Big mistake!
I really don’t know where to start.
Guess I can start with the really cool roadside art that we came across. We saw some in Roswell earlier in the week but didn’t get any pictures. Today I made Tim drive us out of the way to make it to the Prada store. It, my friends, is in the middle of nowhere!
The nearest town is really Valentine but there is nothing there. Ninety percent of what you do see is either shut down, boarded up, non existent or just strangely weird. The next closest town was Marfa. LOVED Marfa. Super cute. Lots of cool food joints and would love to have spent some time there and in Alpine and Marathon.
Next up was one of John Cerney’s roadside billboard mural art pieces. We saw two other displays that he did near Roswell. This one Tim barely got stopped for in time. I had to hoof it back a good quarter mile to get these pictures. Then as we approached the next roadside art, now keep in mind we were kinda looking for a grocery store, we were super excited to see the Target sign only to be disappointed but also laughing at the same time!
Now let me talk about Big Bend National Park. I’ll say that I haven’t sugarcoated anything in my travel blog nor will I start now. And I’ll also start by saying we came at the wrong time of year. So it’s really all our fault.
Less than a week ago, we only realized that we could and would come here. So Tim researched the weather when he could and I researched the campgrounds in the Big Bend National Park. Tim found the highs there to be 89-90* and lows in the 60’s. That was doable. I decided on Rio Grande Village Campground on the Mexican boarder. They had some full hookups and no reservations taken until November because they never fill up this time of year. We also knew the limited full-hookups could be taken by the time we got there.
Things just never felt right upon gate entry into Big Bend. The young Ranger at the entry gate couldn’t give us much information. Then the other Ranger at the Visitor Center was bothered by me asking questions and even more bothered by me confirming an answer. This young Ranger asked if I had paid my entry fee. If so I would have gotten a newspaper bulletin and basically didn’t need to ask her anything because all the information she told me was in it. THEN an attendant at the gas station was bothered because I asked him how much their fuel cost. We only needed the information for when we would exit the park. There were no street signs with the price and both sides of the single gas pump were blocked by customers. Ugh.
Once we got to the campground, that by the way takes a huge effort to get to, over 100 miles of nothing and almost 2 hours to get there from Marathon, TX. It was HOT. One hundred degrees!!! That was over a 51* temperature change for us from N.M. to Texas.There were no electric sites available. No problem. We carry two small generators. Tim decided we could sit in the shade beside the Airstream to let things cool off first. Halfway through our beer is when the guy camping next to us cranked his loud contractor generator.
When we went to walk Jett we discovered the entire place was covered with some thorns over a half inch long. The size of small nails! We could not walk her with out pulling thorns out or sand spurs. Campfires were not allowed but we smelled them anyway. It was so hot. Why would you want one? Vigilantes!
Turned out to be our first time running both generators so that we could run our AC. We were able to cool interior down enough by the time we had to shut them off at 8 PM. That’s when the guys baby next door started crying. I get it. He needed to run the loud generator for the baby. But who brings a newborn camping with no power? The same guy who didn’t have a step to get into the back of his truck camper so he used the picnic table to climb up on (bench & table) to get in. Then Jett began barking at the baby. Then someone broke glass somewhere! We slept with the windows open and our Fantastic vent over the bed blowing in. It was a horrible nights sleep.
On the bright side it was 65* inside the Airstream the next morning! Big Bend is a really beautiful and amazing place. The landscape was stunning. We were just there at the wrong time and at the wrong place.
Elevation - 1,820’
Temperature - 100* (on arrival)
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