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We left Toad Suck Park on Thursday, January 18, around 1:00 in the afternoon, after checking on Jerry’s uncle, Dan, to make sure he was strong enough for us to leave. We took I-30 to Mount Pleasant, Texas where we spent the night at the KOA. The next morning, we continued our trip through Dallas, then took I-20 with plans to spend the second night in Abilene. However, there was snow and ice just west of us so we decided to turn south on Highway 277 to San Angelo instead. We spent Friday night at the Spring Creek Marina and RV Park, a beautiful campground with huge mesquite trees. However, it rained heavily all night so we weren’t able to enjoy the park.

Saturday morning, we took Highway 67 south to I-10 toward Fort Stockton where we stopped for propane at a KOA campground. We then turned south on 385 with the idea that we would spend the night in Marathon but, on the way, we realized that there was a campground with hookups in Big Bend National Park, so we continued on, reaching the Rio Grande Village campground about dusk.

We entered the park via the Persimmon Gap entrance 39 miles south of Marathon on Highway 385 and were immediately awed by the enormity of the park and by the stark, yet beautiful, desert landscape. We knew immediately that this land is unforgiving – early travelers could not afford to make mistakes or they would not live to tell about it. And those brave enough to hike or bike the trails today must be every bit as cautious.

About 5 miles into the park, we saw a strange looking animal that resembled a wild hog. We later learned that what we had seen was a Collared Peccory, or Javelina as the locals call it, not related to the hog family at all. I hate that we didn’t stop to take a picture of this strange looking creature. We thought we would see more but, unfortunately, we didn’t.

At Panther Junction, we turned left and headed toward Rio Grande Village where there are two campgrounds, one complete with full hookups. We settled into our campsite for an uneventful evening. There were only four other RVs in the campground since several left earlier because of ice and snow in the surrounding area.

Sunday morning, we drove to the Boquillas Canyon Overlook and got our first glimpse of the Rio Grande. We were surprised at how small the river is – it’s no wonder that border patrol is so difficult! From the overlook, the massive cliffs of the Sierra del Carmen mountains appear unyielding, yet the Rio Grande has carved a gorge 1,500 feet deep directly through the escarpment. Boquillas Canyon is so narrow that the entrance is almost invisible at this distance. We started a hike into the canyon but saw a sign that said that thefts in the parking lot were frequent and since our computer and several other items were in our truck, we opted not to take the hike.

Next, we backtracked to Panther Junction, then turned left to the Santa Elena Junction, then left again on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. Along the way, we made several stops including the Homer Wilson Ranch. Although it still looks like an active ranch, it was actually abandoned in 1945. The foreman’s house made good use of native materials: a reed ceiling from the river, timbers from the mountains, and large stones from Blue Creek Canyon. Nearby are ruins of a bunkhouse, a circular corral, and a dipping vat for his 12,000 sheep and 25,000 goats – just enough remains to evoke the era of frontier ranching. Our next stop was at the Sotol Vista Overlook. At the vista, we looked toward Mexico, the Rio Grande and the Santa Elena Canyon. Fourteen air miles away, the Santa Elena Canyon appears to be a small gap in the mesa, its giant scale not yet apparent. At the mouth of the canyon, a small trail enters the gorge cut by the Rio Grande over centuries of time. It is truly awesome to see. The spear-like plant surrounding this overlook is sotol, a member of the lily family. Sotol thrives on cooler, north-facing terrain, midway between desert and mountains. For thousands of years, Big Bend’s early inhabitants roasted the heart of sotol for food and fermented it for drink. They used the leaf fibers for rope and sandals.

Another stop was at the Castolon Visitor Center and store. The U.S. Army built most of the structures here in 1919 and 1920 for use as a border outpost during the Mexican Revolution. The outpost, Camp Santa Elena, was never fully occupied. In 1920, the Army was withdrawn as political stability returned to Mexico.

From 1921 to 1961, the Cartledge family used the old army buildings as a store and trading post, and farmed and ranched here along the Rio Grande. The structures and grounds look much as they did during the last years of the Cartledge period. Prior to occupying these structures, Howard Perry, owner of the Chisos Mining Company in Terlingua, and his bookkeeper, Wayne Cartledge, established their new company called La Harmonia. Spanish for "harmony", the name reflected Cartledge’s hope for peaceful relationships among the people of Southwest Texas and Northern Mexico. The first La Harmonia was housed in two adobe buildings from 1919 until the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1921. It stocked a variety of merchandise, catering to farmers and ranchers on both sides of the Rio Grande. With the departure of the U.S. Army troops, the store was relocated to its present location in the troop barracks of Castolon.

As we continued our drive toward the Santa Elena Canyon, we saw several other examples of early 1900’s border architecture: adobe walls, cane and viga ceilings, and stone fireplaces. The adobes are now empty but we are told that the Castolon area has changed little since the frontier days of Indians, outlaws and pioneer farmers. As we travel through the park, we are virtually alone. As far as we can see, there are no cars in front of us and no cars behind us. There are no power poles . . . nothing . . . this is truly desolate country. Ironically, though, we had signal on our Verizon phones!

We finally reached Santa Elena Canyon, one of the park’s best known features, and realized that it is only half a canyon on the U.S. side. Its canyon walls on the river’s south side tower high above Mexico. It is a beautiful sight and another example of just how old and powerful the Rio Grande is. We wanted to return to Panther Junction via the Old Maverick Road, an unpaved scenic route, but it was closed due to recent heavy rains. Instead, we retraced our route back over the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. At the Santa Elena Junction, we took a right and then another right at the Chisos Mountains Basin Junction, leading us through Green Gulch to the Chisos Mountains Lodge and Restaurant. It was a beautiful and winding drive, climbing to an elevation of 5,400 feet. We had a delightful, but late lunch there, taking in the beautiful view of the mountains and forest.

Our last stop of the day was at the Hot Springs Historic District. It was here that Alpine, Texas undertaker Charles Livingston bought land, including a hot spring, sight unseen in 1909. The hot springs were heated by geothermal processes and emerged at 105 degrees, carrying dissolved mineral salts reputed by the Indians to have healing powers. The land was described to him in this way: "Nothing down there but rattlesnakes and bandits. And it’s too far away from anywhere for a sick man to feel like going there to get cured. That damned country promises more and gives less than any place I ever saw." Langford bought it anyway - he believed in the healing powers of the water and built a store and post office to serve as a local gathering place and community focal point. He later built a bathhouse and motor court to encourage tourists to come visit and sample the healing waters of the Hot Spring spa. Several of the buildings, including the post office/store and the motor court are still standing today. The bathhouse is long gone but the spring is still contained inside the foundation remains next to the north bank of the Rio Grande. Reminders of Indian presence are still there, too, in the form of pictographs on the cliffs above the Rio Grande. On our hike back to the car, I heard a wild burro naying down by the river.

We drove back to the campground, arriving just as strong winds began. The winds were relentless all night, howling through the canyons and making it impossible to watch satellite TV or to sleep soundly through the night.

Monday morning, we left the campground about 10:45 heading for Presidio where we would meet up with our caravan to cross the border for our 29-day trip through the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Sonora. Luckily, by the time we made the climb out of Rio Grande Village, the wind was not as bad. We decided to take Hwy. 170, called El Camino del Rio or the River Road, which is a narrow, hilly 50-mile long road that follows the Rio Grande as it meanders through Texas’ Big Bend Ranch State Park. We were warned that it would take 1½ hours to drive it. It was a beautiful drive and we’re so glad we took it in spite of the discouragement we received from the staff at the campground. It was so strange to drive right along the border, realizing that just on the other side of this small river was a third-world country.

We arrived at the Loma Paloma Campground, five miles east of Presidio, around 2:00 and settled into the campsite we would occupy for the next four nights. Monday afternoon, Gloria Gibbs and Carol Begy, the female halves of our Wagonmaster and Tailgunner teams, came by to give us our Adventure Caravans jackets and backpack and to go over a few trip points with us. We liked them both immediately when they gave us big hugs! And we were thrilled to get our jackets as it was unseasonably cold.

Tuesday, January 23 was a quiet day for us. Steve, our Wagonmaster, took several of us to the border crossing where we completed the paperwork for our entry into Mexico and purchased the holograms that would be placed on our vehicles. We also went to the bank to change our dollars into pesos. We then did some chores and rested up from our whirlwind trip from Arkansas. Late that afternoon, there was an informal happy hour adjacent to the Wagonmaster’s rig so we got to meet several of the folks that would be on our trip.

On Wednesday morning, we left out in the rain around 8:00 to go to Marfa, Fort Davis, and the McDonald Observatory. We stopped in Marfa for breakfast at Alice’s Restaurant. Marfa, at an altitude of 4,830 feet, is known as the home of the Marfa Mystery Lights, an enigma that appears almost nightly. Theories abound but no official explanation has yet to be determined. Marfa was the location in the 1950’s for the filming of Giant, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. Of particular note in the little town of 2,424 people is the beautiful Presidio County Courthouse and the Hotel Paisano.

As we climbed in elevation, the moisture turned to snow and by the time we reached the observatory, we were in a winter wonderland. In fact, the road to the three huge observatories that house the telescopes was impassable so we had to settle for a presentation about the sun in the visitors’ center. We had our own private presentation, well done by a staff member whose father was born in Dardanelle, AR. We were the only ones in the auditorium! I guess the snow scared off all but the brave (or foolhardy).

We learned that the McDonald Observatory has the third largest telescope in the world and is owned and operated by the University of Texas. It was begun in the early 30’s by a bequest from William Johnson McDonald (1844-1926), a Paris, Texas banker, who left $1.1 million in his will to begin an astronomy program at UT. His family thought he was nuts – he had never married and had no children and left all his money to stargazers! They contested the will but, after a long legal fight, $800,000 went to establish the program and UT constructed their first telescope, 82 inches in diameter. It was the second largest telescope in the world at that time. The location of the observatory, atop Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes high in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, was chosen because it is the darkest spot in the U.S. I can believe that because, at our campsite outside Presidio, it is dark, dark, DARK at night – you can’t see nothing!

In case our readers don’t know, the sun is 93 million miles, or 8½ light minutes, from earth. Astronomers tell us it will last only 5 billion years longer before it burns up. We were told that, when this happens, the sun will explode into the universe and gobble up the earth and everything else in its way before it burns out. As we left the visitors’ center and drove down the mountain, it was interesting how quickly the snow stopped and the temperature warmed up. This is really a beautiful area, by the way.

Our next stop was at the Fort Davis National Historic site, one of the best remaining examples of a frontier military post. A key post in the defense system of west Texas from 1854 to 1891, it is a vivid reminder of the significant role played by the military in the settlement and development of the western frontier. Named after Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, the fort was first garrisoned by six companies of the Eighth U.S. Infantry. From 1854 to 1861, troops spent much of their time in the field pursuing Comanches, Kiowas, and Apaches who attacked travelers and mail stations. With the outbreak of the Civil War and Texas’s secession from the Union, the Federal Government evacuated Fort Davis. The fort was occupied by Confederate troops from the spring of 1861 until the summer of 1862 when Union forces again took possession. They quickly abandoned the post and Fort Davis lay deserted for the next five years.

In July 1866, Congress passed an act to increase the size of the Regular Army. The act stipulated that of the new regiments created, two cavalry and four infantry units "shall be composed of colored men." When four companies of the newly organized Ninth U.S. Cavalry reoccupied Fort Davis in June 1867, there were few of the fort’s structures left. But by the end of 1869, a number of officers’ quarters, two enlisted men’s barracks, a guardhouse, temporary hospital and storehouses had been erected. By the 1880’s, more than 100 structures and quarters had been built for the more than 400 soldiers stationed here. According to some historians, the term "Buffalo Soldiers" was given to these troops by Indians who compared their hair to that of the buffalo and considered them brave and worthy adversaries.

Fort Davis’s primary role of safeguarding the west Texas frontier against the Comanches and Apaches continued until 1881. Soldiers from the post continued to patrol the San Antonio-El Paso Road and furnished escorts for wagon trains and coaches until the end of the Indian Wars. Then in June 1891, Fort Davis was ordered abandoned, having "outlived its usefulness".

We had an uneventful trip back to Presidio and what started out to be a quiet evening. However, sometime after dark, we heard a large diesel motorhome pull into the space next to us. It seemed to take the occupants an inordinate amount of time to set up. We came to understand why the next morning when we met Carl Lee and Cheryl Lane, our neighbors and, soon to be, good friends. They had bought their new motorhome only a month before. It had several "issues" so it had been in the repair shop for three of the four weeks they had owned it. And since this was their first motorhome, they knew little about what made it tick. We could already tell that the trip was going to be interesting.

Thursday, January 25 would be spent in travel briefings and orientation and we would have a late lunch in Presidio with our group. More about that later.

Happy trails...until we meet again.