Dinner - Party of Seven

Love this! This truly made my heart happy. These guys came over Friday night for dinner. I made 72 sliders! They have decided to room together next year, too, and have been assigned a pod in an upper class-men dorm. I can’t wait to do this again in the summer while hanging out poolside. 

Called Up

Keagan got called up. He dressed and played in his first varsity game tonight. He played center back, his new permanent position. Not bad considering he missed most of early training with the injury, surgery, and rehab. 

Wes and I drove to Huntsville to watch the game, and we got to see him take the field.

New kits are on order. Thank goodness. This New Balance stuff is tight and is not a good fit on anyone. 

We lost - and didn’t really compete that well - but the loss was overshadowed by the sheer joy of seeing Keagan’s dreams come true. 

Youth soccer teammates. Benson roommates. And now college teammates. 

I’m so proud of him! As the old people say, that’s me, I’m the old person with wise one liners, cream rises to the top. 

Boquillos de Carmen

Today we spent most of the day in the Boquillos Canyon. We walked eight miles in total - less than our ten miles from yesterday. We started the day with a hike that climbed a butte and then dropped into the sands of the Rio Grande. We found the holes in the rock used by nomadic early people to ground seeds. 

We found horses at the river. I’d say wild horses based on their behavior, but they were branded and next to a working ranch. 

The highlight of the hike was listening to a local sing his heart out and then wait to hear his own echos off the canyon walls. 

From here we took a row boat at Boquillos Crossing to enter Mexico. We could have waded through it, but we are bougie and didn’t want wet feet. 

Once in the charming community of Boquillos de Carmen, we found artisans had set up stalls with locally made trinkets. 

We settled for a great view while eating lunch.

On our way back to the crossing, we stopped for empanadas con fresaa and pina. We encountered a herd of goats being trailed by the tiniest goat herding dogs I’ve ever seen. 

Our next adventure took us a nature hike at Rio Grande Village where we spotted another herd of wild goats and birds. We climbed this…

… to get this view.

The other side of the river is Mexico. 

We took a short hike to Boquillos Hot Springs that, quite honestly, sounded fun until we saw the springs and all of the people in them. I was going for a remote locale with few people, but off roading down a gravel path deterred no one. We skipped the springs and visited the old general store and lodge built when the destination was considered a health resort and spa. 

Our last hike was a flat trail through javalina country in Dug Out Wells. My day would have been made if I saw a pig, but 1400 is nap time for my animal friends. 

To wrap up our day and really our trip we spent the evening in Terlingua’s Ghost Town. We had a fantastic, traditional brisket dinner at The Starlight Theatre. 

Today the sun was stronger, we both have sunburns, and the temp was a bit warmer. I can’t imagine being here in June, much less August. The weather this week has been perfect hiking weather.

Just like that we wrap up another great adventure. Canada, you are next! See you in June!

Hiking The Chisos

After sleeping for 11 hours, 11!, I was ready to hit the trails. My room has a window unit that blew hard all night, I didn’t hear a thing. No trucks at 0100. Nobody gaming at 0200. Nobody in the bathroom at 0300. Just uninterrupted, blissful sleep. 

Big Bend is massive. It can take hours to drive through it. Getting anywhere is not quick. It took us 30 min to get to the guarded entrance. Another hour to get to the central area of the park. We spent a lot of time today in the car - more than I planned. 

Hike #1 and #2 were the Window Overlook Trail and Chisos Basin Trail in the central region of the park. These were easy trails, and beautiful, but nothing compared to what was to come. 

Next up was the hike through Saint Elena Canyon, a truly remarkable hike worth the hour long drive in the southwest part of the park. We climbed a butte walking in switchbacks to the top and then went down the opposite side to the water. 

The Terlingua Creek serves as the border between Texas and Mexico. We crossed over to Mexico and back again walking across the river where the water level was very low. No border agents - just Americans walking across because they could. 

We then drove to an overlook to see the canyon from another viewpoint. 

We stopped at overlooks to get pics. This mountain made me think of the Painted Desert. 

On our way back to the main road we stopped to see the remains of one of the first ranches in the park dating back to 1918. 

This was a quick ten minute walk - not really a hike to Sam Nail Ranch. 

We then took the Subaru on an off rode adventure down a six mile gravel road / river basin so we could find Grapevine Hills Trail. At the end of the one mile trail, and the highlight, was Balanced Rock. 

To get there we walked in a sandy wash, hiked a butte, and scrambled the last .25 of a mile on all fours. It was an adventure! 

The views were spectacular. We were so high the birds were on eye level with us. 



I thought I might investigate a small cave until I found mountain lion scat at the entrance. I have never turned around so fast! 

The erosion formed a shape that looked like a horse’s head. 

After 20,000 steps today, we are beat! We got back to the house to see the sunset. 

Tomorrow we will cross into Mexico - legally this time - and eat street tacos. It’s too bad I’m unable to stay awake to see the stars - maybe tomorrow night.

Travel to Terlingua

We landed in San Antonio just in time for an early lunch. We had terrific authentic Mexican food at La Fonda. This was not El Chico! 

We ate guacamole, enchiladas, and fajitas under this enormous live oak tree. Perfection!

After six more hours in the rental car, we made it to our house in Terlingua. We drove through a sand storm. We drove through 75 mph wind gusts. We drove past wild burros. We drove through nothing - so desolate even the cattle seemed sad. We drove still dreaming about more lunch. All the way I was thinking, “This place better be like one step away from heaven.” 

Maybe not heaven. But it is peaceful. Did I mention it is desolate? And windy? 

It’s too cold to swim. I had high hopes for soaking in this thing. It is not to be. 

We made our way to the general store to buy water, the water in our house is not potable, and I thought, very briefly, I can drink well water. I lived on it for 20 something years; I lived in Mexico for a summer. And  then I saw a warning sign next to the faucets that said something about sulphur, and I reconsidered my stomach of iron. 

We needed a few food items to go with our water. Few was the optimal word. It was the strangest collection of goods, so much so I almost cried. Then I reminded myself I’m here for adventure and not a culinary experience.  Why didn’t I box up my leftovers today from lunch? The shelves had left over Easter Peeps, bacon, canned beans, cilantro, Oreos, Squirt, art supplies, and garden gear. We picked up breakfast food and burgers. 

We got home in time to watch the sunset. And then I hurried inside. This warning was still fresh on my mind. 

Tomorrow we hike in the canyon and scavenge for food. I hope to see animals - mammals, though, not reptiles. I hope to stay awake long enough to see the stars.