1st Post / 2026 RV Road Trip ~ Cross Country Loop

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We’re heading to Key West, Florida to catch the float plane to the Dry Tortugas National Park. We’ve actually made a reservation this time.

Yes, that is a very long way to go to experience just one National Park, but we missed it last time. And Key West is a perfect place to go in the winter. We’ve just got to get there by March 19th. 22 days.

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Wilcox

First day, first break to stretch our legs. Still in Arizona, but finally heading east.

Wilcox has also become a nice little wine tasting destination.

If we’re going to get to Florida in time, we need to get out of Arizona.

Deming New Mexico

Harvest Host ~ The D. H. Lescombes Winery and tasting room

We’ve stayed at this Winery in the past. It’s a nice big “Harvest Host” property with plenty of room for many RVs. The stay is free, but the hosts just ask that you make a small purchase. The only downside was the stickers. Poor doggies, their feet were full of them.

Texas!

El Paso ~ Chamizal National Memorial

We’ve pretty much avoided El Paso on our many trips through Texas. This memorial was in the Passport Book so it made sense to check it out on the way to Big Bend.

Again, we’re thankful for the way the book leads us to visit national monuments that we would otherwise never see.

What an amazing story! Who knew the Rio Grande River actually changed course this dramatically?

The park honors the peaceful resolution of the Chamizal dispute, a more than 100-year border dispute between the United States and Mexico that resulted from the natural change of course of the Rio Grande between the cities of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. 

Dark Sky’s of Texas

We’re entering the dark sky reserves of the Big Bend area. In our previous visit to this area we witnessed the most spectacular night skys. This area is world renowned for some of the best star gazing available.

Fort Davis

What a day this was! We worked really hard to get to Fort Davis by 5:00 when the park was scheduled to close according to their website. We made it before they closed the gates with 10 minutes to spare! But, the visitor center had closed at 4:30, so no stamp for the book.

We did get to walk around the very well preserved grounds. The resident bighorn sheep herd were hanging out near the parking lot so that was fun.

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Big Bend National Park

Marathon RV Park ~ starry starry nights

This is a nice little RV park, a perfect place to set up camp for a few days exploring this huge National Park. Marathon is a world renowned “dark skies” location.

We were bummed that the moon was too bright for the nightly star parties regularly hosted by the local amateur astronomers in the area. We did luck out and get some quick views of the moon and Jupiter through the site telescopes.

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Drive to the Panther Visitor center and Santa Elena Pass.

Big Bend is Huge! Just making a basic loop through the park as well as the Big Bend State Park was close to 350 miles. We could have easily spent a week here exploring. It was a long day.

Santa Elena Canyon

This is probably the most photographed location within the park. It is beautiful here and the dogs loved wading out to Mexico!

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San Antonio and The River Walk

Nice big spots at the Travelers World RV

And bonus treat, our good San Antonio friends Barry and Sally paid us a visit at the RV park. We just can’t pass through San Antonio without catching up.

Hey! Isn’t that the Alamo?

The trick to visiting the river walk is scoring close parking. We did it! The Pay to Park lot was less than one block from the water.

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Buc’ees!! who doesn’t love Buc’ees?

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South Padre Island ~ Port Aransas

Our last trip to South Padre Island several years ago was a bust. The weather was terrible. We lucked out this time.

It was a nasty battle of the navigation systems (we have several) to get to the island. We finally figured out why we were being instructed to go 35 miles out and around to a distant bridge. A ferry! We love a ferry, although this one was a ridiculously short ride

The national seashore is a refuge for hundreds of bird species that either pass through on their migration or spend the winter here. It’s a great place for “birding” and “turtling” (That might not be a word)

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Galveston

The weather turned cold and dreary. Oh well, it’s only for one night. We’ve been really lucky with the weather so far. Two weeks prior it was freezing in the gulf.

The Galveston Seawall was built after the devastating  1900 Galveston hurricane for protection from future hurricanes. Construction began in September 1902, and the initial segment was completed on July 29, 1904. From 1904 to 1963, the seawall was extended from 3.3 miles to over 10 miles

Not much to see here. The next day on our way out of town we had clearer sky’s.

We tried to take another ferry north out of Galveston but were turned away due to the auxiliary gas cans we carry in the back of the truck. There appears to be a higher terrorism alert than in recent days. It wasn’t a problem on the last ferry.

It would have been a shorter travel day if we could have taken the ferry, but the drive out and around on the bay wasn’t bad.

A little side drama as a half ton pickup merged into our trailer on the I-45 bridge leaving Galveston. He lost his mirror and did some damage to his driver door. We only had to buff a smudge off our trailer with no real damage. It was a little tense for a bit, the police showed up and agreed it was not our fault and sent us on our way. We’re not sure what happened with the other guy. We’re all just lucky that it wasn’t worse.

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Driving, driving, and more driving. We are actually enjoying the refineries.

Kemah, Texas

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The Big Thicket National Preserve

We only went 40 miles out of the way for this stamp. This is one I didn’t think we would ever get to. And we had no idea what to expect. And what we found is that it’s a combination of many different ecosystems and it’s a good thing that we went cuz the whole thing is disappearing.

Life of all types abounds in the Big Thicket. This national preserve protects the incredible diversity of life found where multiple habitats meet in southeast Texas. Hiking trails and waterways meander through nine different ecosystems, from longleaf pine forests to cypress-lined bayous.

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Snow White Sancuary Campground

Sometimes in our travels we get totally surprised. This Harvest Host was hard to describe. A barking chihuahua mutt and a very angry turkey met us at the gate. And it just got better!

This really is an animal sanctuary. We never actually spoke to the hosts, but there were several other friendly guests in RVs scattered around.

The barn animals were hilarious and not shy! This is a literal zoo. Our dogs you would think would at least go after the birds, but they showed no interest. They did enjoy sniffing the pigs. And there was a horse that was particularly fond of Bruce.

We’ve only been gone from home 10 days! We’re still on schedule to reach Key West. Next, we’re moving on to New Orleans…..