#129 Big Bend National Park

This was the first time I had seen a road runner

We left Marathon and headed towards Big Bend National Park. We didn't know anything about it but I think when I get to places like this I can't see any value in it initially. Then little by little, I start realizing what's special about it. Big Bend is wildness and untamed The deserts a tricky place because it looks dead but there's life everywhere when you start looking. The only thing you have to do to qualify for a visit is our desire to visit all the National parks. We started seeing roadrunners so I got a kick out of that. We got to the campground and I have to admit I thought it was overlooking the river or something beautiful. It was just an asphalt parking lot with 50 RVs like 25 of them looking at 25 of them. We settled and it was really hot like 95 or100 degrees so at least it was a full hookup we could turn both the airs conditioner on. I say this because if it's only a 30 amp service you can only have one AC unit on. In that kind of heat, it never becomes comfortable. You can lower the temperature in the RV from 100 to about 84 but that’s about it. You can lay on the bed directly under the output and feel some cooling. A full hook-up is pretty important when it's hot or cold.

About halfway, past Marathon, we were quite surprised that we were getting up 4G signal and we saw a huge cell phone tower. I assumed that meant people lived there.

The next day we had every intention of doing something but it was so hot it didn’t happen.

This was the hot springs, The river is the Rio Grande. Its about 3 feet deep here and 20 feet wide. On the other riverbank is Mexico. There is a corner where the hot water seeps out of the ground. Its about 120 degrees there. You have to learn to be careful. We would allow cold river water in to regulate the temperature. Lift a rock it gets cooler put it back it heats up some.

That evening after it cooled off I wanted to see the hot springs. I was kind of glad but I didn't know they existed. You drive your truck up a ways and India said to take a left on the next dirt road. You get to a place where it says no RVs or dual-wheeled vehicles past this point. When I looked at the sign it read no RVs or buses beyond this point. The warning is because it was a very skinny road. At some point, the road becomes a one-way loop. The width is about the size of a Prius. I have a dually so I am certifiably crazy now. I proceeded because as I read it we're not a bus or an RV. This road became so narrow and so scary now it wasn't but a twenty-foot drop but it would have still been a bad day to falling off the cliff. I had to go to about 1 mile an hour to make it on these sharp curves. It really reminded me of Logan's pass and Logan's pass is twice as wide as this was. Wow-what a dummy and so we had to kind of scrape the paint a little bit on the dually fender to not fall off the road. We got down to the real parking lot and were glad we survived.

After that, we walk down to the hot springs and of course, I begin to enjoy it. The girls begin to feel awkward as we got there turns out in the freedom-loving community where most of the girls were nude. They kind of like topless because it's just a real free kind of out-of-the-way remote place. I was thrilled. I try not to stare at a girl's chest when fully clothed out of respect. It's especially hard whenever they ain't got nothing on. It's still good to respect people and not stare as it makes you come off as a middle school boy instead of a grown-up. Let them be what they want to be without staring at them. We all got in and it was about a hundred and five degrees and it was great. There was one point where it had gotten really good and dark I thought as a guy I’m already topless. The least I could do to show my solidarity and take my gym shorts off. They didn’t even notice or care. India and Savannah wanted to crawl under a table. They said you know dude we're going to head on up to the truck. Twenty minutes or so later I knew it was time for me to go. I kind of go to the south rock wall border of the Hot Springs and like a lizard just slid into the Rio Grande. It was very cool like about 75-80 degrees and very refreshing. I only went down about a football field or so and then I kind of emerged out of the river on these Flat Rocks that we're making huge natural stairsteps. I know it's just my imagination but I felt like I was right on the album cover of houses of the Holy and at this point. I was butt naked but it was also pitch dark and nobody could care less anyway. I got back on the path and put my skivvies back on and kind of said bye to everybody and walked up to the truck. Getting out of there probably did a little bit more body damage scraping against the rock wall.

I took a picture with my bicycle the next day showing how narrow it was hopefully the bicycle will give a perspective.

I walked around over there in the national park campgrounds to investigate. Even though they had no water or electric it seemed cooler because they had flooded the area with irrigation canals and it made a little pond. There were lots of trees and it seemed pretty cool with no air conditioning at all and it was reasonably comfortable with the wind blowing. I decided to leave the RV parking lot and go to the National Park camping area. In the middle of the day, we could always run the generator as needed.

We were able to get a site down there at the national park when we moved in he was just so much more country so much more laid-back and very nice surroundings. It was still hot but we had a generator and we didn't care. The girls had all the hot springs they needed but because I very much like sitting in a hot tub with nude women I thought I could go back.

Also in the recovery meetings, they always say keep coming back, and that kind of resonated with me so I went back four times. Three at night and once during the day. At night there was an incredible dark sky at Big Bend.

On one of my day trips to the hot springs, I noticed some of the people from Mexico had a little honesty honor system type trinket sales thing. They set out cool stuff there for sale and you just kind of put the money in a can. Nobody steals the money, nobody steals the trinkets, it was great. I didn't have any money on me so I had to return.

I also wanted to get some pictures of the petroglyphs. It was also good to get back in the hot springs again. We stayed at Big Bend the three nights and then we headed on out