Avalon Landing RV Park
Travel Blog 352: Westward, Ho!
St. Marks NWR
Like everyone reading this blog, the pandemic had an impact on us, though so much less traumatic than for so many. For the last 18 months, Jan and I were RV volunteers at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, a half-hour south of Tallahassee. A beautiful refuge where we could take out any COVID angst by viewing and participating in nature, helping visitors, and contributing to the refuge mission. A wonderful side effect was that we made several friends during those challenging times.
Out of the Groove
After that long a period of time, traveling behaviors that had previously been second nature to us had to be remembered, reviewed, and sometimes relearned. Both our pups, Jackson and Toby, picked up on our change of behavior as we started to prepare for our journey west in the last few days leading up to our departure. However, once we pulled out from our spot and hooked up our Jeep behind the motorhome, Jackson remembered the schtick and quickly adapted to travel behavior.
However, Toby had only known our motorcoach as his stationary home since we adopted him last August. He appeared surprised, perplexed, and almost terrified as his home started to move. Poor little fella!
Over the years of full-time RVing, Jan and I have defined and clarified our roles and responsibilities. Jan is a better driver, so she takes on the bulk of the time behind the wheel, and I am the better planner/navigator, so that is my job. Also, since I do consulting and training, I work on my laptop when we travel when not facing challenging logistics or when we listen to audible books. Yet, because of our anxious little pup, almost all of the time we were moving down the highway Toby was clinging to my lap, giving me the occasional look of worry, and now and then a whimper of fear. Jackson helped out giving him the “it’s OK” signal and sitting close when the traffic got noisy or the bridges became steep. Day by day, Toby has improved, but he still has a way to go to achieve tranquility. He sometimes joins Jackson on the dash.
The Trip So Far
This Google map gives a high-level overview of the first leg of our trip.
To start our journey west, we traveled just a tad under 200 miles to our first destination, Avalon Landing RV Park, just 5 miles from Pensacola. It is a small, nice-and-tidy RV park with lots of woods and water. Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, Louisiana, was our next overnight. Just a gorgeous setting with a central lake, a pair of ducks, and an elegant swan reigning over the park. Our stay was just one night, but we both agreed it was worthy of a few days of relaxation in the future.
As we advanced west into Louisiana toward Texas on Day Three, the effects of the flooding we heard from the news became very apparent. Lots of places were drowned out, including the Texas Welcome Center we had planned to visit for a pitstop. The entrance to our stay in Beaumont, Texas was closed due to flooding, so we took the back routes to our destination. The Gulf Coast RV Park was also clean and tidy, but not nearly as busy as I had anticipated. The area flooding must have had an impact. Our next stop was Texas Lakeside RV Park, where we stayed two nights. I specifically planned our trip to allow ample time to explore the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The ground of the refuge was saturated with all the rain, and everything and everyone appeared to hunker down except for the frenzied squadrons of mosquitos that attacked everything that moved.
Our next overnighter was at Quail Springs RV Park in Uvalde, Texas. We had never seen Texas so green. For the first part of our journey the winds were behind us, the skies were calm, and the temperature was pleasant.
Houston is one of those places that it seems to take a day-and-a-half just to drive through the metro area. Surprisingly light traffic this time, with only a few moments of heavy slow down.
Marathon Motel and RV Park followed as our next stop. Our good friends, John and Cathy, with a “C,” gave us a heads ups about this place—just a gorgeous setting with beautiful flowers and wonderful landscaping. Designated dark area, but a high-school graduation party aced out our watching the cosmos. We would definitely come back.
Our plan was to get up in the dark-dark and drive down into Big Bend from Marathon to watch the sunrise. We never quite made it officially to Big Bend on this trip, though. After an hour of driving, we turned off to the east and entered the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.
Here we saw several jack rabbits, lots of scaled quail, and a posing red-tailed hawk. In Florida our nickname for Jackson was Gator Jack, as he particularly enjoyed seeing those reptiles. His allegiance changed in Texas, though, as now his favorite critter is the jack rabbit. Hence, his new moniker is Jack Rabbit Jack.
Returning to our Marathon location, we broke camp midday, headed west on 90, and then turned south for 80 miles on Highway 118, a level-surfaced but curvy road with medium to high winds and spotty rain keeping us company.
Big Bend National Park (https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm)
Our Big Bend base for our three-day visit was Paisanos RV in Terlingua. Good basic offerings with no hassle. No phone service for us, as we are on Visible, that uses the Verizon network, but our park had good Wi-Fi.
Here is a cool old truck parked by our RV park.
The 800,000-acre Big Bend National Park is one of our favorite destinations, and this was our third visit. We had the chance to visit alone our first time, and with our good friends, Kathie and Gary, a few years back.
We viewed more jack rabbits, vermilion flycatchers, scaled quail, roadrunners, red-tailed hawks, tarantulas, wild horses, and wild burros.
We also felt very fortunate to observe a very uncommon, common black hawk.
Old Maverick Drive is a rough, dirt/gravel/cactus-root road for high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles only. However, I am not sure that this path requires vehicles with those attributes. I think the main essential is the temperament and the rear-end to tolerate two-plus hours bouncing up and down at a maximum of eight miles an hour.
I can only imagine the number of parents who heard “are we there yet?” from the bored and boring kids in the backseat.
Yet, the views were all nice, and many were wonderful. Lots of blooming cactus to enjoy.
Taking the Pups for an early morning walk near our parked RV, I turned and saw the beauty of the morning sky in time to snap an iPhone image.
Big Bend is like a fond cousin. You always enjoy her company, appreciate her silent presence, and share her love of beauty.
Our renaissance of renewal is off to a great start! Join us as we explore the beauty of America.
Like everyone reading this blog, the pandemic had an impact on us, though so much less traumatic than for so many. For the last 18 months, Jan and I were RV volunteers at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, a half-hour south of Tallahassee. A beautiful refuge where we could take out any COVID angst by viewing and participating in nature, helping visitors, and contributing to the refuge mission. A wonderful side effect was that we made several friends during those challenging times.
Out of the Groove
After that long a period of time, traveling behaviors that had previously been second nature to us had to be remembered, reviewed, and sometimes relearned. Both our pups, Jackson and Toby, picked up on our change of behavior as we started to prepare for our journey west in the last few days leading up to our departure. However, once we pulled out from our spot and hooked up our Jeep behind the motorhome, Jackson remembered the schtick and quickly adapted to travel behavior.
However, Toby had only known our motorcoach as his stationary home since we adopted him last August. He appeared surprised, perplexed, and almost terrified as his home started to move. Poor little fella!
Over the years of full-time RVing, Jan and I have defined and clarified our roles and responsibilities. Jan is a better driver, so she takes on the bulk of the time behind the wheel, and I am the better planner/navigator, so that is my job. Also, since I do consulting and training, I work on my laptop when we travel when not facing challenging logistics or when we listen to audible books. Yet, because of our anxious little pup, almost all of the time we were moving down the highway Toby was clinging to my lap, giving me the occasional look of worry, and now and then a whimper of fear. Jackson helped out giving him the “it’s OK” signal and sitting close when the traffic got noisy or the bridges became steep. Day by day, Toby has improved, but he still has a way to go to achieve tranquility. He sometimes joins Jackson on the dash.
The Trip So Far
This Google map gives a high-level overview of the first leg of our trip.
To start our journey west, we traveled just a tad under 200 miles to our first destination, Avalon Landing RV Park, just 5 miles from Pensacola. It is a small, nice-and-tidy RV park with lots of woods and water. Lakeside RV Park in Livingston, Louisiana, was our next overnight. Just a gorgeous setting with a central lake, a pair of ducks, and an elegant swan reigning over the park. Our stay was just one night, but we both agreed it was worthy of a few days of relaxation in the future.
As we advanced west into Louisiana toward Texas on Day Three, the effects of the flooding we heard from the news became very apparent. Lots of places were drowned out, including the Texas Welcome Center we had planned to visit for a pitstop. The entrance to our stay in Beaumont, Texas was closed due to flooding, so we took the back routes to our destination. The Gulf Coast RV Park was also clean and tidy, but not nearly as busy as I had anticipated. The area flooding must have had an impact. Our next stop was Texas Lakeside RV Park, where we stayed two nights. I specifically planned our trip to allow ample time to explore the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The ground of the refuge was saturated with all the rain, and everything and everyone appeared to hunker down except for the frenzied squadrons of mosquitos that attacked everything that moved.
Our next overnighter was at Quail Springs RV Park in Uvalde, Texas. We had never seen Texas so green. For the first part of our journey the winds were behind us, the skies were calm, and the temperature was pleasant.
Houston is one of those places that it seems to take a day-and-a-half just to drive through the metro area. Surprisingly light traffic this time, with only a few moments of heavy slow down.
Marathon Motel and RV Park followed as our next stop. Our good friends, John and Cathy, with a “C,” gave us a heads ups about this place—just a gorgeous setting with beautiful flowers and wonderful landscaping. Designated dark area, but a high-school graduation party aced out our watching the cosmos. We would definitely come back.
Our plan was to get up in the dark-dark and drive down into Big Bend from Marathon to watch the sunrise. We never quite made it officially to Big Bend on this trip, though. After an hour of driving, we turned off to the east and entered the Black Gap Wildlife Management Area.
Here we saw several jack rabbits, lots of scaled quail, and a posing red-tailed hawk. In Florida our nickname for Jackson was Gator Jack, as he particularly enjoyed seeing those reptiles. His allegiance changed in Texas, though, as now his favorite critter is the jack rabbit. Hence, his new moniker is Jack Rabbit Jack.
Returning to our Marathon location, we broke camp midday, headed west on 90, and then turned south for 80 miles on Highway 118, a level-surfaced but curvy road with medium to high winds and spotty rain keeping us company.
Big Bend National Park (https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm)
Our Big Bend base for our three-day visit was Paisanos RV in Terlingua. Good basic offerings with no hassle. No phone service for us, as we are on Visible, that uses the Verizon network, but our park had good Wi-Fi.
Here is a cool old truck parked by our RV park.
The 800,000-acre Big Bend National Park is one of our favorite destinations, and this was our third visit. We had the chance to visit alone our first time, and with our good friends, Kathie and Gary, a few years back.
We viewed more jack rabbits, vermilion flycatchers, scaled quail, roadrunners, red-tailed hawks, tarantulas, wild horses, and wild burros.
We also felt very fortunate to observe a very uncommon, common black hawk.
Old Maverick Drive is a rough, dirt/gravel/cactus-root road for high-clearance four-wheel-drive vehicles only. However, I am not sure that this path requires vehicles with those attributes. I think the main essential is the temperament and the rear-end to tolerate two-plus hours bouncing up and down at a maximum of eight miles an hour.
I can only imagine the number of parents who heard “are we there yet?” from the bored and boring kids in the backseat.
Yet, the views were all nice, and many were wonderful. Lots of blooming cactus to enjoy.
Taking the Pups for an early morning walk near our parked RV, I turned and saw the beauty of the morning sky in time to snap an iPhone image.
Big Bend is like a fond cousin. You always enjoy her company, appreciate her silent presence, and share her love of beauty.
Our renaissance of renewal is off to a great start! Join us as we explore the beauty of America.