Texas 2024:
Day 5 - Fort Stockton, TX

	Sunday, April 14, 2024: We checked out of the hotel and drove away just as the sun was rising, passing the closed McDonald's that was just down the street. It will be rebuilt and open again the next time we come here.
	We stopped at the Taco Palenque in Harlingen on our way north, unfortunately forgetting the very, very important "no beans" request on Debbie's burrito, but remembering to get the even more important tres leches cakes.
	At Kingsville, Texas, we left our usual northward track and headed west toward Del Rio, ...
	... passing the former Texas Theater on our way through town.
	Javelinas!
	In the town of Benavides, we were greated by a billboard announcing that this was the home of 6-time world champion baton twirler Bonnie Palacios. Congratulations, Bonnie. We're just passing through. (By the way, take a minute to check out her championship-winning routines on YouTube. Amazing!)
	Debbie thought this building had a lot of character. It must have been something special back in the day.
	As we departed the town, we passed a huge ranch with a beautiful entrance and the name "Garza" over the gates. We'd seen a bunch of billboards for politicians with the last name of Garza. Was this one of their ranches?
	Antelope? Antelope! Wow. Those horns are spectacular!
	It was a beautiful day to drive through the ranches of south Texas.
	In Freer, Texas, their high school sports teams were apparently called the Buckaroos.
	How many of these signs are there in the western United States? And why are they always on the outskirts of town, after you've passed all of the gas stations?
	Debbie loves to take pictures of ranch signs. Here's Poco Grande, ...
	... the Triple T Ranch, ...
	... the Bonanza Ranch, ...
	... and Rancha las Olmas.
	We weren't sure if this was a refinery, or a pumping station, or some other oil-or-gas-related thing. They had flames coming out of a flare stack, so they were definitely worried about the build-up of flammable gases from something.
	Back to the ranch signs. The Griffith Ranch sign featured a cowboy roping what looked like a deer. Is that a thing?
	This one won the prize for the best landscaped entrance.
	We stopped at a gas station in Encinal, Texas, for a quick pit stop and to clean the bugs off the windshield. There was a Tejas Taco Company inside, ...
	... and an Amazon pickup locker on the outside of the building. We wondered what happened if you ordered something too large to fit in the locker, like a tent.
	Tom was very happy to have a clean windshield again.
	So many dead armadillos on the side of the road.
	This old hotel is a shell of its former self, but the palm trees outside still look great.
	Cows! This little one was walking around in the back and stopped to check us out.
	At first we thought this was a plane stuck on top of a pole, but then we realized it was a windmill that just wasn't turning.
	Come on, Texas. You can do better than that.
	Maersk!
	This sign made us laugh and laugh.
	We were driving along US Highway 83 along the Rio Grande River, and that was Mexico off in the distance.
	What a beautiful ranch.
	North of Del Rio, we drove through the Amistad National Recreation Area. We'd driven through this area on our camping trip last year, but it had been rainy and dreary at the time.
	Now it was absolutely gorgeous out, and we decided that we needed to come back and stay at this campground overlooking the reservoir.
	It was way more beautiful in sunny April than it was in rainy January.
	We also got a much better look at the old railroad bridge that spans the reservoir as we crossed over at Governor's Landing.
	A few minutes later, we pulled through our fourth and final Border Patrol Inspection Station on the trip.
	Just before 2:00 PM, we passed Seminole Canyon State Park, which was one of our camping sites on our trip last year.
	The canopy just to the left of center might be our campsite from last year.
	On the north side of this bridge, the Pecos River looks wide and mighty, ...
	... but it is only a trickle on the southern side of the bridge. Hmmm. Where did the river go?
	This part of the country is so beautiful.
	There are hills, greenery, and big skies. What's not to love?
	The entrance to this ranch looked like an official State of Texas facility.
	We were starting to see mountains in the distance on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande.
	And now, some random rock art in front of a closed motel.
	Sanderson is a name that will always be special to Debbie since it was the name of the company that her parents used for their first and second Colorado River rafting trips.
	At 4:00 PM, we arrived in Fort Stockton, ...
	... and drove right by the hotel where we'd be staying for the night. We didn't stop, however, because we still had more driving to do today.
	We passed the giant roadrunner statue, ...
	... and got onto I-10 headed west.
	When we were last out this way, we had gotten off I-10 at the town of Balmorhea, Texas, and that's where we were going now.
	When we got to Balmorhea, we decided to stop for dinner at La Cueva de Oso Restaurant. The name means "Bear's Den" in Spanish, and they served Mexican food.
	Chips and salsa. Yum!
	Debbie got chicken fajitas, ...
	... and Tom had enchiladas. It was a nice relaxing dinner and the food was terrific.
	We drove through town to ...
	... Balmorhea State Park, ...
	... which had people swimming in their famous swimming hole.
	We tried to get back on I-10 at the exact point where we'd left it 15 months ago, but we were thwarted by a missing bridge.
	We drove back past the state park and followed the detour signs to rejoin I-10 about two miles down the road instead.
	And here we go. We are going to drive I-10 eastward until it runs out.
	But first we are going to stop at a rest area. This warning sign about watching for snakes was one that we hadn't seen before.
	The restroom at this rest area was stunningly beautiful. Check out that ceiling. Well done, Texas.
	There were so many differnt types of bugs smashed into our grill. The more you look, the more you see.
	On a hillside south of the highway, we saw the iconic silhouette sculpture announcing that we were nearing Fort Stockton.
	We drove back through town toward our hotel, passing the historic fort on the way.
	We needed to get a good night's sleep because we had a lot of driving to do the next day.  Day 6 >