Ozona Texas

Day Three continued

We are beginning to see lots of wildflowers along the road.  We cross the Pecos River, which is a small meandering stream!  Not the stuff of cowboy dreams!  There are arroyos with brush in them, and the vegetation is getting thicker.  There are juniper trees and black cows.  And everywhere, shredded tires!  All other litter has blown away, I think.  But is hard to think of all the hapless motorists and truckers whose lives were altered as their tires blew in the middle of this windy, bleak land.

We got off the freeway in Ozona and headed for an RV park we had spotted.  It was full!  Luckily, we had spotted another park back down the freeway.  It had a spot open.  The Encino RV Park!  It was just a gravel lot full of RV's that obviously belonged to work crews.  A group of Mexican workers were having dinner outside, despite the wind.  They gave us the name of the owner of the park and John called to make sure we could stay there.  The owner eventually showed up with a "pigtail", which is an electrical converter from 50 amp to 30 amp.  One of the workers drove up, curious about our camper.  John gave him a tour.  We at last were settled in and could make dinner.  The wind was atrocious.  We had some windows open and the breeze felt good, countered by the fact that we are right by the highway and can expect truck traffic all night.  We had to close all the hatches or they would probably blow off.

In the absence of any pictures of the Encino RV Park, let me tell you about Ozona!

Ozona is in Crockett County, the eighth largest county in Texas, of which there are 254.  And Ozona is the only town!  Crockett County was named after Davy Crockett, even though he had never been there!  There are 3500 people in Ozona, affectionately known as "The biggest little town in the world!"
E.M. Powell, who founded the town, bought a large tract of land unseen.  When he finally came to look, he found one lone live oak, and established Ozona by it.  The tree is reportedly still there.

Ozone is one of at the nation's leading producers of mohair and wool.  It is a big hunting area for white-tailed deer, javelina and game birds.  OK.