Since we were leaving the Hill Country a week or so earlier than planned, and we didn’t want to rush to Colorado too quickly, we decided that we might as well take a detour down to Big Bend – you never know when we might get another chance to see it!
Tom investigated the various RV Park options, and we decided on a Passport America park in Marathon . . . the Marathon Motel & RV Park.
It got us reasonably close to the National Park without having to pull the RV too far from I-10, and it got good reviews on rvparkreviews.com. We packed up the RV Wednesday morning, and after saying goodbye to our neighbors, we were on the road by 10am.
We had about 200 miles to travel on I-10, so at the first rest area we came to, we pulled off so Tom & Nicolas could switch places. Yes – Nicolas drove the RV the rest of the way to Fort Stockton – 160 miles!
We stopped in Fort Stockton to top off gas and diesel at the Flying J, get some lunch at Subway, and stock up on groceries at Walmart. Now we were all ready for several days in the remote Texas mountains!
From Fort Stockton, we drove south on Rt. 385, and hardly saw another vehicle for the entire 58 miles to Marathon!
With mountains to each side of us, we gradually climbed in elevation to 4400 ft. in Marathon. We found the RV Park just outside of town, checked in and got settled into site #5 in the row of 50 amp sites in the back of the park.
We had some work and school to get caught up on, so Tom went on a motorcycle road while the boys and I got our work done. Once we were finished, we took a bike ride into Marathon to check out the town and find a few geocaches.
The first one was right in town and although we zeroed in on the general location pretty easily, we needed an extra hint to actually find the cache in it’s hiding place. Both Bryce and I had looked at the container and wondered if it could be the cache, but it was Tom who actually picked it up and looked at it!
From there, we rode out to the cemetery for our second geocache.
Tom and I were bringing up the rear, and by the time we reached the cemetery, the boys had already found the cache and were opening it!
Bryce opened it up and signed the logbook for us.
Before heading back into town, we rode around the cemetery and read some of the older headstones to learn about the people who had lived in Marathon.
Some of them didn’t even have headstones . . .
Back in town, we were going to get an ice cream cone at the Soda Shop, but they closed at 3pm, and it was a few minutes after 3:00! Then, we were going to ride around some more to see if there was a Catholic Church in town, but we started talking to a woman in front of a small gift shop, and she told us that, yes, there is a Catholic church in town, where it is, and she called somebody she knew to find out the mass time for us!
Talk about small town hospitality!
She also told us about 94-year-old woman who is carving doors for all of the churches in town (3) – she’s finished the doors for the Methodist and Catholic Churches so far . . . so we had to ride by and check them out!
She also told us about Eve’s Garden Bed & Breakfast, across from the Catholic Church.
It’s all made from “paper crete” . . . similar to paper mache, but holds up better in the rain, and when formed in a dome, it is structurally sound and does not require wood rafters.
We met the owner, and she graciously offered us a tour. The center of the B & B is a garden – like a courtyard, with guestrooms around it, and it was really beautiful!
I wish I could describe the scent in there – there were so many flowers, it was incredibly fragrant!
We also took a peek in one of the guest rooms – really nice!
In the main house, there is a lap pool . . . it’s only 4 ft. deep, but looks a lot deeper than that . . . but also looks like it doesn’t have any water in it!
It was really cool! She also showed us her kitchen and dining room, and we met her daughter who was doing the cooking.
It looks like a really nice Bed & Breakfast, so it you’re ever traveling to Marathon, TX and need a place to stay, you should check it out!
There is also a really nice hotel in town – the Gage Hotel. We took a look at the Lobby . . . it’s very rustic and ranch-style – very cool!
They even have a mountain lion!
That pretty much covers Marathon, Texas . . . on the way back to the RV Park, we stopped to visit with a couple of donkeys along the road.
I think they enjoyed getting some attention!
We were busy this weekend with lots of exploring, so there are a couple of long blog posts coming!
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