A couple we stayed with in Austin told us San Antonio was a ghost town, so pleasantly surprised when we got there that this was not the case. The Alamo was our first stop, it’s free and a nice place to learn a bit of Texas’ history and walk around its gardens. A short walk down the street leads you to the river walk. It is a very pretty stroll, lots of places to eat/drink and you can get river rides if you wish. From there we walked over to the cathedral and up to the Mexican Market. The Mexican market was pretty touristy so did not stay there long. We found a great Goodwill around there. I found an making fringed leather jacket but it was one size too big so reluctantly walked away from it.
A quick walk back to the River walk towards John Besh’s restaurant ‘Luke’ for the 3-6pm happy hour, half price drinks which end up $4-5 a glass for wine, $1.5-3 cans/draft, charbroiled oysters were $1 each, 50 cent raw oysters, slider of the day $3 and 50 cent empanadas. Needless to say we ate loads and drank too much wine. I loved the decor, our waitress was great and the air-con was a god send as it was 38oc. A quick visit to the Japanese Tea Gardens for a very pretty after dinner stroll, which helped to sober up (also free).
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We spent the evening in a motel just outside of town as it was a lot cheaper and had a pool. In the morning we made a quick pit stop in an unbelievably amazing Taco Shop for their Sat/Sun brunch taco,then heading over to Saks 5th Avenue to see the world’s largest pair of boots.
There are a number of small towns you drive through along the 90 before Big Bend National Park. Castroville, Dulany, Hondo, Sabinal, Knippa, Uvalde, Brackvetville and then Del Rio. We only stopped at Sabinal, as it looked quite cool with a Saloon, old hotel and had a laundromat as we were desperate to do washing. Del Rio is a city but did not stop as it has quite a lot of drug traffic through it. I advise to fill up on petrol as this point as there are not many petrol pumps for a while. Driving from Del Rio to Seminole national park, there is a big beautiful blue lake surrounded canyons near Comstock, definitely worth to stop and take a photo (I forgot to silly me).
6 miles outside of Comstock brings you to Seminole National park. We camped here for the evening as it only cost $8 and had drinking water/hot showers. The camp had great views with loads of wildlife including deer, lizards, snakes and birds, all easy to spot right from your tent. The office closes at 4:45 so there is an honestly box to pay. You are not supposed to go on trails without guides but it was almost sunset, no one was around so we walked a short walk down the the canyon. We sat there for a while enjoying the sunset and watching the huge golden eagles riding the wind up and across the canyon. There are cave paintings you can see but you have to wait until the guided tour at 10am but we planned to be gone by then. We had the worst ever nights sleep due to the high wind which was shaking our tent like crazy, we were packed and ready to leave by 7:30am.
Seminole National Park, TX
The towns past here are tiny, and I mean tiny but highway 90 is beautiful and best of all almost empty all the way to Marathon. Langtry is the first town you hit and has the Judge Roy Bean museum, definitely worth a visit. The crime was so bad and the nearest law was 100 miles away around 1880 that we was appointed judge to punish people. He basically just did whatever he wanted, even holding a banned heavyweight boxing match just over the Mexican border therefore out smarting the state troops sent to stop it, which I thought was quite cool, especially as he made a lot of money out of it. From here there is a beautiful drive through dessert mountains, past Dryden (population 9 although I was pretty sure it was a ghost town), the next is Sanderson which even has a motel! It also has 3 petrol stations and thank god as we only had one bar left, it was a Sunday morning and the next town was 41 miles away. Finally you hit Marathon, the last town before Rio Grande. We treated ourselves to a Mexican coconut flavoured ice cream from the local shop (amazing) and used the free wifi quickly at the only local grocery in town. Driving back on yourself about a mile you turn south onto the beautiful scenic down the 385 towards Big Bend Park.
lucys tea party 