Good morning from Seminole Canyon, TX -- Site I-10! What a difference some daylight makes! Super cool spot here. It was cold last night (8c) and made for not a great sleep.
8am made coffee and cocoas to warm up. Jonathan and I went for a little walk around the campground in the morning sunshine and bright blue sky. After we got back to the rig, Amelia and I went for a small walk to take the garbage to the bin and then explored down the Birding Trail just off the campground. This was a neat walk and had lots of information posts about the plants in the area. We learned about Dragon's Blood, Jumping Cactus, Persimmon, Christmas Cactus, and Prickly Pear to name a few. We also learned it takes about 70,000 chochineal bugs who make little nests on the prickly pear to make 1 lb of red dye. At the end of the trail was a little birding blind where you could look out over the landscape and spot birds. The also had a little sealed tub with a binder and pencils where you could record any findings.
Back at the RV, we saw that Ollie and Jonathan were walking off towards the other trails. We ran and caught up with them and shared our newly learned knowledge. Jonathan was eating one of the GIANT pickles we bought at the Beverage Barn. Breakfast pickle? yikes. We got to the trailhead and turned back for proper shoes and water/gear.
We walked the Rio Grande River Trail and Canyon Rim Trail - 3.79km according to my strava. The signs at the beginning of the trail warned of snakes. Super cool canyon trail. We saw a tiny little lizard trying to hide from us within some planks of a small bridge. We also found some interesting rocks that Oliver discovered had a strange hollow sound when you dropped other stones on them. We were back at the rig by noon and had a smoothie and snacks.
Jonathan scrubbed the windscreen with Oliver's help (using the water guns). Oliver also filled the water tank for us and drove us off the blocks. He's getting to be quite the adept little RV'er.
We left Seminole Canyon around 1pm... driving through scrublands and the road had sections carved out of layered rocks. After about an hour of driving through this, we noticed an RV parked out in the middle of the desert that reminded Jonathan and I of something out of Breaking Bad. Totally that kind of landscape.
By 2pm we were driving through Dryden... the first sign of a "town" or civilization other than the various ranch gates. Within half an hour after that we came to Sanderson, the "Cactus Capital of Texas".and basically a border patrol town. Strange little town with some cute looking old storefronts intermixed with boarded up and run down buildings. We stopped in for diesel at "Uncles" convenience store and gas station.
This is where we met Jim Davis, an older character, and experienced our first interaction with the "open carry" policy. Jim had his pistol in his holster by his side. Jim and his wife, Sandra, "lived just up the hill". He commented on his gun and that you can't be too careful. He also commented on the border crossers around here and the border patrol rounding people up. He's even had BP take down people right outside his yard before. Lots of stories to tell us. He was a nice enough character and it certainly was interesting to hear his point of view on things. He wished us a great trip and safe travels and to keep our heads up. (side note: Jonathan had commented to me after that he'd seen some gallon jugs of water stashed under bushes on the drive out here... definitely in border crossing territory. We have both recently read American Dirt, and it was all very real out here).
Before leaving Sanderson, we stopped at the bank to the walk up / drive through ATM to get more cash. I must say it really sucks that our dollar is getting weaker on this trip... and that diesel is so expensive - when we bought the Rig, diesel was cheaper than regular gasoline. Sigh.
As we drove out of town, we saw a large T-Rex on the corner of the main street. Our friend Jim was driving by waving!
By 4pm we were in Marathon, TX... just outside Big Bend National Park. This park was on our hit list but not really on my radar as a big one to check out. (I'd soon learn it was a very memorable one and we'd love it so much!)
Stopped at a little "Big Bend Information Booth" at the side of the road. No one in it, just a collection of brochures and pamphlets about Big Bend. I grabbed a few along with a park map. The best one I grabbed toted a free audio tour of the park. The app was called Just Ahead and the Big Bend park was free. The app had all the other parks we wanted to visit. It proved to be a FANTASTIC app and uses GPS to trigger landmarks and points of interest as you drive through the park. Highly recommend!! As we were parked we saw some very local looking characters with their dusty pick up trucks and rugged jeans and cowboy hats. Felt very Southern Texas!
Decided to park by the French Grocer and get some supplies... eggs, milk, banana chips (for amelia) and Capri Suns for the kids thinking they might be good semi-frozen for long hot hikes as a treat. We saw some 3L bottles of coke (Texas sized!) and the Jiffy Corn Meal reminded me of my buddy, Jeff, whom I called Jiff in our high school days. The store had a variety of supplies. Amelia found a cute little pink stapler with pink staples that I couldn't resist buying for her. Jonathan found a couple of cool locally printed t-shirts with "Marathon" on them... a occotillo print and a jackrabbit print. He ultimately talked himself out of buying one (much to his later regret). The store had high end hiking gear, as well as groceries and basic supplies. Most things you'd need before entering the depths of Big Bend.
After shopping, we drove over to the Marathon Motel and RV Park just down the road. They had a dry camping for $15 (no water/electrical) - perfect! We tucked into a parking space at the back of the property by the chickens and squeezed between some other vans. There was a neat little courtyard over by the motel area and office and a group of people were having a party - complete with lots of tequila. When we crossed through a little boy around Oliver's age ran over and asked if we'd seen any cool bugs. We said we hadn't yet, but would definitely let him know if we did! This little guy came over later and eagerly chatted with the kids and told us all about how fast he can run in the dark because he uses echo-location and sonar. After chatting with his parents later on, we learned that they live here. He was VERY excited to have some other kids to play with for awhile. Sweet and earnest.
Jonathan and Oliver went for a bike ride around the town. Meems and I stayed behind and did art and blogged and tried to come up with a good plan for our future National Park tour when my parents might join us. Our plan was to go to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico after Big Bend... then do Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion as a loop from Phoenix to Las Vegas. The boys came back with tales of barking dogs and exciting small town feels from their bike adventure. We paid for our night and also learned about the Dark Sky talk later.. $10 per adult and they'd have telescopes set up in the field at sunset. Sounded cool and we thought we'd check it out.
Once the sun started setting, we walked over to the field where our Star Party hosts, Bill and Andy had rolled out the large telescopes for people to view the moon through. It was really awesome to see the moon, and also super clear views of Jupiter and all its stripes, as well as a surprisingly clear and bright Saturn with its rings. Bill and Andy were enthusiastic teachers and Oliver took a particular interest in the telescopes and how they work. Bill was super impressed and tickled with Oliver's competence with the telescope and his interest in what he was viewing. A nice vibe all around with a few minor hiccups when the tequila partiers dropped by to see Andy (the younger star host) and were a little rambunctious with their behaviour and language, haha.
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