WEST TEXAS: CHISOS MOUNTAINS IN BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

December 29, 2018

We were surprised to wake up in our hotel in Marathon, Texas (population 500), to below freezing temperatures, ice on the parking lot, and a heavy layer of frost on the windshield.

I checked the temperatures at home and in places where family members live around the US and discovered that the warmest of those places was New York City, the place furthest north (by far). Crazy!

Bob drove carefully (for Bob) on the icy roads.

We loved the tiny towns we passed through. They had a lot of personality. 

We were headed to the eastern end of the same park we had explored the western end of the previous day.

WEST TEXAS: BIG BEND RANCH STATE PARK AND BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK

December 28, 2018

We had originally tried to make this a trip without a ton of driving. Bob loves to drive, but our son and I are not quite as fond of being passengers. Unfortunately, the trip turned out to be mostly driving, with some short to medium-long stops along the way.  Luckily, we had a couple of good books to listen to.  We had finished When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanthi on the long drive from Phoenix to El Paso (#1) and then on to Alpine (#2), and we started Educated by Tara Westover on our second day of driving from Alpine to Big Bend Ranch State Park (#3) and Big Bend National Park (#4)

We began the day having breakfast in Marfa (#5), a little town with a big spirit that I'll write about in another post. Then we headed south towards the Rio Grande River through a rather barren but still interesting desert landscape.