Point of Rocks - Fort Davis, Texas

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

The big surprise was the change in weather.  It cooled down nicely on our way to Fort Davis.  We passed through Alpine stopping long enough for a senior coffee and internet at the local McDonald's.  Lots of interesting characters to watch.  Alpine is kind of like the hippie version of San Miguel de Allende.  

After being in the heat at Pecos River bridge, which by the way turned cool and breezy at night, it was nice to travel with sunny skies but cool weather.   We know Dryden, Sanderson, Marathon, and Marfa although I could easily visit each one again as there is always something new to see or do or something we've missed on previous visits. 

Fort Davis is not the largest town on the map but definitely a place to visit.   A town good for a three-day weekend is truly kickback.  I had chosen Point of Rocks based on reviews from iOverlander.  I haven't been a fan of iOverlander from a Mexican point of view.  The majority of the places are Pemex gas stations.  There are plenty of those where I live so I don't need to spend the night inhaling fumes.  However, in the U.S. the choices are a bit broader.  Point of Rock is a rest area.   In Texas, you can stay at picnic and rest areas for 24 hours.  We've stayed at several and they have always been a good spot.  Some are a bit noisy but many are well structured and some include wifi.  

We headed out to the rest area really not knowing what we would find.  Wow!  Incredible!  A huge mound of giant boulders you can actually climb around on.  There are picnic tables and plenty of parking.  The highway has little to no traffic after 5 p.m.  We gave up counting as the cars were so few and far between.  

If I repeat myself it's because I post information of the blog, Facebook, and emails.  Point of Rocks was a crossing point for transportation in the 1800s.  Being near the fort, supplies were brought along with soldiers from El Paso.  As a poster on iOverlander mentioned, it's really hard to boondock and do hiking and claiming in Texas as the majority of the land is privately owned.  More on that as we head to the fort in the next post.

It was a starry starry night and the moon did its wonders as usual.  The quiet was something that is hard to find.  We sat outside thinking about what it must have been like for those native peoples that had lived in the area and the things they saw in the skies at night.  We had a great conversation not to mention a wonderful dinner.

We watched a movie, "I Pass As White" from 1961.  You can find it on Youtube and I highly recommend it.  I had downloaded it the week before we left as we knew we wouldn't have internet.  Our cell service in the U.S. is T-Mobile and as I may have mentioned is almost non-existent in the desert.  

Very good sleep and in the morning we fixed an unusual for us bacon and eggs breakfast and sat outside admiring the view.  We headed back to Fort Davis and did some sightseeing in the town.  Restaurants in the U.S. are very expensive and even more so in a small tourist towns.  We prefer to cook at home whenever we can although we do enjoy eating out and when we do we do it well.  

We checked at the library and made arrangements to spend the next night there.  They told us we would have to check with the sheriff's office.  We walked over there and knocked on the door.  The secretary said she would call the sheriff and let us know.  Sure enough, she said he agreed to one night as long as we didn't make any noise.  That was our next night and that will follow this blog post.