11-15-10 Monday at Big Bend National Park

Monday – 11/15/10


Photos: 

This morning we decided to take a hike. There are many trails but since it has been so long since we have done much hiking, we decided to start slow. One of the trails that leads from a close by picnic area goes to an over look. If you follow it the full 3 miles, you will be at the Hot Spring. Today we went to the overlook and then a little beyond before returning to the trailer.

Just past the entrance to the trail the same type of souvenirs were laid out by the Mexican businessmen. It seems that they are tolerated to come across as they wish as long as they do so without flaunting it and stay mostly unseen. There is a sign on the bulletin board stating that the items sold by the Mexican businessmen are contraband. If you purchase them, they can be taken from you. If they Mexicans are caught here, they will be sent to a detention facility and then deported. Most surprising is that these same trinkets and walking sticks can be purchased in the Store at a higher price.

The trail started out up hill and continued like this past the overlook. It finally leveled out some. The terrain is very rocky. The plant life consists of mostly different types of cactus and prickly plants. Everything has the appearance of being sharp. The only life we see are the birds and large crickets and one ant. We see no lizards, snakes or spiders. Most everything seems to be some shade of brown. LOL Green brown, brown, yellow brown. The sun is bright yellow and hot and continuously beats down on you. Today is very windy which helps keep you cool but now you have wind burn instead of sun burn. Maybe a combination of both.

At the overlook the Rio Grande can be seen from both directions. The land of Mexico stretches out before you. There is no difference between the two countries here. From this vantage point, it is even clearer how the border between the two countries is pretty much open.

After returning to the camp site, we cleaned up and ate some lunch. Time for another trip to the Hot Spring. It was about 4pm when we got there and were the only ones for about an hour. The same four Mexicans were at their camp on the other side of the river. Since we didn’t have head lamps we wanted to get back to the truck before dark.

Tonights supper consisted of bite size pieces of grilled Ribeye steak in a mushroom and onion gravy nestled in a bed of fluffy herbed rice with a large salad.

Yummy. When we closed the garden up, Thomas packed up 3 boxes of tomatoes in various stages of ripeness. We are just finishing up the first box which was packed with ripe tomatoes. It is time to start on the next box which was packed at different stages of ripeness. The last box is full of all green tomatoes.

After dinner we decided to splurge and take a “pay” shower at the store. It is $1.50 for 5 minutes. Even though we couldn’t get finished in the 5 minutes, it was well worth the $3.

During the night, the coyotes howled again. This time they weren’t nearly as close.