A change in plans

The bad coffee pot

This day was well planned and had tons of potential.  The mission:  Get to Davis Mountains State Park, where we'd stay for a couple of days and explore the nearby historical sites and mountain hiking trails.

The day started with coffee.  Seems like a small thing, but we were on our second coffee maker.  To be sure, I hadn't spent a lot of money on the coffee maker.  (You can buy one for yourself for 20 bucks.  I liked it because it was small (fit into a cabinet) and used a cone filter, which I'm partial to.  It also had a timer, which I wanted so we could have it turn on for early morning hikes later in the trip.  Unfortunately, the first one I bought correctly brewed a pot of water during the initial cleaning cycle and then set off the carbon monoxide detector when burning-rubber smelling smoke came out of the back of it, seemingly from the hotplate contacting some wiring inside the coffee maker.  I turned it in to get a second pot which so far has worked well.  I just hope to get $20 worth of coffee use from it.  That's not asking much, right?  In any case, we had coffee.  Check.

Our spot at The Alamo KOA

This was going to be a long drive.  In the past we'd decided that at most we wanted to drive 3-4 hours at a time.  More than that was really tough on the RV driver (me) since cross-winds and semi-trucks caused a lot of stress.  Unfortunately, 3-4 hours didn't get us where we wanted to go that day, so we decided to make a run for a state park 430 miles away - Davis Mountains State Park.  We left the Alamo KOA in San Antonio around 7:30 in the morning, getting gas on the way out of town.  This was pretty good time we were making to tear down camp and get a fuel fill, compared to previous days.  We were really getting the hang of it now.


I felt good, there was no wind, and since it was Saturday, there were very few trucks and very little traffic.  It was a gorgeous day and we ran with the windows open and satellite radio blaring most of the way.  We made a few stops to make lunch and stretch our legs.  We made really good time despite the winds slowly building throughout the day.

Which direction to 307?

Can we go now?  Can we?  Can we?  Please?

Finally, we got off the interstate and jumped onto a 2-lane highway that would take us the rest of the way to the park.  It was long and straight, and we got abused by cross-winds.  We stopped a few times to rest and take some pictures.

Just about 20 miles from the park we spotted a wildfire in the distance.  As we got closer, it became clear that this was a very large fire.  It was still off in the distance, and I'm sure it was being taken care of.  We resumed talks about visiting the nearby McDonald Observatory where there was a large star party that night - sounded pretty cool and she hadn't ever done that kind of thing.



As we neared the town of Fort Davis, TX, the fire got larger and the smoke became more menacing.  This was the last town before the state park, and we elected to make a beeline for the park before the fire got any closer.

We checked into the park with very little fanfare.  A very nice park, and we were looking forward to some of the local activities like hiking and the historical monuments.  Unfortunately, as we started to unpack, the ranger came by and said "be ready to evacuate."  Really?

Now I'm concerned.  While we had a full tank of gas (nearly 40 gallons in the tank, plus a couple of extra tanks I'd brought along just in case) we didn't really have a place to stay for the night if we had to evacuate.

Within an hour, the local sheriff came screaming through the campground on the loudspeaker saying "LEAVE NOW.  US-118 NORTH.  LEAVE NOW."  Holy cow.  Time to move.

One nice thing about the RV we've got is that it's pretty simple.  All the new RVs have electrical slideouts and automatic awnings and leveling devices etc etc.  Ours?  Nope.  We gots wood blocks to level it with.  A manual awning (which we typically leave tucked away).  No slideouts here.  When the order came, we unplugged the RV from the electrical outlet, started the engine, and left.  We were likely the first ones out of the park, leaving within 3 minutes of getting the official order to go.  Good thing too, as we later discovered that the winds (which had been gusting to 50mph near the park) had shifted, and as the last campers left the park the flames were just coming over the ridges overlooking the park.  A little close for comfort.

With no place to go and no plans anymore (we'd planned to stay at that park for 3 days) we decided to go check out the star party, which was conveniently along the evacuation route.  The road went from 5,000 feet in elevation to nearly 8,000 feet in elevation.  Our little RV powered by a Chevy 454 thundered up the hills, proving surprisingly spry in the corners despite being a literal house on wheels.  All the work on the engine and suspension I'd done in the previous months just paid off.  I had some concerns in the back of my head - with the fire moving at nearly 10mph, if the RV broke down, we'd have to abandon everything we own to be consumed by the fire, fleeing with just the clothes on our backs in the back of a sheriff car or something like that.  There's just no way to outrun a fire like that.

Letting the engine cool off

We arrived at the top of the mountain.  The engine was running a bit hot and I didn't want to push it too much further, so we found a nice spot in the parking lot to let it rest while we checked out the star party. 

Imagine our disappointment when we learned that the fire had knocked out the power to observatory, and the star party was canceled.

Refugees fill the parking lot

The observatory quickly filled with refugees from both the campgrounds and the nearby town of Fort Davis, which we'd driven through on our way in.  Apparently several of the houses fell victim to the wildfire and were consumed before firefighters could get to them.

At 7:00 it was time to find a new place to stay for the night.  We took off down the road, only to encounter very steep grades and twisty windy roads.  I was thankful for the newly rebuilt brakes - the descent was very tricky and engine braking didn't cut it on some slopes.

The final few miles down the mountain were visually stunning.  The wildfires produced a hazy red sunset and some gorgeous views of the area.

We were able to find a place another 90 minutes from the bottom of the mountain where we could park the RV for the night - a KOA in Van Horn, TX.  All told, we'd driven more than 520 miles in a day.  Our typical average is 40-50 miles an hour (which accounts for gas stops and rest breaks) which put me at nearly 10-12 hours behind the wheel by the time we pulled into the KOA in Van Horn.  I had a beer, a shower in the RV, and collapsed on the bed. 


It was the best night's sleep I've gotten in a long time.