Day Nine

My cousin Chris and I talked until 3:30 in the morning, so I was in no mood to get up early today. He had advised me not to go for a morning run in the area, otherwise I wouldn’t have stayed up so late to begin with. Still, I hadn’t expected Dan to let me sleep until 10:30! I rushed to get my things packed and we headed out of town.















I liked the juxtaposition of sign and truck at this rest stop along the way.















It was a long trip to Big Bend, passing through mostly open country…















…with a few small towns along the way...











































...and a couple of rest stops...















one of which included this guy, left behind by a departing child.

















The trip was over three hundred miles and over a hundred were in mostly empty country.















Just when I was beginning to wonder if the long trip was going to be worth it, we reached Big Bend National Park.





























Since this is off-peak season because of the summer heat, and because it was Sunday, we had no trouble getting a room at the Chisos Lodge. Our room has a nice balcony overlooking mountain vistas…





























…and a front view of other cabins and friendly deer.















Once we got our stuff up to our room, I was ready to go for a hike. Dan had other ideas, though. We hadn’t eaten a proper lunch and he had already scanned the menu for the Chisos Lodge restaurant. I talked him into a short stroll…











































...but couldn’t convince him to go for a longer hike. So we had dinner and I enjoyed their salad bar and a grilled portobello with veggies and roasted potatoes. It was a pretty nice dinner, considering the restaurant has a captive audience and doesn’t have to be good.

After dinner, we went back to our room and hung out on the balcony for awhile. Then we went for a short walk to see the sunset. We got waylaid by a very chatty older couple, but they went in as it got dark and the wind picked up. Now it's dark, with just a faint red glow on the horizon and the wind whipping through the trees.

Tomorrow we’re planning a full day of hiking—or at least that’s what I’m planning. If Dan can’t keep up, we’ll just have to meet up later.

The wireless internet service here works pretty well, so if it's this good tomorrow night, there will be more pictures!