It seems I have not sat down to write in a week and what a week. We stopped at Terlingua Ranch Lodge RV Park, 16 miles off route 118 which heads down from Alpine to the Study Butte (both “U’s” sound the same) entrance to Big Bend and eventually to Presideo TX. The last three miles in to the Lodge are on dirt. We set up on site 19 (to remind us where we want to be the next time) with mountain views in all directions. Terlingua is back out the 16 miles and then 20 miles to the south. That is the nearest town. The lodge has a cafe with local music and we ate there once. From there we drove to Terlingua Ghost Town where we saw the sites and had lunch at the El Dorado Hotel.
This is the main shopping experience and the Starlight Drive In which was not open for lunch
We visited the local gallery with the “space ship” out front.
and saw what becomes of a big motorhome left in the sun too long.
While at dinner we met Mike Huston a professor of Ecology at a school near Austin whose name I can not remember. He was collecting moths and counting mammals seen on a specific route he drives every time he comes to Terlingua Ranch Lodge once a month for the past four years.
The next day we drove the back road in the Jeep into Big Bend. We actually found ourselves entering the park inside the park entrance station and had to stop at Panther Junction to pick up our day pass. We stopped at Chisos Basin for picnic lunch.
and here is a 180 degree panorama taken in the basin:
It appears I clipped the top off Casa Grande to the left and at the far right is Window
We drove to Santa Elena Canyon at the west end of the park and hiked in as far as we could go. We had wanted to float the canyon, but as you can see, there was not enough water for float trips to go.
On Monday we drove to Marfa and stopped for three nights at Tumble In right on US 90. We revisited many of the sights we had been before from Chinati Foundation to the hotel where Giant was filmed in the 50’s. We drove to Fort Davis and up and around Davis Mountain State Park just to see what might have changed and to once again drive to the top of Skyline Drive with its magnificent views, no pictures this time.
We planned to head into Las Cruces NM on Thursday. Wednesday night the temperature dropped 40 degrees to about 32 and the wind began to howl. I decided that given the forecast for cold and rain I would stow everything I could before going in for dinner. By the time we were ready for dinner I had the car hooked up and ready to go, and everything except electric was disconnected and stowed. Finally as bed time approached I pulled in the driver side living room slide to reduce the wind noise and provide less volume to heat. It was a great idea that I should have extended to the bedroom slide. As we were cleaning up in the morning waiting for the rain to subside we heard radio reports of snow to our east. I know, for those of you in the northeast, whats a little snow in the desert southwest. It’s A BIG DEAL! no one has a clue. We stayed put until it stopped snowing and began to melt. When I pulled in the driver side bedroom slide it didn’t feel right and when I looked out I could see that it had not fully retracted. This meant extending the slide and going up on the roof with a broom to clear the snow. It was slippery up there! I crawled on hands and knees to the slide and swept off the snow from a kneeling position. It is a very long 12 feet from the roof to the ground and I wanted to do it feet first by way of the ladder. Safely back on the ground we completed our departure preparations and set off for Las Cruces where we arrived in a timely fashion to find our mail waiting and good times with the Kelter/Zeitlins waiting.
More on that tomorrow.