My ‘Expedition’ Through Texas Day – 3

On day #3 (April 25th, 2018), I woke up after a restful sleep in a Walmart parking lot. The foam pad I purchased to lay under my sleeping bag helped make it more comfortable.

Last night, a vehicle pulled in and parked on the other side of the tree I was parked next to. I never saw the occupants leave the vehicle, and suspected that they had stopped to sleep just as I did. When I woke, I saw that they were still there. You can partially see their black vehicle on the other side of mine. Hopefully I didn’t wake them when I left.

I took Marley for a walk, and made sure he had food and water. Then I took a clean change of clothes from my duffel bag, and put them in my small backpack with my shower supplies. I headed south on US 77 to the Loves Travel Center in Kingsville. After getting fuel, I grabbed my backpack, and paid $12.00 for a nice warm shower. For those that have never used a shower in a travel center (truck stop), or read about my initial experience, you can learn more HERE (‘Showering at a Truck Stop’).

This Loves does not give you a key. When you pay for the shower, the register prints out a ticket with the shower number and door code. Just like the other Loves I’ve showered at, this one provides clean towels and a wash cloth that’s neatly folded on the counter waiting for you, as well as one on the floor outside of the shower.

It was nice to get a shower and feel clean again! From there I headed to the local McDonalds for breakfast, and then headed to the King Ranch. Ford has offered a ‘King Ranch’ package on their trucks since 1999, and I wanted to visit the actual King Ranch while I was in Kingsville, Texas. For more information about the Ford King Ranch, check out ‘History of The Ford King Ranch‘. You may also want to check out king-ranch.com.

The King Ranch offers a 1-1/2 hour tour of the ranch, but I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Marley in the truck that long. Even with the windows open. King Ranch also has a museum that’s not on the ranch, but in Kingsville. I stopped there and bought a shirt, but didn’t tour the museum. The King Ranch Saddle Shop is also in Kingsville, and offers items such as saddles, luggage, and apparel. You can check them out at http://www.krsaddleshop.com/.

From Kingsville, I took SR 141 west to US 281, and then followed that north to SR 44. I traveled SR 44 west, and stopped at the Road Ranger truck stop in Encinal for lunch. I also wanted to walk Marley for a while, because I could see that we were heading in to a storm.

There isn’t anything in this part of Texas except huge ranches, and gas & oil companies. In fact, the truck stop was full of gas and oil field workers getting lunch.

I continued west on SR 44 until it ended at US 83, and then headed north on US 83 to Carrizo Springs. I headed west on US 277 out of Carrizo Springs towards Eagle Pass. Eagle Pass is a border crossing city on the Mexico border. You see more Border Patrol vehicles in this part of Texas than any other law enforcement vehicles combined. Between Carrizo Springs and Eagle Pass I passed a Border Patrol Inspection Station. They were only inspecting the east bound traffic. Stopping for an inspection was not an option for those folks.

When I finally got to Eagle Pass, I headed towards the border crossing just to see what I could see. As you would expect, there was a line of traffic waiting to cross the border. I took some side streets to get as close to the border as I could. Shelby Park is on the other side of this fence (below). The fence runs a long way along the Rio Grande river as border protection, but there is (2) huge gates in it to access this park. Needless to say, the only people in the park were the Border Patrol.

Looking through the open gate, you can see across the park, and the Eagle Pass International Bridge. The buildings you see on the other side of the park are in Mexico.

Just because the border patrol is everywhere, doesn’t mean that people aren’t crossing the border from Mexico in to Texas. I saw some vehicles with Mexico license plates being driven in Eagle Pass. People come here from Mexico to shop and do business, but they just cross legally.

Continuing North (west) on US 277, I followed it until it intersected with US 90 in Del Rio, and then headed west on US 90. I came to a US Border Patrol inspection station just outside of Comstock. The photo of this inspection station below is from the internet. I did not take that photo.

The agent asked me where I was going to and coming from, while another agent walked a dog around my vehicle. He then told me I could go, and didn’t make me show any type of identification. They likely scanned my license plate as I pulled up, and already had the information they needed.

As I mentioned earlier, there is a ton of border patrol agents and vehicles in this part of Texas. I’ve seen them in cars, trucks, Ford Raptors, and saw a truck pulling a trailer with ATV’s, as well as another with a boat.

I think it’s crazy that I had to go through an inspection station, and I’m not even crossing the border. But then you have to remember that the only thing that separates Texas from Mexico is the Rio Grande river, and it’s not that difficult to cross. We use border patrol agents as a human wall to keep people from crossing the border. The next time someone cries about President Trump wanting billions to build a wall, just remember that we’re giving the Border Patrol a $16 billion dollar yearly budget to patrol our borders. It would actually be nice to have a wall, and Border Patrol response teams to respond to electronic alerts to anyone that crosses it, and not all of these inspection stations everywhere. I couldn’t imagine being a Hispanic male walking on foot in this part of Texas.

Here’s a bizarre thought that may seem irrelevant, but you can go online and find the exact location of every one of our nuclear missile sites. In some areas they sit right next to highways. You can pull right up to them. They’re unmanned with a fence to keep you out. Cross that fence, or get to close, and an Air Force Security Team will show up. Of course, if you did cross the fence, you couldn’t do anything anyway because the nuke is protected under tons on concrete. The strange thing in all of this, is that we have way more people trying to guard our border, than our nukes. If we secured our border better, we wouldn’t need all of these people. Farmers and ranchers found out long ago that a fence (or wall) keeps everything where it should be. Otherwise, you need a whole bunch of people to keep everything rounded up.

I continued west on US 90 until I came to US 285 in Sanderson, and then headed north to Fort Stockton. I would have liked to have just spent the night in Sanderson, but there isn’t much there. There wasn’t anyplace I would have felt comfortable sleeping in my Ford Expedition.

Some people ask why I have a GPS in my truck, when I also have a tablet mounted in there, and can use that and my phone for navigation. I went through a lot of areas between Eagle Pass and Fort Stockton where I didn’t have a cell phone signal. That means that my phone and tablet couldn’t be used for navigation. The GPS on the windshield get’s its signal from a satellite, so it always works.

The Loves Travel Center in Fort Stockton was pretty busy. I parked in the corner of the parking lot so I wouldn’t have anyone on both sides of me. It was a little earlier to stop than I may have wanted, but I didn’t want to leave, and then come back and not find a parking spot to sleep in. After tending to Marley, I went inside for some dinner, and then came back and set up my sleeping bag for the night. I watched some Netflix on my tablet for a little while, and then went to sleep.

Tomorrow I will explore the areas between Marathon, Marfa, and Fort Davis.