The Journey |
Being a compendium of thoughts as we drive and drive and....
The Journey |
Yesterday was our last day in the Big Bend area and we spent it on the river. We did what they call a boomerang trip into St. Elena canyon – paddling upstream into the canyon in the morning, stopping for lunch, and then paddling downstream back to the put in in the afternoon. The paddling was generally easy, although there were some challenges going upstream. There were places where the river narrowed and the current was challenging, and other places where it was so shallow that we had to get out of the kayaks and drag them over the gravel bars. The canyon itself is impressive. It’s a cleft in an otherwise impassable barrier where the river has carved 1500 foot walls as it meanders through the rock. We ate our lunch on the Mexico side, but no one noticed. Also we learned that below El Paso (which uses all the river's water), the Rio Grande runs dry. All the water down here comes from the Rio Conchos in (and controlled by) Mexico. Gracias! And there was a roadrunner at breakfast. The park puts an image of one on the signs for roadside exhibits but neither that nor Looney Tunes prepared us for how small they are.
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We had a fun day in Big Bend Ranch State Park, to the west of the national park. The visitor center had a small, but very interesting (and well done) exhibit on the history of this area – geological, cultural, and natural. We hope our entrance fee and the money we spent on a T shirt goes towards the parks, not the state’s general fund! The geology continues to astonish us… hoodoos and a slot canyon were the destinations of our shorter walks. And the slot canyon had some shade – a rare commodity in the Big Bend. Laura's knee brace is doing its job, but scrambling up rocks and putting all her weight on a bent knee can be worrisome. Local bbq joint for dinner was barebones but delicious. And we have enough leftovers for two more meals.
Laura's Wordle streak ended yesterday with that damn [x]ound word...but Bee Buddy helped her get to Queen Bee today. And we don't mean the chili. Nothing like fear of heat stroke to ruin your day. We KNEW the trail looked unpromising… 5 miles round trip with no shade and 90 degree heat. But a group we passed said the petroglyphs were worth it. So we continued on. And saw a second rattler on the trail. The petroglyphs were cool but it was a long hot hike back to the car. Cactus flowers only went so far to divert us. We were done hiking for the day. The rest of our sightseeing was from the car. Amazing landscape and interesting history of the riverfront town of Castolon. The Mule's Ears fit perfectly. Now we are in Terlingua Ghost Town in an old motel that’s been refurbished. When we pulled up at 5, there was already a line for dinner at the Starlight Theater Restaurant and Saloon. At 7:15, we had a 90 minute wait.
As noted yesterday, this is the home of the Terlingua International Chili Championship (TICC), the granddaddy of all chili competitions, and also headquarters for chili cookoffs worldwide. CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International: https://www.casichili.net; motto: “Chili, Charity and Fun”), the sanctioning body for chili competitions, is down the road. Ed’s chili is an adaptation of a TICC award-winning recipe and it is much better than what we had for dinner. Maybe he can stay and join their board. This is the third of our three nights in Big Bend. Tomorrow we move to Terlingua, home of west Texas chili and other culinary delights! It will be a welcome change. We started the day driving out to Boquillas Canyon. We had hoped to float or paddle the river, but this late in the year, water levels are too low so we will be taking a different trip later in the week. Nevertheless a beautiful canyon, with an entrepreneur with a canoe on the Mexico side offering to bring over chicken tamales and other treats. We weren’t hungry, alas. As one person observed, for generations the river was a connection not a border and people crossed freely from the Park to the Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen to work, eat, visit, etc. Then, after 9/11 the border was closed and people were cut off from each other. Ten years ago they reopened it as the only unstaffed legal border crossing on the US/Mexico border. It is open four days a week and there is only a Park Service employee present. The crossing to Mexico by flat boat ferry was closed today, but we loved the gate barring the road! This was also a day Laura passed two other women in serious knee braces and a third who looked at her and said, “damn, I left my brace in the hotel.” Our second hike was hot and exposed, with no shade offering relief. But wow, the flowers. We learned that we are in the Chihuahuan Desert. Did NOT see any namesake dogs. We ended the day with a short hike to the hot springs. Given that the car said it was 113 degrees, the appeal might have been limited. But by switching back and forth from the river to the springs (in the remnants of the old bath house) it was fun. In the heyday, you could stay for $1 a day and take the waters for 25 cents. Waiting for dinner, we experienced a desert sun-thunderstorm … lighting to the left, full sun to the right. And a double rainbow.
A beautiful day in Big Bend – sunny, a bit hot (80’s), but not too bad. It gets down to the 50’s at night, so even though our room is not air conditioned, it stays cool and comfortable. Spent the day on trails near the lodge. A short trail with a view of the rock formation called The Window and then a longer one that took us out to The Window itself. It’s a pour off – although there is no flowing water now – with a slippery rock edge that could be quite dangerous but, surprisingly, the Park Service has not blocked it off or put up warning signs. No nanny state in Texas. The late afternoon was spent relaxing and reading and then dinner at the Lodge, which maintains the tradition of okay, but uninspired food at the park lodges. OTOH, Laura got to try chicken fried steak and the peach cobbler was excellent.
We had our second longest drive today and it took us to the extreme southwest corner of the journey – Big Bend National Park. Food and driving seem to have consumed the whole day! We had a good breakfast at a local spot that was clearly ready for weekend hordes. We counted 10 employees serving and coming out of the kitchen. This was not the first time that we observed that the Texas service industry does not seem to have a labor shortage. We had to stop at the local smokehouse in honor of Brian, who would have loved it. We would have bought a lot more if we weren’t on the road. No spoon rests to be found in Fredericksburg, and while we are in Texas for 9 more days, it seemed like our best bet. Most of the rest of the day was an incredibly boring drive across West Texas through some of the least interesting scenery we’ve ever driven through. Straight roads, mostly flat vistas across the hot, stinking desert, occasionally relieved by something like the pyramidal mesa. Real Tex Mex lunch in Fort Stockton and a stop at the last Walmart for provisions. That’s where we left the interstate and drove the long, non-winding road south to the park. Only in the last 60 miles did the geography get more dramatic, the cacti were in bloom (along with the wildflowers) and we came to understand why we are here. We are staying at the Chisos Mountain Lodge in the park for three nights, in the room absolutely the furthest from the visitor center and lodge. Long climb to our room, but the payoff is the view. Another observation…. Many of our fears about the politics of the south have not been realized. The only Trump signs we’ve seen were between Houston and Austin. And except for the 1 star reviews about the smokehouse because they required masks, there is evidence of the remnants of pandemic carefulness everywhere.
We write this from our funky hotel room – an old motor court spiffed up a bit - in Fredericksburg TX, having just watched The Alpinist, about solo climber Marc-André Leclerc. A haunting story that makes it hard to think about the rest of the day. We started the day with breakfast at our inn, watching the white peacocks Leo and Luna outside the dining room window. Then Laura bought a new pair of hiking socks. It wasn’t the first thing we found we forgot to pack – Cathy mailed Ed’s EpiPens to Austin – and it undoubtedly won’t be the last. Then Pedernales State Park to see the falls and canyon. There was no water running over the falls and the canyon was meh. (Tho the rocks and woods were nice.) And it all took longer than expected. So we regrouped at Fat Boy Burgers in Johnson City and decided against the long drive to Enchanted Rock. Instead we visited the LBJ ranch. It reminded us that he accomplished so much before Vietnam brought down his presidency. We continued onto Fredericksburg, the heart of the Hill Country, settled by German immigrants in the 19th century (as we learned in Spying on the South). A note in our hotel room tells us that the innkeeper’s family came here from Germany over 150 years ago.
Beautiful weather today. Clear, mostly sunny, high in the 70’s as we transition from the cities of the south to the Texas hill country and then to West Texas. Breakfast at Nate’s Baked, a funky little local bakery. Left Jeffrey’s lovely, if small, wildflower garden and spent the morning at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, wandering through their gardens. In addition to the flora, the garden had art, both real and augmented reality Then lunch at the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, one of the famous BBQ places near Austin. It was very good, but it made us realize that the quality of Q available in Boston has started to approach that of the really well known hotbeds of BBQ.
Our home for the night is a lovely B&B outside Wimberly, where we spent the late afternoon sitting in the sun by the pool. Not a lot of good choices for dinner, but we watched a beautiful sunset from a lovely beer and wine garden overlooking the hillside. Another museum heavy day. After dropping our hosts Jeffrey and Bill at the airport, we headed into the heart of Austin to the Bullock Texas State History Museum. It seemed like exhibits have been redone fairly recently. For a state museum, under the purview of the lieutenant governor, the bilingual labels were pretty brave and balanced. But the Civil War exhibit was not updated. Laura couldn’t help but wonder if something is going on behind the scenes. We then headed to UT’s special collections, the Harry Ransom Center. They had an exhibition about film storyboards, drawn from their amazing collections. Oh, and a Gutenberg Bible and a fine Frieda Kahlo. Eerie how a landmark can bring back memories. We couldn’t pass the tower on the UT campus without recalling the 1966 shooting. Who could have imagined such an act of senseless violence would become commonplace? We were too tired to take on the Blanton but did stop at the Ellsworth Kelly chapel, which is lovely. They are relandscaping around the museum, so it’s a mess, but the cool sculptural sunshades should be welcome when it’s all done.
We started the day in Houston, chatting with our B&B host who will, in fact, be running in the Boston Marathon. She’s competitive in the Para Athletics Division (T13/vision impairment). So with Ruth, we have two runners to follow next week!
Our destination in Houston was the Rothko Chapel, which was actually disappointing. But the Barnet Newman sculpture, Broken Oblelisk, and the contemplative birch grove were the perfect setting. The Menil Collection is closed on Tuesdays so onto Bill and Jeffrey’s in Austin! Enroute we passed a bright purple car. And in their lovely neighborhood, a new meaning of MAGA: Mothers Against Greg Abbott. And we got to do laundry! |
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