For my birthday, Ray purchased two tickets to a photography workshop in Terlingua, Tx, known as one of the darkest sky areas of the United States, and in the top 10 on the world. We love to do astrophotography and this is something we’ve looked forward to for months. We ordered the truck in November, and (somewhat) patiently awaited its arrival.
Originally, they told us that it would be built in Kentucky, which was cool because Ray’s family hails from KY, and be delivered Feb 14-22. We found a camper after shopping for months, and even making a trip to Waco, Tx to tour several. We put money down on the camper and waited…. The camper store asked to show our camper during a boat and RV show in Austin before we picked it up, and since we didn’t have the truck yet, we acquiesced. However, as the date for pickup neared we still did not have our truck. We made a later appointment for installation, but alas, still no truck.
Then the snow/ice storm hit. Tracking says the truck is in the rail yard in OKC, a mere hour from us. However, school was cancelled and our state fairly shut down so the transport from OKC to Stillwater did not happen. FINALLY, on Wednesday before we were to depart for Terlingua on Friday, we drove past the dealership and there was our truck. We were able to pick it up Thursday. Meanwhile, Ray was on the search for a camper to rent closer to Terlingua so that we could maximize gas mileage. However, due to the last minute nature of the booking, Lubbock was the closest we could find, which turned a 10 hour trip into a 14 hour trip. (!)
So after we got the truck home, got packed, took care of the animals and the Porcupine, and got ready to hit the road!
As giant fans of Taylor Sheridan, and all of his writing, when I realized we were on the same road as the 6666 Ranch, we had to snap a few iphone pics of the ranch on ou
r way by. We saw many other huge West Texas ranches, and enjoyed looking up the acreage, the history and lore of each we saw, from the Sixes to the Pitchfork. It amazes me how you can always tell the ranches by the fences they run.
When you hear songs of the wind in West Texas, know that its not an exaggeration! We left Stillwater at around 9 am, and by 4:30 we were in Lubbock, picking up the camper. Once we had a great walk though we found the camper to be in excellent condition and fully outfitted! Thanks, Jay’s RV Rentals! Seriously, this guy thought of EVERYTHING! From paper plates, towels, and toilet paper to a cold stocked fridge with ice and bottled water, coffee, linens – everything! What a relief!
We got hooked up and headed out.
I had not realized the amount of cotton grown in West Texas, but we drove past miles and miles and hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton, cotton bales, old and current cotton gin and storage facilities. The Ag-Comm girl in me really enjoyed seeing a different flavor of agricultural production than I see on a daily basis.
By the time we reached Midland, TX, the winds were really really kicking up. Nothing like a 50mph headwind while towing and $4+ gas prices to slow the old MPG down! What I can’t figure out, is that if a large percentage of our gas supply comes from the Permian basin, why is gas so expensive there??? By 8 pm we were hungry, needed a pitstop and gas. So we pulled into a 24 hr station, only to find that the door was locked. I was immediately put on guard, wondering if there was a crime happening or just what was going on, but there was a school bus in the parking lot and gas pumps full of cars! As I was walking up, a lady told me to use the rear door quickly because the station was closing! I walked along the back of the station and the harried cashier informed me that she was indeed closing… to clean the bathrooms. She was the only one working and could not safely clean in the bathrooms with the store open. She let me use the restroom and we dined on Valeros finest snacks and energy drinks for the remainder of the trip. Ray finished pumping gas and got ready to go in, and I told him that she had locked the door behind me, and that he would not be able to use the facilities there. He gave me a grin, reached in for the camper key and said, “no problem! I’ve got a bathroom on wheels!”
We drove the rest of the way into Terlingua, arriving at the Big Bend Resort and Adventures at midnight. While I was advocated just leaving everything hooked to the truck for the night and setting up the next morning in the daylight, that was not going to work for Mr. Little. So we went to work and got leveled and hooked up, and thankfully only took about 20 minutes. We happily crawled into bed around 12:45 and though the bed wasn’t as comfy as our bed at home, we slept peacefully until about 7 am.