Fort Stockton - 2/20/11

Fort Stocton Pics

The Texas sun woke us bright and early on Sunday, and we set out to explore Fort Stockton. There is a two mile “driving tour” that takes you around to all the historic places in the city. Since it was Sunday, many establishments were closed, so we parked at a taco shop and walked toward the city center. First up - the roadrunner! The city seemed fairly dead, but while we were fooling around a second car of tourists drove up, and we took turns taking each other’s pictures. They were coming from California and heading East as well - a popular Southern route at this time of year.

Next we found the visitor’s center (also closed Sunday). Here we found many iron silhouettes to pose with. Another tourist gave us a look as he walked by, but we had a ball hugging cowboys, hanging off horses, peaking out from stage-coaches, howling like wolves, and smiling at the prairie children. A little farther on was the first railroad in town, from the late 1800’s, and there were an engine and caboose still on the tracks, so we took pictures on it, too. Then we climbed on an oil rig. Having satisfied our climbing cravings, we moved on to the tour (which we walked of course).

Oldest house

The tour consisted of 16 historic buildings, and took us through historic downtown. We passed shop after shop of either closed or abandoned storefronts. Literally the only things open on Sunday were the churches (we passed 3) and one diner. Fort Stockton is badly in need of a touchup, but the city is still interesting in spite of being a little tired. The 16 buildings were all from the late 1800’s. Some were falling apart, some had been refinished and were in use again, all had interesting stories.

At one point we noticed some people in a park bending down and picking things up and putting them into plastic bags.  We thought at first they were collecting trash, but as we got closer we realized they were picking up nuts that had fallen out of the trees.  We collected some ourselves, and stepped on them to crack them open.  They turned out to be pecans!  We enjoyed ourselves sampling the pecans - it was a good lunch!  :)

After Fort Stockton we hopped back in the car. We checked the email from our host, and realized she hadn’t given us her phone number or address, so we quickly wrote her an email and then got on the road. It was noon, and we had only about a 5 hour drive left. When we arrived in San Antonio, we spent some time trying to figure out whether we could park at the government buildings without being ticketed or towed. The signs said “Towing enforced at all times” and “Official passes only - all others will be towed” and “No parking anytime except Sunday”. This seemed a little contradictory, but it was Sunday after all. Tricia was still nervous, so she called the towing company. The towing company didn’t know - they just came when the government workers called to say someone was parked illegally - so they gave Tricia the number for the government agency. They didn’t know either, so they gave her a third number. At this point I talked Tricia into leaving the car and trusting in the part of the sign we liked.

We wondered down to the Riverwalk in the bright Texas sun, and wondered up and down by the river. There are barges and beautiful trees and restaurants, and we found a Spanish place on the water to eat. We ordered one meal, but it came with chips, salsa, queso, guacamole salad, an enchilada, a taco, a tamale, rice, and beans. It was quite fun.

When we returned to our car, it had thankfully not been ticketed or towed.  We heard music coming from a block away, and decided to leave our car there and check it out.  Tricia spotted a police man in the next lot over, and went over to ask him whether we were parked illegally.  Like everyone else in San Antonio, he had no idea, but said that after 6 we shouldn't have a problem in most places in the city.  So we once again trusted to fate and left our car.  On the next street was a small crowd of people watching a singer and some dancers.  We spent a few minutes watching with them and then left.

By this time we were getting very nervous that the girl in San Antonio hadn’t emailed us back yet. We emailed another couple who had said they could take us but were 40 minutes away, and hoped that they would check their email before going to bed. We went to Starbucks to use our computers and wait for someone to adopt us. Finally, we got to the point where we were afraid we would be stranded for the night. At about 8:30 we went on the San Antonio “emergency” page and left a message asking if anyone could take us last minute. Twenty minutes later, Mark had found us and given us directions to his house. He had a couch, a sleeping pad, blankets, a puppy, and a shower. It was lovely. The puppy was very very happy to have guests, and jumped around and on top of us and nipped at our fingers and toes. We were very very happy to have access to a shower. After chatting for a while (Mark had actually started the emergency page in San Antonio, modeling it after other cities), we showered and stretched out on the couch and sleeping pad and turned in for the night.