Small Home – Big Yard

Utopia, TX

Instead of the “GPS route” south from Bandera to Hondo, which we’ve already traveled 3 times this spring, we opt to check out Ranch Road 470 from Bandera to Utopia. Route 470 is a beautiful scenic drive through this quiet section of the Texas Hill country.  While it might not be optimal for longer towing combinations, we found the route was fine.  With some great vistas out across the Hill Country, this sometimes narrow, winding road runs from just west of Bandera, out to Tarpley, home of the famous Mac & Ernie’s Roadside Eatery.  This unique diner was been featured in the Premier episode of Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives, Food Network’s On the Road and Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel.  Next time we MUST stop!

Mac & Ernie’s Roadside Eatery

From Tarplay we continued west to Utopia then turned south on highway 187 for a relatively quick trip south to Sabinal to join  highway 90.  Just as the hills begin outside of San Antonio, they end abruptly just north of Sabinal when you drive out on to the wide horizons of the south Texas plains.  Overall, we think this is a better drive, the roads are just as good and more scenic than highway 173 south from Bandera.

Our annual South Texas travels have yet to take us through Uvalde, TX – but we found the town very pleasant.  It’s clean, there’s appears to be a nice RV park right in the middle of town (Quail Springs RV Park) and a new Walmart and a very impressive HEB on the east side of town. Continuing west on I-90, it’s about another hour over to Del Rio where we’ll be spending the next two nights at the familiar Broke Mill RV park just north of town.  We’ve been here numerous times – their good WiFi, clean laundry facilities (still at $1.25/wash) and spacious sites keep bringing us back.  But, the road noise seems worse this year as Del Rio continues to expand the use of the 277/377 bypass roads.

Broke Mill RV Park, Del Rio, TX

From Del Rio we’re going to continue mostly parallel to the Rio Grande as far as Sanderson where we’ll turn north on 285 toward I-10 and Ft. Stockton.  More from there…