The Advantage of Short Legs

We’ve traveled over 8000 miles in our rig, but here’s a little secret: we’ve done all it in chunks of short mileage. We rarely drive more than one tank of gas and generally limit our travel time to under 4 hours.  We could go farther, and many people do, but that’s just not enjoyable to us.  Pulling the rig can be stressful. Sometimes Dan is fighting winds, or crazy curves, turns, descents, and irrational drivers in DFW.   Above all, we’re retired; we usually don’t have to be anywhere fast, so why push it?

Fuel and other stops

Finding a gas station that we can easily pull into can be a challenge.  Thank goodness for Google Earth which allows for an aerial recon of gas stations and potential bathroom stops.  But even with the Googles on our side, we sometime pull into spots that are just not conducive to our size and turn radius. Usually these are the impromptu “Mom, I have to go NOW” stops, which adds to the sense of urgency. We do hit the big truck stops when we can, but even those can be challenging as their entrance, exits are not always marked.

RV Route Recons

When I was going through my training as a military police office one of the task we had to conduct was route reconnaissance. During route recon you identify areas along the route that might be needed for future operations. Every open clearing I would identify as a potential drop zone. Years later, after becoming a jumpmaster and understanding how much room you actually needed to drop static line jumpers (it’s a lot!) I would look back and laugh at my postage stamp sized recommendations. Driving a large RV is a comparable; those ‘large’ parking lots no longer seem so big.

As we plan our routes, we make sure to consult several RV apps to make sure our route is RV friendly. I used to be a fan of Waze, which helps you find the fastest route, often adjusting as you drive to avoid traffic. Waze in Hawaii took us down some interesting roads, showing us places we wouldn’t have normally passed. An impromptu route change is not ideal in an RV, especially not our big beast. Height restrictions and tight corners are things we must avoid.

Route Modification

Last month, after spending the holidays with family in Arkansas and DFW we hit the road again with our sites set for Big Bend National Park in Southwest Texas. The challenge with Big Bend is that it is incredibly remote. From DFW, we were looking at 10-hour drive. Even splitting that in half was not something we were looking forward to. A friend suggested we check out Amistad National Recreation Area, near Del Rio, Texas along our way and a much more palatable 6 and half hours.

Short legs (no, not mine)

Taking short legs across the map is not only easier on family but exposes us to some cool little places we would have breezed through. We get to see the character of America off the beaten track, the land outside the radius of Targets and Starbucks.  Being glass is half full people we try to find something fun and interesting in each location. The exception being the campground we pulled into in the middle of the Nebraska that would have been a perfect setting for a scene from the Walking Dead.

“Ewe’ll” like this stop

Along the way to Amistad, we landed in the town of San Angelo. This is town we wouldn’t have normally visited, but enjoyed their river walk and historic downtown.  San Angelo used to be the Mohair capital of the US, producing more wool than the rest of the US.  As result of their wooly legacy, the town adopted the sheep as their city mascot.  Over one hundred artfully decorated sheep adorn throughout the town.  The girls enjoyed spotting the sheep.  “Ewe” can enjoy a virtual tour of their Sheeptacular Art Project here: https://www.downtownsanangelo.com/sheep-gallery

From Mai Tais to Margaritas

A cute town, but the absolute best part of this stop was being able to catch up with my sailing sister whose Air Force husband’s career brought her back to San Angelo after Hawaii.  For those of you without military connections, military friends can go years without seeing each other and pick up like we just had coffee yesterday. Over Mexican food, margaritas and walk around downtown it felt like we were back in Hawaii, salty after a good sail. It was truly good for my soul to spend some time with M, whose spirit is a beautiful as her sparkly blue eyes!  I love these stops where we can catch up with our military friends.

San Angelo was a short stop and we didn’t do a whole lot of exploring. We took some time to get back into the swing of school on the road.  We did explore San Angelo’s river walk and stopped by their tourist center. The tourist center is a beautiful building with a ton of information about South and West Texas. I’d highly recommend stopping by if you’re passing through the area.  

Other Tidbits:

Places we ate and would go back to: The Angry Cactus, Cork and Pig

Where we stayed:  AFB.  A no frills parking lot near Lake Nasworthy with electric and water, but a great price at $15.

What we’d do if we went back:  Peaceful Valley Donkey Farm  https://donkeyrescue.org/   

              We found out about Peaceful Valley Donkey Farm too late in our stop to schedule a tour.  The Farm is a national recognized donkey rescue having saved over sixteen thousand donkeys.  As a working farm, you must schedule your tour ahead of time.  The Farm has excellent reviews and I knew my animal loving littles would enjoy a tour.