A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 120 miles from Presidio, Texas to Marathon, Texas.
Author: David
Travel from Presidio to Marathon, Texas
We drove our coach 120 miles, about two hours of driving, from Presidio, Texas to Marathon, Texas.
The map route, heading north then east:
An interactive map, with potential stops:
Leaving the campground:
Presidio:
Mountains:
Elephant Rock:
US Border Patrol inspection station; the officer just waved us through without stopping:
Marfa:
A brief stop at a rest area:
Alpine is a cute town:
A couple of low bridges; just a foot of clearance on the first one (we are 12’ 7”):
Exploded train cars?
Our destination:
Big Bend Ranch State Park
We travelled along the Rio Grande river route through Big Bend Ranch State Park. This river marks the border between the US and Mexico.
Here’s an interactive map of our route and stops:
We first needed to go back to Fort Leaton to get a permit to access stops along the route, which was no additional cost thanks to having purchased a Texas State Parks Pass:
Then we headed east into the park, passing the road to the interior of the park:
Lots of interesting hills and views along the route:
Park sign:
A narrow single lane bridge during construction:
Hoodoos:
The Rio Grande river:
More roadworks:
15% grade:
Rio Grande river:
We stopped at a nice roadside picnic area for lunch:
The Rio Grande river was close behind the picnic area — and the other side of the river is Mexico:
Contrabando day use area and movie set:
Closer to the Rio Grande river:
The other side of the park, Barton Warnock Visitor Center:
The four deserts of the US; we’ve now been to all four:
We’re amused by “intrusive igneous deposits”:
Heading back:
15% grade:
Boats in the river:
Water softener
We’re often in some areas with very hard water, which leaves buildups on counters etc. So we recently purchased a portable water softener for our coach:
It came with water hardness test strips:
I connected it to our (already complicated) water system after the filter, to eliminate any impurities before softening the water (of course, I use quick-connect fittings, to make hooking up and disconnecting easier):
One more thing to get out and put away each time; one day I’d like to build both the filters and softener into the coach, but it doesn’t take long, and is worth it for better quality water in our coach.
Fort Leaton State Historic Site
We visited the Fort Leaton State Historic Site, literally a minute down the road from our campsite. It also serves as the western entrance of Big Bend Ranch State Park in Texas (which is distinct from Big Bend National Park, which we’ll visit from our next campsite).
Here’s a map of the fort from a self-guided tour PDF:
Outside:
Courtyard:
A ranger; we purchased a Texas State Parks Pass, since we’ll be in Texas over the winter:
Gift shop:
Exhibits:
A cart, or “carreta”, used to transport goods:
Corral area:
The walls in this area haven’t been restored:
Crumbly doorways:
Blacksmith:
Fireplace:
The “dungeon”:
Walls:
Kitchen:
Dining room:
Family parlor:
Trading office:
Formal parlor:
Nursery / family sitting room:
Courtyard:
Servant’s quarters:
Outside again:
A nature trail around the fort:
Cemetery:
A view of the fort from the trail:
An interesting historic site.
Automatic paper towel dispenser
Soon after purchasing our coach, I installed a paper towel holder under the cabinet in the kitchen:
That was nice, except Paladin had a bad habit of shredding the towels; I guess it felt fun.
So we left the towel rail empty, and put the roll in a cupboard:
We decided to replace it with an enclosed automatic towel dispenser. We had one in our homestead, and it worked well to protect the towels from Paladin, and was pretty convenient. So we got a similar one, but under-counter mounted, since counter space is valuable in an RV.
I used its template to mark the location:
Then mounted the bracket:
Here it is installed:
One simply waves a hand in front, and it dispenses a sheet to be torn off:
I also tidied the wire, wrapped in a velcro strap, and attached to the wall with a stick-on clip:
Here it is in context in our kitchen:
Finally, a video of it in action — the motion sensor to dispense a towel, and it auto-retracting when I didn’t take one:
You can hold your hand longer to dispense more towel sections, and can set how much to dispense at a time.
A nice improvement to our kitchen.
Loma Paloma RV Park
We stayed at Loma Paloma RV Park in Presidio, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our first stop in Texas, a quiet, no-frills RV park just north of Mexico.
Dates:
- Check in: 2022-11-13
- Check out: 2022-11-27
- 14 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny, a little drizzle one day
- High temps ranging between 52-71°F, lows around 32-42°F
- Afternoon and evening wind most days, up to 28 MPH gusts
Noise:
- Negligible road noise, no train noise
- No neighbor noise, other than occasional yippy dogs
Site:
- #72, pull-through, gravelly sand
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
- Very level
- Medium site: about 60 feet long by about 38 feet wide
- Full hookups:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 45 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (1.5 10-foot pipes needed)
- Picnic table
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 86 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
- AT&T: 20-30 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Verizon: 10-13 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
- Starlink: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Package delivery to the site
- Thanksgiving gathering
Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:
Basic park with super-friendly folks
We stayed for two weeks and loved the serenity of the place. The check-in process is self-serve, and then you pick your own site from the available options. Everyone is nicely spaced out in the park, and they encourage arrivals to leave space on either side, if possible, so you get the lovely views of the desert instead of your neighbor’s rig. We were there over Thanksgiving, and everyone made us feel very welcome, inviting us to the neighborhood feast where we met some of the long-term residents, some of whom have been wintering there for decades. The amenities are basic, but they work. Between the scenery and the people, we’d definitely stay here again. We camped at Loma Paloma RV Park & Golf Course in a Motorhome.
An interactive map of the RV park:
Our site:
This is our first campground in Texas… so you know what that means — yep, we get to add another sticker (the last new one until August next year!):
This park is a bit unusual in that it doesn’t have a staffed office (more on that later). But we can still get packages delivered, as FedEx and UPS will deliver straight to our site:
The utilities weren’t ideally placed, but not too bad:
A video of three cats by our site at night from our front door cam:
A pleasant view out our dining window:
Sunsets:
This campground is away from big cities, and the nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park is a dark sky park, so we have a good view of stars at night (looked better in person):
A sign for the park:
The main entrance:
Slow adults at play; this is more of a long-term snowbird park than a kid-friendly one (which suits us just fine):
The office building:
As mentioned, it is unstaffed; it just has a small room with books and such, and a desk for self-registration, paying by cash or check in an honor box:
A map of the park on the wall:
The other half of the building is a single toilet and a laundry:
Other sites, including several long-term ones; people don’t live here year-round, but several people spend the winter here:
A bird feeder opposite our site:
Wilderness opposite our coach:
Cats peeking over a tub:
The Lizard Lounge is a gathering place in the center of the park:
Apparently once more people are here over winter they have regular gatherings there, but while we were here there was just one, a Thanksgiving feast:
A nice bunch of people, and a relaxed, quiet RV park. I can see why many people come back every year to spend the winter here. We probably won’t, as it wasn’t quite warm enough for our wintertime, but if we’re passing this way again, we wouldn’t hesitate to stay again.
Video: Carlsbad, New Mexico to Presidio, Texas motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 275 miles from Carlsbad, New Mexico to Presidio, Texas.
Travel from Carlsbad, New Mexico to Presidio, Texas
We drove our coach 275 miles, about five hours of driving, from Carlsbad, New Mexico to Presidio, Texas.
That was about double what we normally aim for, but we felt we could handle it, since we had two week stays on either side. And yes, it was fine; it didn’t feel like twice as long, due to taking several stops, plus the drive was pretty easy (no significant mountains or other challenges).
The map route, heading south:
An interactive map, with our stops:
Leaving the RV park:
Our coach with the slides in while traveling:
Heading down the highway:
Carlsbad cavepeople in the median, and a mural of their historic aquaduct, the Pecos River Flume, which is also famous for being the only river that crosses itself:
National Parks Highway:
Entering Texas from New Mexico:
Paladin on the dash, approaching a rest area:
Continuing on down US-62, past the Guadalupe Mountains:
US-62 to SH-54:
A flood gauge:
We quite liked this region of Texas; nice mountains etc:
Dip:
Big dip:
Van Horn, Texas:
A fuel stop:
There wasn’t a great place to stop for lunch around the Love’s, but I had an alternative plan; I had spotted a good place to park our coach elsewhere in town:
Near a Pilot travel center (which we didn’t use for fuel, as we don’t get a discount there):
We went to Wendy’s for lunch:
A funky camera artifact:
Lunch (it’s pretty rare to have Wendy’s, but their fries are actually quite nice, for fast food; I like the skins-on style):
Birds on a wire:
Back to our coach:
Back on the road; we noticed cotton on the side of the road:
Probably from a cotton field:
Another stop:
To check out a roadside art installation, Prada Marfa:
A selfie, with our coach in the background:
We spotted a border patrol blimp in the sky:
Welcome to Marfa:
Thunderbird Restaurant sign:
Mural:
We saw several old gas stations that had been converted to other activities:
A border inspection station; unsurprising, being just north of Mexico:
Paladin asleep:
Elephant Rock:
Pointy mountain:
Presidio, Texas:
Our destination:
Jenn checking in; the office is unattended, payment by check in an honor box:
We also got to pick our site here; plenty of available options:
Taking a break; happy Thanksgiving
We’ve been taking it easy recently, not doing many interesting things, so I’ve caught up with scheduled blog posts; the next post will be travel to our current location, which I don’t like to publish until after we leave.
So, after doing a new post every day for the past year or so, I’m going to take a break for a week, ostensibly to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday week. See you on Monday the 28th!
(I will still do single-picture daily posts on my personal blog, if only for the Micro.blog challenge going on this month.)
I’ll leave you with this picture of a roadside attraction from that travel day:
