As I write this post, Beth and I are relaxing at our campsite at the Chisos Basin campground in Big Bend National Park. We are sitting at the base of a rugged, sawtooth shaped mountain that towers above the campground at an elevation of over several thousand feet. The only sounds we can hear are the pleasant chirping of birds, the wind whistling through the scrub brush and bushes surrounding our campsite, and our neighbor on his cellphone, disputing a charge to his credit card with someone on the other end who is apparently not being too helpful.
It’s Tuesday afternoon, the seventh day of our National Park escapade. Over the last seven days we have covered over 2,100 miles, traveled through eight states, visited three National Parks, slept in five different campgrounds, and made only two wrong turns.
We left Hot Springs, Arkansas Sunday morning en route to an overnight at the Abilene State Park in Texas. Since it was Sunday, we wanted to find a Church to attend. Beth used our good friend Google to find the Church On The Rock, a non-denominational Church which was right off the interstate. It just happened to be having a worship service starting as we were passing by. I don’t think that was a conincidence. We enjoyed the worship and were back on the road by 10:45.
We had an uneventful travel day, arriving at Abilene State Park shortly before supper. Our campsite, which was listed for tents only, was surrounded by dense woods. The tent pad was comprised of compacted, crushed gravel. There was no way to secure the tent with our stakes, so we had to set it up without the benefit of staking it in. We figured that would be fine since wewould only be there for the overnight and it wasn’t too windy. Hindsight is 20-20. After setting up we enjoyed a nice dinner of pasta with marinara sauce. I hope you don’t get tired of me mentioning dinner in every blog, but it amazes me that Beth can come up with such delicious meals using our two burner camp stove and no refrigerated fooods. I had an extra helping or two of the pasta, and we had a chance to relax a bit before heading to bed.
While we were not awakened during the night by the sounds of coyotes howling or the occasional train whistle, our night’s sleep was far from restful. Remember how I mentioned we couldn’t stake down the tent? Well, the wind picked up overnight, and on numerous occasions it blew strong enough to rattle the tent walls and wake us up in fear the tent would collapse on us. We felt the tent fabric on us several times and slept with an eye open just to be sure we wouldn’t get trapped underneath. The next morning Beth said she thought the tent would collapse during the night like a Lucille Ball movie.
We were up early Monday morning anticipating our travels to Big Bend. We had a little over six hours of driving to get there, plus time for lunch, bathroom and gas stops. Our hope was to be there in time for supper. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the forecast for Big Bend promised sunshine throughout our stay. That made us happy. On our way out of the campground we saw a very interesting sight. A wolf ran in front of our car and on the right hand side of the road was a dead boar! We had apparently disturbed the wolf’s breakfast. He stood still as a statue on a small rise along the road waiting for us to pass so he could finish his feast. We stopped and stared at the wolf and then back at the boar, and drove off shaking our heads. We are not in Nags Head anymore.
We continued our trek west and stopped for lunch in Rankin, Texas at a community park where we thought we would find a picnic table and some shade. The temperature was about 90 degrees. Unfortunately, the park was undergoing renovation, so we were forced to eat for the second time in the meager amount of shade created by our open rear hatch. I hope we don’t have to make that a regular habit.
At a little town called Marathon, we stopped for gas. For a brief moment I thought we had hit a time warp. The gas pumps were the old fashioned kind with no digital readout, but numbers that rolled around tallying up your gallons and price. Also, I had to actually swing a lever from the “Off” position to the “On” position before dispensing the gas. It was just like I was sixteen again and putting gas into my 1972 Olds Cutlass Supreme. You younger readers probably have never experienced these types of pumps, but it brought back a nostalgic moment for me. I was rudely brought back to reality when I saw the price of $3.60 per gallon. When I was sixteen, I think I paid about eighty cents a gallon. When I went in to pay for the gas, the clerk had the television on. He was watching a re-run of “The Andy Griffith” show on a black and white set. Maybe we had entered a time warp. I started my DeLorean, I mean my Escape, and off we rode, destination Big Bend, May 6, 2024.
The temperature when we left Marathon was 90 degrees. As we made our way closer to Big Bend, the temperature continued to rise. Upon entering the park, we hit 95 degrees and were still about 30 miles from the campground which was at the very bottom of the park in an area called Rio Grande Village. Yes, it was named for the Rio Grande River, which meanders through the area. We were struck by the beauty all around us. Mountains of brown and even yellow rock rose jaggedly toward a Texas big blue sky. Beth, who often reads in the car while we travel, put her book down and soaked up the beautiful scenery all around.
Another 2 miles, another degree hotter. 95 degrees became 96, which became 98, and then 99. I pointed to the temperature readout on the car dash and told Beth I had never seen in hit 100. We didn’t have to wait long. I blinked and it was 100 and climbing. Beth snapped a picture of the display to send to the kids. She should have waited a little longer. When we finally reached our campground, it was 106 degrees! Now that’s hot, real hot, and I don’t care how dry it is.
It was a little after 5:30 when we began to set up and we made short order of it, as we are getting more efficient each time. We even had time to relax a bit before supper. As we sat at our campsite admiring our beautiful surroundings, the campground hosts, Donna and Ben, stopped by to welcome us and answer any questions we had. We had a delightful conversation and learned that they had sold their home a couple of years back and were now living full-time in their fifth-wheel camper. They signed up to be hosts for May, June and July.
They warned us about a local critter making the rounds at the campground called a “javelina”, a smaller version of a wild boar, but without the tusks and not quite as aggressive. Sure enough, as if on cue, one of these guys strolled in to the campground looking for a handout. It was the size of a normal pig, dark in color, with a rather large head and a big stomach. It rooted around the campground but never ventured close enough to be of any concern. I kidded with Donna that I was going to have it for supper. Fortunately, our uninvited guest moved on and left us alone.
Since we were in southwest Texas near Mexico, we had frozen chimichangas for dinner that we had purchased at a grocery store in Marathon. It seemed like an appropriate choice. While they were no where near as good as Beth’s meals, they were tasty and we enjoyed each bite. We were entertained by several roadrunners strutting around the campsite while we ate. Ben had mentioned that there are coyotes roaming the area as well as the javelinas. I thought it would be great and quite ironic if we could see a coyote with the roadrunners. A cartoon classic moment. We went to bed on the still inflated air mattress shortly after dark. The tent rain fly wasn’t attached affording us a great view of a star-studded sky stretching over southwest Texas as we fell asleep.