have showers. This one just had a dessicated porta-potty. (Don't ask.) 

Office/clubhouse - note the outhouse and derelict birdhouse

This turned out to be one our best stops. Seminole Canyon State Park & Historic Site is just down the road. The People Without A Name lived here many thousands of years ago. Remember I mentioned them in the Witte Museum in San Antonio? 

The volunteer guide took a group of six down into the canyon to see some of their artwork in the shelters. Nobody is allowed into the canyon without a guide, to keep out vandals.

From the inside of a natural shelter in the cliffs

The rock art from up to 5,000 years ago.

Reproductions of painting of the art done in 1930s.

Grafitti. Note the ancient art at the top of the image.

The work crews building the Southern Pacific Railroad camped near here for many months in 1882, and remains of an early roadbed are still visible. "ELindfield" was a supervisor, as was "Maynard".  The" VV73" is "graffiti" from the University of Texas Archaeology Department in the 1930s, marking the Elindfield graffiti as historical. Standards change.

These canyons never had rivers in them

The canyons were formed from flash floods over millions of years, not regular rivers. Rainfall in this area is extremely variable. Usually very dry, Hurricane Alice in 1954 dropped 28 inches in one day. The nearby Pecos River rose 96 feet.  These canyons had something like 30 feet of water flowing.

So why is this park Seminole? Because of the Black Seminoles, enslaved Africans who escaped from Georgia to Spanish Florida in the 1700s and early 1800s and joined with the Seminole Indians.  Most Seminoles were rounded up by General Andrew Jackson and forced march to Oklahoma in 1830. The Black Seminoles were not welcome in Oklahoma, since the Creek Indians also kept enslaved people, and White enslavers/raiders also came after them. 

Tejas (now Texas) was part of Mexico, and did not enslave people. The Black Seminole fled south to freedom, and many joined the Mexican military as scouts. The Republic of Texas was an enslaving nation, so they then continued south of the Rio Grande. 

After the Civil War, the Black Seminoles were recruited by the US Army to help in the Indian Wars. They were usually attached to Black Buffalo regiments. Out of a group of 50 "Seminole Negros" scouts, four earned Congressional Medals of Honor. They did not suffer any battlefield losses, an extraordinary record. Only 2100 Medals of Honor have been awarded since the Civil War. The park commemorates three of the Medal of Honor soldiers who were stationed in this area in 1875.

Fascinating visit and beautiful hikes around the canyon rims. Recommended. We also learned we could have camped in the park itself for the same price ($20), and would have had much nicer amenities and views. Live and learn.

I double checked if we would have enough energy to make it to Marathon. With the freezing weather (cold air has more resistance) and few thousand feet of elevation gain, oops, looks like it will be very close. 

So instead of "roaring out" at 55 mph, we leisurely amble along at 35 mph, flashers blinking. The highway is two lanes, lots of passing lanes, and a speed limit of 75 mph.  This is a lesser traveled highway, a vehicle might pass every five or ten minutes, so driving so slow wasn't risky. After three hours (100 miles), the energy meter is saying  it's getting verrry, verrry close to not making the trip. (The car has already reminded us several times there are no Superchargers in this direction, are we sure we want to continue?)

So we stop at the non-booming town of Sanderson (population 837), which has a RV park. Or is it a sculpture garden?  All sorts of dinos and antique farm implements, plus a clean working bathroom with running water.

Camp mascot

Nobody to take our money there, another self serve, but much nicer than Comstock. We were just going to charge for an hour or two, no price listed for that.  I figured we consumed $1.47 of power, so we left $10 in the envelope.

All of the campgrounds this week are within 100 yards of the Southern Pacific Railway and the highway.  The towns are strung along right on the road and train right of way.

Trains rumble by every few hours, at least 100 cars with four or five locomotives. The clickety-clack of a slow freight train is somehow comforting, not like the screeching and braking of a NYC subway. 

This is not curvaceous. The  highway is similar

While I may be doing the long, slow drives, Barbara is crafty.

Texas Rose felted from alpaca wool

We had stopped at a Harvest Host Gulf Breeze Alpaca Ranch and shop [may be paywalled] (and free camping spot) about a month ago.  Barbara took a class on needle felting alpaca, and this is the result! Beautiful, and probably never will be repeated by her.

Marathon (population 386) is a very nice little town. Next to our very comfortable campground/motel is the upscale Gage Hotel. The hotel has a delightful 27 acre garden,and a famous stuffed white buffalo. 

Fairly complete despite its tiny size is the French Grocery (not French as is Paris, but named after a Mr. French). Our campground has night sky enthusiasts. Last night we looked through their 20" reflector (they also have a 24") and saw the four Galilean moons of Jupiter even with the bright moon. This town is the gateway to Big Bend, and highly recommended to stay a while.

Outside of Marathon is Fort Pena Colorado. This fort was mostly manned by Black Buffalo soldiers in the Indian Wars. The natural spring waters were important for Indians, and later the US soldiers. Nothing remains of the original fort.

Pemba went swimming

Onward to Big Bend today. We will probably be incommunicado for quite a while.

Happy Trails,

Krem and Barbara