American Gam

“In the covered wagon days, if a baby was born in Texarkana while the family was crossing into the Lone Star State, by the time they reached El Paso, the baby would be in the third grade.” ~ Wallace O. Chariton

We monitored the weather closely while in Morgan City. An arctic front was closing in fast and we didn’t want to be stuck down here where the locals have never seen more than an inch of snow. As it turns out, they were going to get many inches of snow, more snow than they have ever seen on the Gulf Coast.

So…with The Weather Channel as our guide we skedaddled our way west. We drove a hard five hours, mostly on Route 10, to find refuge at the KOA on Galveston Island in Texas. We hunkered down and awoke the next morning to barely an inch of snow. Meanwhile, back in Morgan City they got an astonishing (to them) ten inches of snow! They had to get snow plows from Indiana to come down and plow the unprecedented amount of snowfall!

After our stay on the island we moved west and stayed one overnight at a campground in Uvalde. As I’m sure you’ll remember, Uvalde was the scene of the horrific Robb Elementary School shooting where, in May of 2022, the local police waited seventy-four minutes before going in to stop an active shooter, which resulted in the death of nineteen children and two adults. Just shameful.

Heading west from there we reached the Rio Grande River in the bustling town of Del Rio, Texas. Del Rio is one of the largest U.S./Mexico border crossings. I know this because I’ve been here before. My mother and I took a Great American Road Trip to here. Why Del Rio you ask? Because back in the early 60’s my parents lived here. My father was stationed at the nearby Laughlin Air Force Base. My sister Norma was born in Del Rio. So…my mother wanted to drive down here to see her old stomping grounds. We had an enjoyable trip.

From there it was up to Fort Stockton to this cute, quaint, quirky little campground with some creative metal sculptures scattered throughout. Get a load of these…

On day four, just like the story in the song by Steve Miller, “Take The Money And Run”, about “Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue, two young lovers with nothin’ better to do, than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube,” we “decided to cut loose” and we “headed down to old El Paso.” That’s where we made it out of Texas after four days of travel. Yes, that’s how big Texas is! It took us four days!

I hope you “Drive Friendly -The Texas Way” and “Don’t squat on your spurs.”

The gam continues…