BigBend
One of the cool parts of this journey that I’m starting to embrace is the lack of agenda. I mean we have a vague idea of the direction were heading but there is lots of room to say “yes” to things that pop up.
One thing popped up when we were in Texas was we were in a small town and talking to a man who came up to us asking about our trip and he said, “you got to check out Big Bend, it’s on my bucket list.” We were like what is that and where is that? Come to find out its a National park tucked away in the south west corner of Texas on the Mexixan border. Big Bend park is the least visited of all the national parks which made it even more interesting. So we started thinking about all the national parks , especially out west and realized we needed to buy a park pass for the year that would let us in to all the parks as we traveled. So Big Bend became our first park on our new pass. Nowa bought a little passport book that will get stamped by each park that we visit, he’s so excited about it! Also, the parks each have a junior ranger program for kids that lets them earn badges when they complete an activity book that is full of questions about the local flora and fauna .
So we headed down to Big bend after we went to Austin one last time. The roads were straight and open mostly flat and deserty. There is a small town on the way called Marathon its about 30 miles north of the park and really the last chance to get supplies and fuel. A sweet little place with a beautiful park and some artsy shops and believe it or not a gluten free pizza place! So we had pizza and had a sweet connection with the owner Brent and his partner Jennifer. Lovely folk, kin folk really who blessed us completly and thanked us for doing what were doing, which seems to be happening more and more…We left there after staying a quiet night parked next to the park . Big Bend has it all. Mountains, river and desert! Once in the park we drove a breathtaking 30 mile scenic drive to the RioGrande river. We stayed overnight in the parking lot hoping that a ranger would not kick us out at 10 pm, phew! All the campsites were full, come to find out people book these sites 6-8 months in advance! The other cool thing about Bigbend is its lack of light pollution. Because its so far from anywhere, the night sky is un affecteed by city lights. The Rio grande river is also the border between the USA and Mexico. We waded across the river at a low spot and stepped foot on Mexican soil! I was waiting for the helicopters to swoop in and bust us, but it never happened. I made a note for future reference!
There is a canyon walk that Inanna and Ivy took and we stayed back because Nowa was sick with a fever and a cough which he had for over a week, his first real illness since he was born. After that first night we decided not to push our luck and drove out side the park to park for the night and found a great pull off just outside the park boundary. Ivy and I explored the dry landscape and marveled at all the different cactus. Some were flowering now and the blooms were beautiful. Next day we drove back in to try and find the hot springs pool at the other end of the park. The wind was super strong that day and the temp was over 90 degrees so we ended up parked at the camp store and dd laundry and waited all day for the wind to die down. Finally we left at 9pm and drove back out to our spot outside the gate. Along the way the bus started to overheat on the uphills and we had to pull over and let her cool down, even at night the air temp only dropped a few degrees.
Come to find out the bus needs a new cooling fan for the hydrolic oil cooler. I tried to spin the fan blades but it was stuck fast from age and corrosion. For now we will need to monitor the engine temps and pull over when needed. Also , driving in the morning more before it gets too hot out…I will try and find a new fan soon, i hope!