On our trek east we unexpectedly spent a couple of days in Fort Stockton, Texas. Fort Stockton was not really on our list but we needed to wait out the torrential downpours our planned route was experiencing. We have been traveling on Interstate 10 through the BIG state of Texas. It takes several days to cross Texas. We had hoped to visit San Antonio again and spend some time north of Houston. Mother Nature had other plans.
We stayed at the Fort Stockton RV Park east of town. We were joined by a 13-rig travel group doing the same thing we were – dodging Mother Nature. The campground was clean, had a nature trail and best of all had a small diner located right on the grounds. The diner is called the Roadrunner Cafe.
Other Half and I are happy to stay at places with diners and or bars – not that we don’t cook. We do. But when we have the option to support a local place that just happens to be a 2-minute walk from the Big Rig – we’re there.
With time on our hands, we got into tourist mode and headed into Historic Fort Stockton. The plan was to follow the driving tour which featured 17 sites. The town was on the quiet side and most of the historic sites were closed. Many of the storefronts were also deserted.
We had heard the Annie Riggs Memorial Museum was worth a gander, so we stopped. I’m a big museum fan. Other Half humors me. We were both surprised at how cool this place was. It’s an original adobe structure with walls two feet thick. You don’t realize it’s an adobe right away because it is trimmed out in Victorian details.
Annie Riggs was a frontier woman who ran a boarding house in the early 1900’s. She was a feisty woman who had 10 children and two husbands. Her first husband was the Sheriff of Pecos County. Her second husband was considered an outlaw. She divorced them both.
We left the museum and visited the actual Fort of Fort Stockton. The fort was established in 1858. It’s purpose was to protect travelers heading west to Mexico and California. Travelers needed protection – the route intersected with the Comanche War Trail. Yikes.
Today, four of the original thirty-five buildings remain. Other Half and I watched the videos and took a casual stroll around the property. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon.
One more important thing to know about the Roadrunner Cafe. The chef makes the best homemade buttermilk biscuits I’ve ever tasted. You know there something special when I set aside my FitBit frenzy to consume THREE biscuits in ONE day. Totally worth it!