Thursday, January 19th, 2006 - Langtry, Texas.

After breakfast we hooked up the trailer, dumped the waste tanks and drove north out of the park to Marathon and then followed U.S. 90 east to Langtry. In Langtry we visited a state historic site that preserved Judge Roy Bean's saloon cum courtroom. He seems to have been a truly interesting frontier character, complete with some early scrapes with the law, one marriage, 4 children, and a divorce, which at the time must have been rather unusual. He moved around the old west from Texas to California before finally "settling down" with a saloon on the railroad line at Langtry. The saloon was converted as necessary into a courtroom. Legend has it that Judge Bean was ever alert to the commercial aspects of the situation and would, if necessary, interrupt the courtroom proceedings to sell beverages to the thirsty onlookers.

Since no jail was available, Judge Bean relied mostly on fines as a form of punishment, which he of course pocketed. Curiously, his reputation as a "hanging judge" was undeserved as there is no record of him actually hanging a miscreant, but maybe there just wasn't any profit in doing that. Or possibly that rumor was part of the bluff and bluster he used to help keep the local crowd of unruly folks in line. In any case, walking on the same wooden floor that he did over a hundred years ago and imagining the vivid courtroom scenes that took place there was a real treat. We also took a look at his adobe house just up the hill from the saloon, and it looked surprisingly clean and domestic for what was essentially a bachelor's pad.

The Langtry historic site also boasted a cactus garden where we spent some time. It was great to find labeled examples of so many of the cacti that we had just seen at Big Bend Park. In fact, if you come to the park via Langtry, you might want to stop and familiarize yourself with the different kinds of cacti before you visit the park and see them in a natural setting. I was surprised that some kinds of cacti have thorns so long and tough that they will puncture car tires or the hoof of a horse! Since I'm sure those thorns would also penetrate a boot, and that would be something to consider before you go wandering around in the desert.

Most of the cacti had special uses for soap, candle wax, jelly, or herbal cures for fever, upset stomach, or whatever. Some, like the yellow rainbow cactus and the claret cup, were very pretty, and others had edible fruits. The strawberry cactus, in particular, was described as have small red fruits that tasted somewhat like strawberries, and I would have loved to been able to eat one. But alas we were not in season so my curiosity remained unsatisfied and we reluctantly continued on our way.

We camped for the night at Seminole Canyon State Park. With the available 120-volt current we charged not only the badly depleted trailer batter but also 2 computers, 2 camera batteries, 1 GPS battery, and 1 battery-powered tire pump. Our dining table looked like a rats nest of wires, but it was a real relief to be able to work on Baby without having to worry about running the battery down. Sometimes the small luxuries in life are the best.

When a Schwann's ice cream truck came by our campsite we were surprised, as that had just never happened to us in a campground before. And certainly we would not have expected an ice cream truck in the middle of the Texas desert. Still, the thought of some kind treat was appealing and we finally bought a package of ice cream bars and a small pizza for our evening snack. It was amazing how much more cheerful the day looked after I had an ice cream bar. I updated the journal while Monika processed a backlog of pictures until it was time for our pizza dinner and then we read a bit to unwind and went to bed.