It was cold and dark in the trailer park when Lynne and I hitched up and rode on out of ole San Antone, bound for West Texas.  Daylight Savings Time had ridden in as we were riding out.  No debate here, if you are a 9 to 5’er, you understand why DST is a good thing!

It was 369 miles to our next destination, so we would be driving most of the day.  Lynne brought along a set of walkie-talkies, so that certainly made the day go much faster.  Hard not to laugh when you hear “Brrrreaaaker 1-9.”

I have to admit, the scenery was prettier than I expected.   Having always traveled north to south in the state, I had never seen this part of the Texas Hill Country.  The rolling hills, limestone cliffs, and cedar breaks were very scenic.

Our destination was Balmorhea State Park, for a couple of reasons.  Texas has a stupid rule where the entire state gets out for Spring Break all at the same time.  Since it is too hot to camp in these areas in the summer, Spring Break is the time when the fair weather RVers air up the tires, check their generators, and head out for their annual camping trip.  Balmorhea was the only State Park with hook-ups and a promise of reliable Verizon signal available for the work week, while also positioning me near my vacation destination of Big Bend.

Lynne was heading off to boondock for a few days, so we radio’ed our goodbyes as she took the Ft Stockton exit.  “10-4, Ethel, see you at the pool on Tuesday, Over and Out!”

The further I drove, the more desolate it became.  I started to get that familiar knot in my stomach that creeps in when I get too far from “infrastructure.”  (As my poor brother Don will remember from my meltdown in the remote beach location of Bajia de la Luna, MX.  Take my word…it wasn’t pretty.)   Once I get too far off the grid, let’s just say it takes me a couple of days to “settle in.”  😉  My analogy is that I felt like the ambient pressure had left our atmosphere, and I was bleeding out…

I have lived a blissful fulltimers existence in my Winnie for the last year by skirting the major cities up the east coast and back.  All this “remoteness” really has me questioning how I will fare out west.   Lynne says, “Just pretend you are in Tibet.”   All the dust and dirt, surrounding mountain ranges, lack of trees, white stuccoed walls with red tile roofs of the campground make Tibet easier to imagine than one might think.

Balmorhea has no grocery stores beyond what you would find at a 7-11.  There are two restaurants in town.  With a population of 449, I am surprised they can even support a Post Office….which is where I met “Viola.”   I had to mail some things back home, so I dropped by the tiny one-room post office.  I asked Viola what they did for groceries around here, since the nearest Walmart (more like “Walmart-LITE”) was over an hour’s drive back in Fort Stockton.  Viola says, “It’s tough livin’ in a town with no meat!”

Bicyclists must yield to turkeys. I thought about eating one!

Balmorhea is known for one thing, and one thing only.  It is the largest fresh water spring-fed pool in the world.    The original pool and park was constructed in the 1930’s by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps, part of FDR’s “New Deal”) which explains the beautiful limestone rock structures around the pool as often found in other Texas State Parks built by the CCC.

The CCC hand-built the pool, bathhouses, and adobe motel rooms using local limestone and adobe brick excavated from the pool.

The deepest part is the 250 foot circle at 25 feet deep around the San Solomon Springs. Two rectangular-shaped tangents extend out from the circular pool in an “L-shape.”  Between 22 and 28 million gallons of water flow through the springs per day.   The pool itself holds 3.5 million gallons of water, so it can hold a lot of swimmers before one feels the crowd effect.   Though at this time of the year, there was never more than a dozen people in the pool during my three swims.

The pool is a big draw for SCUBA enthusiasts

The water is a crystal clear Windex-blue, with excellent visibility down to the 25 foot bottom, making it a big draw for SCUBA divers.  Some may find the smell of the water off-putting, as it reeks of earth and minerals.  For me, I associate it with only good things in my past….the smell of Barton Springs pool on an unseasonably warm spring day while cutting classes for an early swim.  The smell of the warm, restorative healing hot springs in Arkansas and Tennessee.  Or the Florida aquifer, when preparing to dive half a mile back into the underwater flow in a karst cave.  All of these evoke pleasant memories from my past, so I inhale deep.

Valves to regulate the release of water from the spring-fed pool

Water from the pool runs through canals and wetlands in the park, and travels 3.5 miles to Balmorhea Lake, where it is used for irrigation.

There is only one way to enter this pool on a cool, breezy March day when the air temperature is lower than the springs themselves (constant 72-76 degrees year round.)   That is straight off the end of the diving board.   Otherwise, to approach one toe at a time is just too painful, too fearful, and too easy to turn back.  

As I lay on my back, floating blissfully, looking up at the cloudless blue sky, I realize this is much like a metaphor for separation from my work life as well…approaching retirement slowly, one painful, fearful toe at a time.