Location: Fort Davis (Texas) to Bandera (Texas)<\/p>\n
High point: being greeted by a wonderful Wild West reception in Bandera<\/p>\n
Low point: only having four tumblin\u2019 tumble weed moments on the road (I\u2019m not talking about James\u2019s jokes)<\/p>\n
No point: no time to stop for lunch on stage 8, we just keep on trucking<\/p>\n
Dust devil count: 9<\/p>\n
Best Borat moment: Steve\u2019s definition of a Mardi Gras when talking to Patricia from Bandera Tourism<\/p>\n
Stage 8 (Phoenix to New York) is all about BIG miles and today was no exception.\u00a0 The 616 km \u00a0from Fort Davis to Bandera took 12 hours.\u00a0 We left early but had to make an unscheduled stop off in Alpine as Martha was in need of some TLC.\u00a0 While the boys had new flag poles made (thanks to McCoys) and erected the FTFE flags donated by Hand Waving Flags http:\/\/www.handwavingflags.com the girls popped next door to pick up some cowboy boots (when in Rome).\u00a0 McCoys also managed to come up with an alternative fuel cap that works much better than the polystyrene cup we had been using since stage 7, fancy that.\u00a0 Thanks guys.<\/p>\n
Driving through the desert was all the things you imagine it to be; hot, dry and dusty.\u00a0 However outside the truck we had to hang onto our hats (and Gemma) as we were at the mercy of the violent Texan winds.\u00a0 Martha however seemed to enjoy the wind in her hair as she trucked majestically across the Lone Star State dreaming of cowboys and Indians.<\/p>\n
Arriving at our destination, Bandera, we were blown away by the reception organised by the lovely Diane from Running R Guest Ranch and Patricia from Bandera Tourism.\u00a0 Since being in America we\u2019ve been overwhelmed by people\u2019s kindness.\u00a0 Like so many others we\u2019ve met along the way, Diane\u2019s life has also sadly been touched by cancer.\u00a0 She had arranged for the FTFE crew to be met by a very excited welcoming committee, the Bandera fire service and a reporter from the local Bandera newspaper.<\/p>\n
Bandera is probably as close to the Wild West as we\u2019re going to get y\u2019all.\u00a0 The largest shop in town is called the \u2018Cowboy Shop\u2019, people actually wear cowboy hats and boots with spurs, and horses are still regularly tied up on the main street while their riders frequent the local saloon bars.<\/p>\n
After a tasty dinner (Mexican of course) at the OST (Old Spanish Trail) Restaurant, compliments of Bandera Tourism (thank you again) there was time for a quick stop at Bandera Fire Department before retiring to the the lovely Running R Guest Ranch.\u00a0 At the fire station Gemma even managed to make the fire fighters outfit she tried on look cool.\u00a0 I feel slightly guilty for suggesting she might like to try it on.<\/p>\n
Back at Running R Guest Ranch Diane explained the Ranch is exactly like \u2018City Slickers\u2019 starring Billy Crystal.\u00a0 In the film he and his friends are having a mid-life crisis and decide to go on a two week holiday in the wild west driving cattle from New Mexico to Colorado.\u00a0 There they meet cowboy Curly who teaches them how to be real cowboys and one or two things about life in the open air of the Wild West.\u00a0 Who knows what they have in store for us tomorrow\u2026<\/p>\n
Life on the road is starting to hurt now.\u00a0 Our day typically starts at 7am and by the time all the blogs, videos and FTFE admin (shipping, logistics, etc, etc) are ticked off its gone midnight.\u00a0\u00a0We arrive at our destinations in the dark and move on the next morning.\u00a0 If we have time in a town we\u2019re so eager to see it we run around like headless chickens.\u00a0 We\u2019re never really off duty and there are no weekends.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m starting to really miss family and friends, sleeping in my own bed, wearing clean clothes that don\u2019t have the follow that fire engine logo on the front and being able to do any kind of exercise.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, we are extremely lucky to see all the incredible sights we have seen, for the life changing experiences and memories, to meet the most unbelievable people; all while raising money and awareness for three amazing charities.\u00a0 Life on the road is extremely rewarding but sometimes you just miss being at home and it would\u00a0be nice to have a little rest.\u00a0 Especially for Steve who has been with Martha since the beginning.\u00a0 He\u2019s definitely feeling the FTFE pain.<\/p>\n
If you like following that fire engine and reading our blogs please remember the reason behind the expedition.\u00a0 100% of all money raised goes to three charities; the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Fire Fighters Charity.\u00a0 The expedition is completely self funded by the crew.<\/p>\n
Amy<\/p>\n
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Location: Fort Davis (Texas) to Bandera (Texas) High point: being greeted by a wonderful Wild West reception in Bandera Low point: only having four tumblin\u2019 tumble weed moments on the road (I\u2019m not talking about James\u2019s jokes) No point: no time to stop for lunch on stage 8, we just keep on trucking Dust devil […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-8-phoenix-to-new-york"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5018"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5915,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5018\/revisions\/5915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}