hauteboy

Apr 29-30, 2017 (continued)


#151 Andrews, ANDREWS County
It was freezing cold 38 degrees this morning but absolutely clear blue skies so a great day for a roadtrip. I headed north on US385 from Odessa about 7AM towards Andrews. This is flat Texas oil country, with nothing but oil derricks stretching to the horizon. Andrews county alone has produced 3 billion barrels of oil since the first well was drilled in 1929 and remains one of the highest oil-producing counties in Texas. The town itself is relatively modest by comparison. The courthouse dates from 1939.






#152 Kermit, WINKLER County
I headed west out of Andrews on Hwy 115. I knew West Texas was oil country but the sheer number of pump jacks was amazing... over 12000 in the country (not all active) and some are just barely hundred feet apart, with power lines stretching between them. I passed through an area of sand dunes. Kermit was a small town and the courthouse dates from 1929.


#153 Mentone, LOVING County
Mentone was a desolate, 35 minute drive through flat landscape, the only (frequent) traffic was fracking trucks. Loving County used to be the least populated county in the entire US but with the fracking boom now ranks second with 113 people. The town of Mentone itself only had 19 people as of the 2010 census. The tiny courthouse dates from 1935.



#154 Pecos, REEVES County
Mentone was the turnaround point for this trip. I headed southeast on US285 towards Pecos on I20. The Reeves County courthouse was built in 1937. It was Sunday morning so the town was pretty quiet. I had wanted to try out Pody's BBQ but they were closed today.


#155 Monahans, WARD County
Heading eastbound on I20, I soon came to the next county seat, Monahans. This was another depression-era building built in 1940. The sun angle lighting wasn't the best, so this would be best visited in the afternoon.


#156 Crane, CRANE County
Crane was about an hour's drive from Monahans, passing through the sand dunes again and oil rigs. The courthouse was built in 1948.


#157 Rankin, UPTON County
Rankin was 30 minutes drive from Crane. The courthouse was built in 1926 but extensively remodeled in the 1950s. It was a gorgeous building against the backdrop of the deep blue sky. Rankin is the second county seat. I didn't realize it at the the time but the original 1911 courthouse is in the ghost town of Upland a few miles to the north. Many of these west Texas towns died when the railroad bypassed them.


#158 Big Lake, REAGAN County
Big Lake was the next town. The 1927 courthouse was a pretty building in tan and brown brick. It was about 1PM by this point so was getting pretty hungry. I stopped at Grandma's Kitchen for lunch. Nothing special but a decent burger. The original Reagan county courthouse ruins are in the ghost town of Stiles.


#159 Mertzon, IRION County
The drive to Mertzon took about 40 minutes. The courthouse was built in 1937. Again I missed visiting the old county seat of Sherwood. The old courthouse there is still standing so I need to come back for a revisit at some point.


#160 San Angelo, TOM GREEN County
San Angelo is a small city (100k) in comparison to the tiny towns I'd visited so far today. Also the first Starbucks since Odessa where I could get my caffeine fix. The 1928 courthouse was huge with an impressive front row of columns.




#161 Eldorado, SCHLIECHER County
Eldorado was a 45-minute drive south on US277. The 1924 courthouse was designed by Henry Phelps who had also designed the Kerrville and Junction courthouses. The old jail stood on one corner of the courthouse square.




Revisit Sonora, SUTTON County
From Eldorado I continued south to meet I-10 at Sonora. I had visited Sonora just a month previously but had bad settings on my camera so the pictures came out potato quality. I stopped by the courthouse for a revisit.


Revisit Kerrville, KERR County
From Sonora it was a long boring drive east on I10. Instead of splitting off at Junction towards Fredericksburg, I decided to head to Kerrville for another revisit. Arrived in Kerrville about 6:15PM.


Revisit Fredericksburg, GILLEPSIE County
From Kerrville it was still a 2-hr drive back to Austin. I stopped in Fredericksburg courthouse as well for a re-visit, but it was late and sun angle was bad.


Revisit Johnson City, BLANCO County
Finally reached Johnson City about 7:30PM, though too late again to catch optimal afternoon lighting on the courthouse (though much better weather than my first visit!) Stoppd at the Pecan Street Breweing Co for dinner before the final 1hr drive back home, a 14-hr driving day!

hauteboy

Ok time to get back to these..

July 29-30, 2017
Distance Driven: 700 miles
Hotel: Holiday Inn Express; Athens, TX
Counties Visited: Navarro (revisit), Henderson, Smith, Rusk, Panola, Harrison, Gregg, Upshur, Wood, Rains, Van Zandt, Kaufman, Ellis (revisit) [172/254]
It had been 3 months since my last roadtrip. In the meantime my Audi had finally given up the ghost (no A/C in Texas summer) and needed 10k in repairs so was time for a new car. I'd just bought a Subaru STI a month previous and was wanting to test it out on a roadtrip. It was supposed to be a gorgeous clear weekend and I wanted to do a trip up to Northeast Texas, finishing my 11 remaining counties along the I20 corridor.

I set off from Austin late Saturday afternoon, driving north up I35. Hit a line of traffic around Belton but managed to get off the interstate and on some back roads. I was in a bit of a hurry trying to make Corsicana before sunset. Stopped at the Collin Street Bakery in Waco for a break before heading northeast on route 31. Made it to Corsicana just after 8PM and just in time before sunset. I had visited Corsicana in 2015 but weather was horrible and the courthouse was under renovation at the time. They had finished the restoration and the fences were now gone.


Revisit Corsicana, NAVARRO County

Athens was another 45 minutes drive east of Corsicana, and I arrived there after dark. I was starving at this point but not much was open at 9PM. Found a small BBQ place. I had booked the Holiday Inn Express on points to spend the night.

The next morning I was up early for the long drive today. It may have been too early since the lighting wasn't yet very good on the courthouse and it was surrounded by trees. The classical revival Henderson County courthouse was built in 1914 in an X-shape with wings coming off the main building. The Athens Brewery was off to one side of the courthouse square. It was Sunday morning so pretty quiet.



#162 Athens, HENDERSON County

Tyler was a 45-minute drive east of Athens. I'd been to Tyler airport on a mileage run years ago but never into town itself, a decent sized city of 100k. The courthouse dates from 1954 and was a 6-story building. It was early morning and the backside of the building had the best lighting. The main square looked fairly prosperous. There was a burned out shell of a building nearby that had been turned into a park. The Texas BBQ passport had a place listed in Tyler but they are closed on Sundays.


#163 Tyler, SMITH County

Henderson was about 40 minutes from Tyler. The roads were empty so I got to open up the Subaru a bit.. It gets a bit confusing with county seat/county names since I'd just been in Athens, Henderson County, now this was Henderson, Rusk County. To make things more confusing, there's a Rusk, Cherokee County not far away. The tan brick courthouse was built in 1928. I had very likely driven through Henderson on US79 over 20 years ago but didn't remember it.


#164 Henderson, RUSK County

Carthage was the next stop, a quick 30 minutes away. The courthouse here was a long 2-story modern building from 1953. The old Esquire theater was nearby.



#165 Carthage, PANOLA County

Carthage was the easternmost point of the trip. I headed up north on US59, crossing I20 just before reaching Marshall, Harrison County. The historical courthouse here is one of the prettiest in Texas, designed by prolific architect James Reily Gordon. The 1900 building now houses a museum with the newer 1964 courthouse just across the street.



#166 Marshall, HARRISON County

Marshall was the halfway point of the trip. I now headed back west towards Longview. There was another BBQ passport place here but they were also closed on Sunday. The courthouse here was Art Deco style from 1932.


#167 Longview, GREGG County

Gilmer, Upshur County was the next stop, about 40 minutes north of Longview. The 1933 courthouse was designed by Elmer Withers. Like many other small Texas towns on a Sunday, the town square was deserted.


#168 Gilmer, UPSHUR County

Quitman was an easy 30 minutes drive. The Classical Reival style Wood County courthouse dates from 1925. It was a pretty dark red brick building that was very similar to the Brown County courthouse. The town square here was a bit more lively as it was on the main road. There was an ice cream shop across the stree twhere I stopped for a coffee chip ice cream. I was still hungry afterwards and decided to stop somewhere for lunch. The Red Dome Smokehouse was very busy with the post-church crowd when I arrived.



$169 Quitman, WOOD County

Emory, Rains County was the next stop, arriving just before 2PM. The courthouse here was an X-shaped building, similar but smaller than the one in Athens.


#170 Emory, RAINS County

From Emory, I turned south, crossing I20 again just north of Canton. The Van Zandt courthouse here was builtin 1937 with PWA funds. Canton is the site of the largest flea market in the world, First Monday Trade Days, which can attract up to 100,000 people.





#171 Canton, VAN ZANDT County

Kaufman was the final new courthouse fir this trip, arriving about 3PM. The courthouse dates from 1956.


#172 Kaufman, KAUFMAN County

Plans to visit a friend in Dallas fell through so I just decided to head back to Austin. I stopped at a Starbucks in Desoto and then in Waxahachie to revisit the Ellis County courthouse, which is one of the most impressive in Texas, also designed by James Reiley Gordon.





Revisit Waxahachie, ELLIS County

It was a few hour drive back from Waxahachie to Austin.

Seat 2A

I haven't been over to the TR forum much of late, but I'm sure glad I returned to find this report prominently posted. Court houses, like railroad stations, occupy their own unique spot in the annals of American architecture. What a wonderful adventure - my kind of trip for sure. Thanks for reporting so nicely on this epic journey - surely one of the most interesting and entertaining trip reports ever posted here.

hauteboy

September 16, 2017
Distance Driven: 625 miles
Counties Visited: Comanche (revisit), Eastland, Stephens, Shackleford, Throckmorton, Baylor, Haskell, Jones, Taylor, Callahan, Coleman (revisit), Brown (revisit) [181/254]

Mrs. and miss hauteboy had a mother-daughter campout this weekend so I finally had a day free for a roadtrip. I planned to head north from Austin up to the quadrant north of I20 and possibly up to Childress, depending how the weather held out. I left Austin before sunrise about 6AM, going north on US183. I reached Comanche about 8AM. My last visit here had been just at sunset and the light was fading.


Revisit Comanche, COMANCHE County

Getting to Eastland took a few turns and jogs through run down farming towns. The Art Deco style courthouse was built in 1928 during the oil boom.




#173 Eastland, EASTLAND County

Breckenridge, Stephens County was about a 30-minute drive north. The massive courthouse was built in 1926. There was an archway nearby, all that remained from the original 1880s courthouse.




#174 Breckenridge, STEPHENS County

Turning west on US180, I drove towards Albany. The courthouse here was a gorgeous Second Empire Style from 1883 that still had its clock tower. The courthouse had been restored in 2001.



#175 Albany, SHACKLEFORD County

Throckmorton was the next stop, about 30 minutes north of Albany. There was absolutely no traffic and I may or may not have gotten the Subaru up over 120mph at one point.... The Throckmorton courthouse was also Second Empire style from 1890 and was so cute and tiny, even with the two additional wings. The courthouse had been restored in 2015.



#176 Throckmorton, THROCKMORTON County


The clouds unfortunately had started moving in and I was torn if I should head back east towards Graham (though I planned to visit there next month), north towards Seymour or west. I picked north but turned out to be not the best as cloud cover got worse and was completely overcast and even started drizzling a little by the time I arrived in Seymour.

The Seymour courthouse was built in 1968 and was totally lacking in charm. It shared the building with a public library.


#177 Seymour, BAYLOR County

It was about 11AM at this point. Checking the weather to the north looked worse so just decided to turn back and head back to Austin. I headed west on US277 which was a great divided road, totally flat across the prarie. I crossed the Brazos river (it seems to be everywhere!) and cut across the corner of Knox county. That was a new county but given the bad weather decided to skip visiting Benjamin and I continued on to Haskell. The weather did start clearing again a bit.

The Haskell County courthouse had been built in 1891 but remodeled considerably in the 1930s. The courthouse was surrounded by pecan trees.




#178 Haskell, HASKELL County

South of Haskell, the weather continued to improve and the sun came out again when I reached Anson. The Beaux Arts courthouse dated from 1910 and was in the middle of the road, with one-way circle around it.




#179 Anson, JONES County

Abilene was the next stop, arriving at 1:30PM. The Taylor County courthouse here was a big blocky modern block dating from 1972. The old 1914 courthouse was across the street but looking a bit rundown. It was 1:30PM so was definitely getting hungry. I headed to Stillwater BBQ, one of the ones on the Texas BBQ passport and finally one that was open when I was in town. I got my usual quarter lb of brisket with sausage.



#180 Abilene, TAYLOR County

From Abilene it was east on I20 for about 30 minutes to Baird, the final new courthouse this trip. The sun had come back out again. Baird was a fairly small town but had a gorgeous Texas Renaissance courthouse from 1929.





#181 Baird, CALLAHAN County

I headed south on US283 and US84 to Coleman and Brownwood, reivisiting both of their courthouses. From Brownwood it was about 2.5 hr back to Austin.


Revisit Coleman, COLEMAN County



Revisit Brownwood, BROWN County

hauteboy

Thanks! I'd gotten way behind on this (and my other reports) but the writers block is finally unblocked..

hauteboy

October 14-15, 2017
Distance Driven: 700 miles
Hotel: Best Western; Graham, TX
Counties Visited: Cooke, Montague, Clay, Wichita, Archer, Young, Jack, Palo Pinto, Erath (revisit) [189/254]

Another TCC meeting in Dallas this weekend was an opportunity to visit a new loop of courthouses to the west of Dallas. The loops were getting bigger so this would require an overnight somwehere.

Left Austin early in the morning and stopped at Waco along the way. Go figures the sky was clear everywhere but in Waco itself where fog was coming off the Brazos river. The McLennan courthouse was under renovation and the status on top was gone! Continued onto Dallas where I arrived about 9:30AM.

Revisit Waco. McLENNAN County

The meeting was over about 2PM and I headed north and west on I35 towards Gainesville. The skies were a perfect shade of blue. When I got to Gainesville there was some sort of festival going on in the courthouse square. There was a line of classic cars on one side of the street and a food truck selling fried alligator.


#182 Gainesville, COOKE County

Gainesville is just a few miles south of the Oklahoma border, but wasn't heading there today. I turned west along US82. Along the way towards Montague, I passed through the town of Muenster which was decorated in German kitsch and Gothic script. They hold a Germanfest every April.

The road to Montague split off from US82 a few miles later. Montague was a tiny town that looked like it had seen better days.. there were several boarded up and abandoned buildings across from the courthouse. The 1913 Texas Revival courthouse though was quite impressive. The small jail sat at one corner of the courthouse square.



#183 Montague, MONTAGUE County

From Montague the road headed north before meeting up again with US82, taking about 40 minutes to Henrietta. The trees and late afternoon sun though made it difficult to get a good angle on the courthouse, which was originally built in 1884. There were some murals about town and I came across the 1890 jail which now houses a museum, but it was closed.




#184 Henrietta, CLAY County

Wichita Falls was the next stop, a small city of 104k population. The courthouse was originally built in 1916 but had been remodeled in the 1980s. While I was wandering around trying to get a good photo a cop came up and asked what I was up to! The only other time I've been bothered was in Cotulla in south Texas.


#185 Wichita Falls, WICHITA County

I'd hoped to make one or two more courthouses before sunset. The golden afternoon light was great as I headed south towards Archer City. The courthouse here dates from 1892 and is made of sandstone. The town theater was just across the street from the courthouse.




#186 Archer City, ARCHER County

I made it to Graham but just a bit too late as the sun had already set. There was some sort of festival going on this evening in the courthouse square. People smashing a beat up car with sledgehammers, bouncy castles, funnel cakes, zorb rides, you name it. The courthouse dates from 1932 and had some interesting bas-relief pictures on the sides. I hung around awhile before heading to a Best Western hotel. I'd hoped to come back in the morning if the lighting was better








#187 Graham, YOUNG County

hauteboy

Oct 15, 2017
The next morning I headed out around 8AM. Unfortunately the sun kept hiding behind the clouds so I drove around town a bit and out to the lake before finally getting a few more photos and leaving town.

Jackboro was the next stop, about 30 minutes east of Graham. The sun was out now and was able to get some good photos of the 1940 courthouse. The old cornerstone from the 1886 courthouse was at one corner of the square.



#188 Jackboro, JACK County

From Jackboro it was about 45 minutes to Palo Pinto, a tiny town on US180 and my last new courthouse for this roadtrip. The courthouse was impressive sandstone building dating from 1940. The buildings on the other side of the square were abandoned with broken windows. I stopped at the convenience store to grab some drinks and snacks.




#189 Palo Pinto, PALO PINTO County

It took about an hour south of Palo Pinto to reach Stephenville. The sun had been stubbornly hiding behind a cloud most of the way and despite the blue skies the courthouse remained in the cloud's shadow. I decided to go to the Hard8 BBQ again for lunch. There was a bit of a line so it took awhile to go eat. By the time I came back to the courthouse, the sun had finally emerged. I'd now revisited all the courthouses from November 2015 when the weather was just horrible.






Revisit, Stephenville, ERATH County

Heading south on US281 I stopped again in Hamilton to revisit the courthouse there. I'd gotten a decent photo my first visit but had been using my cell phone so quality wasn't the best. And the weather was great so why not? From Hamilton it was still about a 2 hr drive back to Austin.



Revisit, Hamilton, HAMILTON County

hauteboy

December 1-2, 2017
Distance Driven: 550 miles
Hotel: Holiday Inn Express; Zapata, TX
Counties Visited: Zapata, Starr, Hidalgo, Cameron, Willacy [194/254]



I now only had 5 remaining counties to visit in South Texas, all along the Rio Grande between Laredo and Brownsville. Southwest had a good fare sale returning from Harlingen so I planned to drive down one-way from Austin, leaving on Friday evening and flying back Saturday night. I always worry about when buying tickets if the weather changes or isn't ideal.

Left Austin pretty late Friday evening. I drove to Austin airport where I dropped my car and picked up the rental. No traffic on the way through San Antonio. There is 150 miles of nothing once south of San Antonio until you reach Laredo, arriving there about 12:30AM. I should have taken the Laredo bypass as I kept hitting redlight after redlight. From Laredo it was still another hour to Zapata, paralleling the Rio Grande on US83, It was almost 2AM when i finally arrived at the Holiday Inn. The road in front of the hotel was all torn up for construction.

Dec 2, 2017
Woke up this morning but unfortunately the clouds had moved in, with maybe a few rays of light poking through. I managed to get one shot from the rear of the courthouse before the clouds closed. The courthouse was one of the newest in Texas, having only been completed in 2005. I had just bought a Mavic Pro drone and hoped to use it for getting aerial views of the courthouses, but I hadn't had a chance to play with it much. I launched it for a view of the courthouse but couldn't quite figure out all the controls yet.


#190 Zapata, ZAPATA County

Zapata was on Lake Falcon which straddles the US-Mexican border, though the lake is only visible from a few places along the road. I continued south along US83 until I reached Rio Grande City. The sun had come out finally. The 1939 courthouse was flanked by palm trees with red steps in front. There was a Christmas star atop the building and a Christmas tree under a nearby pagoda.

#191 Rio Grande City, STARR County

It took about an hour to drive to Hidalgo. The Rio Grande valley from this point has a sizeable population and US83 has the 'I2' designation, the lowest numbered interstate in the US. The courthouse in Hidalgo was within spitting distance of the Mexican border. The original 1886 tructure had been destroyed by fire, leaving only a single story. Apparently the courthouse had been renovated last year and the second floor and tower had been rebuilt. I only had the list of historic courthouses so didn't know Hidalgo was no longer the county seat, it had been moved to Edinburg in 1908! I still had enough time so decided to go visit Edinburg courthouse as well!



#192 Hidalgo, HIDALGO County

With traffic it took over 30 minutes to drive north to Edinburg. The courthouse here was built in 1954 (apparently they are about to build a new one) and fairly uninteresting block.


#192 a Edinburg, HIDALGO County

I was getting a bit hungry by now as it was 12pm. Another one of the reasons I came on this roadtrip was to visit the three Top 50 BBQ on the Texas BBQ Passport. The Smoking Oak was in nearby Mercedes, TX, another 30 minutes from Edinburg. I must have arrived at a good time as the line wasn't too long. Had my usual brisket. When I mentioned I was doing the BBQ run they threw in a sausage link as well!

The Smoking Oak

Brownsville was the next courthouse stop. There was a big traffic jam coming into town and police were directing people off the interstate. Google maps was showing a different destination for the courthouse than my pre-programmed location. The current courthouse was built in 1978 and was currently under renovation and some of the surrounding streets were closed. The historic 1912 courthouse was a few blocks away and a gorgeous Texas Revival building.



#193 Brownsville, CAMERON County

Vera's Backyard BBQ is in Brownsville and I was rushing to get there before they closed. Even then they were already sold out of most everything but managed to get a bit of chopped brisket. They mentioned someone had just completed their Top 50 passport that morning!

Vera's Backyard BBQ

It was just after 2PM and I had one more courthouse and BBQ to visit before my flight at 7PM. The Rio Grande Grill BBQ was in Harlingen on the way to Raymondville. I was still pretty full so just got some brisket and pork ribs to go for dinner later.


Rio Grande Grill BBQ

The Willacy County courthouse was in Raymondville, about 25 miles north of Harlingen. I arrived about 3:30PM. North of Raymondville is a lot of nothing for over 70 miles. Though with the time to drive back to Harlingen airport, then flying via Houston, I probably could have just driven back to Austin (and getting in another 1 or 2 BBQ along the way...)


#194 Raymondville, WILLACY County

I drove back to the Harlingen airport. I was still a bit early and went to check out the small military museum nearby but they had already closed. However most of the park is open and I walked over to the replica of the Iwo Jima statue.



I dropped the car and went to the (empty) airport. I'd hoped to get a Starbucks or something but all the vendors in the airport were already closed! This was the first time I had flown Southwest in several years. My boarding pass didn't show TSA Precheck, they had my birthday wrong. Not that I needed precheck either as I was the only one in security lane. The flight back to Austin via Houston was fine.

hauteboy

March 30-April 2, 2018
Distance Driven: 1040 miles
Counties Visited: Medina (revisit), Terrell [195/254]
It had been almost 4 months since my last courthouse roadtrip. We did a family trip to France over Spring Break in early March. Just a few days after I returned my travel buddies Dean and Scott were planning a long weekend camping trip out to Big Bend. Scott and I drove down to San Antonio on Thursday night to spend the night at Dean's place to get an early start on Friday.

It was a gorgeous morning this morning as we headed out west on US90 from San Antonio. We stopped in Hondo for a quick revisit of the Medina County courthouse. Too late I realized my camera settings were off again...

Revisit Hondo, MEDINA County

We continued west towards Del Rio then via the bypass and crossed the Amistad Reservoir which is on the US-Mexico border. Just before we reached the US Border Patrol checkpoint there was a thudding noise. We stopped the car and all got out to check. Turns out the rear strut had come unbolted and was dragging against the tire! We drove through the Border Patrol checkpoint and stopped again to see if we could jury rig something until we could find a repair place. There's a lot of nothing west of Del Rio and the closest town didn't look promising. We went back and looked along the road to see if we could find the lost bolt. No luck finding it but eventually we were able to jury rig the strut back into place and used a shoelace to tie the strut back on the support!

Crossing Lake Amistad...

There was a Toyota dealer in Del Rio so we decided to drive back there, taking nearly an hour to drive the 25 miles back into town. The Toyota dealer must have just moved as it was a new building and all the service department was full of boxes. But miracle of miracles they happened to have one bolt for the strut and found it in one of the boxes. The next challenge was to get a new tire as the strut had gouged the sidewall quite deeply. Going out to Big Bend you want to have a working spare. We eventually find a place that has the right sized tire, but they didn't have anyone to install it as it was now late Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend. But finally we find a place that install the tire quickly. We were starving by this point so went to the Hot Pit BBQ near the tire place.

Crisis finally remedied, we set off again, though now almost 4 hrs behind schedule. We passed through the town of Comstock and realized it was a good thing we had gone back to Del Rio since it was practically a ghost town... there's a lot of nothing out here. We had originally planned to eat lunch in Sanderson but didn't get there until nearly 4PM. We had gone through Sanderson in 2014 on another trip to Big Bend, but that was before I had started the courthouse project. I could have sworn I remembered seeing the courthouse though, but when we arrived it wasn't anything like how I remembered. Getting old I guess.. The courthouse dates from 1906 but has been considerably remodeled since then.

#195 Sanderson, TYRELL County

We'd hoped to make Big Bend park this evening, but the visitor center closes at 5PM so we were way too late. We stopped in Marathon and were able to get a campsite at the Marathon Motel. For dinner we went down to the Gage Hotel's White Buffalo Bar.



Marathon, TX

hauteboy

March 31, 2018
Even from Marathon the entrance to Big Bend is almost a 45-minute drive, then another 45 minutes to the visitor center at Panther Junction. We asked about backcountry camping but there were only a few sites showing available, and none of them really where we wanted to be. We booked the first available site anyway just to have something. We checked out the site but it wasn't that great a spot, and we figured we could take our chances at Rio Grande Village. The road there was paved all the way but we turned off along Glen Springs road and took the 4WD route down to the river. We eventually came back out on the main road and drove to Rio Grande village. They had just posted the empty campsites and were able to grab one.




Big Bend National Park

Today we planned to cross over to Mexico at Boquillas del Carmen. This had been closed for several years after 9-11 but has been open again for a few years as an official crossing point.. you need your passport. It was a holiday weekend so fairly busy, the guard said 300 people a day cross here. From the US side we walked down to the Rio Grande where there were boats that take you across the river. Though the flow was low enough that some people were walking across! Once on the Mexican side you have the choice of a horse, donkey, 4WD or walking the 1mi into town itself. We chose the horse ride for $8. The horses seem to know the route as I didn't need to guide mine at all, though Scott's was a bit of a slowpoke and he was way behind us.




Crossing into Mexico

Once we arrived into town the horse stopped by itself, so figured that was where to leave them. There is an immigration trailer nearby where we got our passports stamped into (and out of.. ) Mexico. Since we were just at the border we didn't have to pay any arrival tax. This part of Mexico is incredibly remote... the nearest town for supplies is nearly a 4.5 hour drive. In town there are a few cantinas serving beer and tacos. Locals were selling 'No Muro! No Wall!' t-shirts.









We had lunch before crossing back over to Texas. This time we hitched a ride in the 4WDs back to the border. On the US side there is a kiosk to scan your passport and then you speak on the phone with the immigration officer... there is a guard here but the immigration official is supposedly in El Paso!

Once back at the campground we did a hike down on the nature trail to the Rio Grande. It's quite narrow at this point and the GPS said I actually was in Mexico.



April 1, 2018
This morning we planned to take the Old Ore 4WD route out of the park. The first part of the road was fairly smooth up to Ernst Tinaja trailhead. We hiked a bit up the canyon of deformed sandstone. The tinaja is a pool carved out of the bedrock from water erosion and has steep enough sides that animals have fallen in and were unable to get out again. The marble rock was quite slippery! We continued up the canyon a bit but it soon became a scramble and we turned back when getting to an impassable boulder.









We continued up the ore road which kept deteriorating, it took us over 2 hrs to drive the 20-odd miles back to the main paved road. We continued up north back through Marathon and up to Fort Stockton before catching I10 back to San Antonio.

Annalisa12

I love looking at these pics. So many are beautiful.

I used to live near Mentone... but Mentone, Victoria, Australia.

hauteboy

April 15, 2018
Distance driven: 215 miles
Counties revisited: Bexar, Kendall

I had been working on the Texas BBQ passport again and had finally made it to Franklin BBQ in Austin yesterday. Usually when I've gone before they have run out.. as it was I got the next to last order of brisket. Today I wanted to drive down to San Antonio and visit a few of the BBQ there. I left Austin about 11AM.

Franklin BBQ

2M BBQ was off on the east side of San Antonio but I was surprised to find the place already closed when I arrived! They had already sold out two hours before official close time. The other BBQ in town was closed on Sundays. So that made for a kinda wasted journey! There was another BBQ in Hondo or one down in Matthis but wasn't sure I'd make the Hondo one in time before they closed.

It was a gorgeous clear day though so I just decided to revisit the San Antonio and Boerne courthouses as the weather/lighting wasn't the best on my first visit.


San Antonio, BEXAR County

After visiting the Bexar courthouse, I headed up I10 towards Boerne. I stopped at a nearby ice cream shop that I remembered from my first vist.

Boerne, KENDALL County

From Boerne GPS maps says it's actually faster to go back to Austin via San Antonio. I continued east on route 46 towards New Braunfels. Along the way I passed through Spring Branch and remembered a Richter's Antler Cafe here that supposedly has the 2nd best chicken-fried steak in Texas! I got there just in time too before the dinner rush.

Texas' 2nd best Chicken-Fried Steak

hauteboy

May 18, 2018
Distance driven: 110 miles
Counties revisited: Milam
A gorgeous morning today and decided to do a run out to Cameron for a revisit of the courthouse. I drove up to Georgetown and headed east via Circleville. We'd had a lot of rain recently so everything was very green. It took about an hour to drive out to Cameron.

Cameron, MILAM County


Old Jail

On the way back from Cameron I stopped by Louie Mueller BBQ in Taylor. I was just in time for opening so the line was quick.


Louie Mueller BBQ

DanielW

Just saw this quote in a news article:

hauteboy

Yep, he beat me to all of them He had a big concert with Willie Nelson in Austin last week.