We left beautiful Falcon on our way west. We were going to stay at The One Stop in Caterina, Texas. Bob said it was behind a gas station/convenience store, so I had pretty low expectations. But, as it was, it would have had to go quite a ways to come up to low.
What is was a kind of itinerant work camp for guys working on the Bison Pipeline project. (Clue: I was the only woman there). The convenience store had a restaurant, which we had seen reviewed as, “got a good meal there”. In actuality, the Tumbleweed Café was four rickety tables set up in the chip aisle. If the kitchen was twice as clean as the store, uh, no thanks.
On to hooking up. The RV park was a recently bulldozed dirt area, lightly graveled with hook ups kind of strewn about. Parking was -- well, there were no lines in the dirt, shall we say. We had to move around to find a spot that was not blocked by a pick up. Picture below, our neighbor. We were hoping it was a kind of Texas security device.
Leaving Caterina. This was possibly the bleakest place I have ever seen -- even with full sun. Saturday night when we were there, I honestly think the population of Caterina was 2 -- Bob and I. Everyone else had gone to Laredo. Even the One Stop gas station was closed by 8:00. Not recommended.
Moving on, after a light drive of 160 miles (perfect in our estimation), we arrived at Seminole Canyon State Park. Wonderful. Beautiful, historic, pristine and totally doable in a day, but we spent two because it was such a magical place to be. It is a little jewel not to be missed.
The camping area was located atop a butte providing for panoramic views of the countryside and of course, a beautiful sunset.
Seminole Canyon was occupied by human beings for 12,000 years. The walls of the canyon are marked by prehistoric people all the way up to the time the Southern Pacific Railroad was being built there in 1882.
Access to the canyon is permitted only in the company of a guide. They guard the artworks there with great care. It is about a 2 mile hike -- completely worthwhile. Our guide was excellent, providing botanical, geological and historical information. I wished I could have taken notes. There are both pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (etchings). They are beautiful, but sad as the pictographs are fading almost before our eyes. The humidity from the recently created reservoir at Del Rio (recently in geological time scale) is causing these prehistoric artworks to chip and fade. There is no known way to protect them at this time. They have perhaps another 10 years and they will be gone.
Movin’ on, we got to Marathon. Marathon is kind of a boutique town. Able to be walked in five minutes in stiletto heels, home of the very chic and high-priced Gage Hotel, the French Grocer ($6 mayonnaise), the Famous Burro, a converted gas station, but a neat place, run by interesting Slovakian woman. They were not immediately sure about whether food would be available due to “staffing issues“ ( I think that means the cook may not show up). Fortunately he did. Delish.
The town was visited apparently hourly by 140-car high-speed trains -- several crossings in Marathon necessitating much dinging and whistle blowing mere steps from our RV park -- or anywhere else in Marathon for that matter.
Movin 'on . . .
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