Day 83, Wednesday, 03/19/08

The following commentary is from about a week of travel. Could not post it so I just kept writing until I could.

Thursday (the 13th), we drove from Karchner Caverns to El Paso. Thought about staying in El Paso two or three days to explore the area – a mountain state park, Mexico, restaurants. But what a “pit” El Paso is. We left at 8:00 am the next morning. It’s a very big city and very spread out. The road system is confusing and it’s crowded!

We drove to Alpine, TX and spent two nights to do laundry, grocery shop and wait out the high winds. The next stop is Big Bend National Park and we wanted to be fully prepared for a 3 or 4 day stay in a remote area.

Today, Sunday, we went to Big Bend. It’s the big spring break week around here and “campgrounds full” signs were at the park entrance. Hard to believe this park would fill up. It’s so remote! No traffic on the 65 mile drive into the park from the nearest major highway outside the park. But we never believe “full” signs so we drove on to the far Eastern corner of the park where a park licensed “concessionaire” operates a convenience store, gas station, laundromat, showers, and a 25 site campground with full hook-ups (water, electric, and sewer). Yes, the sign 22 miles away said they were full too. But we went anyway and “by god” they had one spot available. We took it!

So we are here for at least two nights. It’s not a pretty site or sight, but it works. The big thing is that we have shade trees and electricity to run the air conditioner. We are right on the Rio Grande River so it’s like an oasis in the desert with not only the trees but grass as well. Shade is important as the temperature today was 100. Too hot to do much!

Presently we are located at the far southeastern edge of the park. Not a whole lot available from here but the full service campground attracted us. Actually, with the two dogs there is not a lot to do in any National Park. They are not allowed on any trails, they should not be left alone in the motor home, and it’s too hot to take them and leave them in the car while we explore. Two short hikes (one with the dogs down a park road, and one nearby without them so we could safely leave them in the motor home) took up our second day here. We move on to the west end of the park tomorrow, Tuesday morning.

Monday it cooled off to low 90’s and this morning (Tuesday) its 57 and still falling!

So what’s up for the next few days? I’ll let you know later. Big weather front coming in so we may get out of here.

Well, guess what? Before we left for the other side of the park this morning we just decided leave and head east. The best part of any park is hiking and we just were not going to be able to do any with the dogs in tow. Plus bad weather on the way in.

Drove to Seminole Canyon State Park through a terrible rain and wind storm. We made it. but sure got the moisture that has been missing on this trip.

Today, Wednesday, we woke up to a fantastic sunny morning with no wind. And what a fresh breath of clean, cool, rain infused air. We signed up for a ranger led hike into the Canyon to view the ancient petroglyphs. It was nice but way too many kids on spring break along for the tour. Dirty faces, crying, irrelevant questions taking up too much of the rangers time, and running all over the place causing concerned parents to yell at them. Plus some "real" senior citizens who walked at a millepede's pace causing the ranger to slow everything down so they could catch up. We saw the petroglyphs and got out fast!

We packed up and are now in San Antonio, TX at an RV Resort. Could not get into any state park in the area due to the spring break rush. Since we are here in San Antonio, we may stay another night. But, by tomorrow morning we will probably change our minds. We were going to head for Florida for some time on a beach before heading home, but we are out of time to do so. We will leave here and go to Galveston Island State Park, just a day’s drive, and spend the rest of our SW 2008 Tour there. It too is on the Gulf and dogs are allowed on the beach. Perfect!!! We will leave there in time to be home around the 29^th.

San Antonio is the first cell and Internet service for about four or five days so I will add some Big Bend pictures tomorrow.

Good night for now!

Seminole Canyon cave where humans lived for thousands of years

Seminole Canyon is normally dry, but the heavy rains the last two days has resulted in some flow

The petroglyph pictures are not too clear. And no one knows for sure what they mean.

View from inside the cave

Ancient butcher block or cutting board. The surface is very smooth after centuries of use.

Rio Grande River as it flows through Big Bend NP

Not so great a view of El Paso from a scenic "skyline" drive taken from the car. It was too windy to get out of the car. But you can see how spread out the city is.