Big Bend Bound
More on that trip in a second. Toward the end of September we motored into the Flower Mound area to get set up in our apartment for the winter. First we had to put the Flying Scotsman to bed and that involved emptying it out including our faithful "Mr. Chicken" who has been with us for the last 11 years and 100,000+ miles of RVing.
Once all the stuff was out of the bus and it safely in its garage at the Preferred Storage place in Double Oak, we were able to think about future adventures. Well ...
Our good friends Sandy and Lawrence with whom we toured Ottawa last year suggested we go out to west Texas and the Big Bend park and view some stars ... OK. They arrived on 2 October and spent the night with us in Flower Mound and then the four of us piled into the Terrain (no RV for this one) and headed west toward the "Bend".
Because the park is about 600 miles from Dallas we broke up the trip into two days of driving ... old guys you know. A convenient stop about half was in the town of Big Spring, a town of about 25,000 folks. In the village is a completely renovated art deco hotel that we chose from their website. Good Choice!
This place was wonderfully restored into its 1930's elegance and was a favorite stop between Dallas and El Paso for many years.
These shots of the lobby above and below show the attention to detail in the restoration of this Texas landmark. The restaurant is through the door to the left in the pic below and next to it is an original phone booth.
The rooms have the finest furnishings with all the modern tech amenities yet blended with the marble and gilt and dark wood common in the 1920's before the crash. There are only five very large (500 sq ft) rooms on each floor and our room on the 12th floor offered a super view of the gorgeous pool area with waterfall ...
... and spectacular views of the west Texas region in the sunset.
The town of course is named for a large spring discovered in the mid 1800's which offered an oasis to travelers heading along the same route we were to follow. The park is done very nicely and the spring area has some super viewing places. The temperature was about 95 degrees but on the dry side.
This choice of town was a really great place to stop. There are some neat things to see and we will always highly recommend the Settles Hotel to anyone who needs a formal place to rest along this route.
