We left soon-to-be-snowy Austin for below-freezing Fort Davis, Texas. A tiny town at an altitude of about 5,000 feet, Fort Davis had a population of 1,200 in 2010. Not sure why the Census hasn’t updated since then, but the place is overwhelmingly underpopulated, which was great. We stayed at MacMillen RV Park.
We rolled in on Monday and on Tuesday, the high temperature was 17 degrees. We had a thin layer of ice on the inside of some of our windows (because we left our thermostat too low overnight) the next morning! We had to disconnect our water supply every night because we didn’t have a way to prevent it from freezing over, so disconnecting it and thawing it out in the morning with the trusty hairdryer was our routine during the week.
Looking toward Davis Mountains State Park
We left our taps dripping during the day only to discover that one of our holding tank pulls had also frozen over. I spent about 10 or 15 minutes below the rig pointing the hair dryer at the bottom of the tank to thaw it out. Fortunately it worked and we were able to drain our galley tank, which was full from leaving the tap dripping all day. Jesus, is this what home ownership is like? Is it seriously always something?
Dealing with the frigid temps hasn’t been the worst thing in the world, but on top of that we discovered one of our propane tank valves was leaking gas, too – not exactly what you want to find when it’s the only full tank you have. We managed to get it open to a point where nothing was leaking out, fortunately, and plan on replacing said valve at our next stop.
In addition to freezing our butts off all week, we went to McDonald Observatory one evening for one of their night time “Star Party” observations, but unfortunately it was too cloudy to see anything so we took the refund, sad that we couldn’t just re-book for another day since we would be leaving before the next one came around. The night skies here are absolutely amazing when it’s clear – with very little light pollution nearby, we saw more stars in the night sky than I can actually recall seeing anywhere else. Needless to say we were bummed we couldn’t ogle the stars and planets through their bitchin’ telescope but hopefully we can find another observatory on our travels.
I managed to find a local yoga class one evening at High Desert Yoga just down the road from us. The class was tiny (3 students, yay!) and a very relaxing, low key class. I also managed to wander into a reptile “museum,” called Rattlers and Reptiles, which was really just a room full of all kinds of snakes that some herpetologist collected and kept in a big room of glass cages like what you see at the zoo…as well as a few tarantulas. Totally worth $4, though.
Albino rattlesnake!
We went to dinner in Marfa on Thursday evening at an amazing restaurant called Al Campo, which my lovely yoga instructor Maggie recommended. I’ve been curious what this mysterious Marfa place is all about after seeing a few of those iconic photos of the Prada building seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about Marfa: “Marfa, a small desert city in west Texas, is known as an arts hub. The Chinati Foundation, founded by artist Donald Judd, displays huge indoor and outdoor installations on an old army base. The Ballroom Marfa arts center hosts exhibitions, concerts and the Marfa Myths cultural festival. Outside town is a viewing platform from which the mysterious orbs known as the ‘Marfa Lights’ phenomenon can sometimes be seen.”
The road to Marfa. Pardon the squish on the windshield.
I do wish we’d had more time to spend exploring some of the art exhibits and museums, but we were happy enough with our amazing dinner. There were only 2 other people in the restaurant for 75% of our time spent there, and its compact size, very intentional decor, and dimly lit interior was exactly like a hip, funky eatery in the Village – without all the people. Kind of perfect, TBH. New York vibes without all the New Yorkers and smelly street surprises? Oh HELL yas! I’ll have some more Marfa, please. I ate half a smoked chicken and barely stopped to inhale it was so delicious. We also met the owner, a hella cool Chilean slash Miami-an dude named Tatanka who told us about some great trails that we should hike.
Pretty lights, plenty of wine, and NO PEOPLE. My kind of place.
On the drive back, we stopped on the side of the road to check out the night sky since there is literally no light in between Marfa and Fort Davis. It was breathtaking! And freezing! And then, suddenly, it was time to pack up and leave again.
Next stop: Carlsbad Caverns!
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