Tuesday January 29, 2008

We went to the grocery store after breakfast this morning and bought our dry goods for camping - we figured they would be cheaper in Del Rio than one of the smaller towns closer to Big Bend. We also filled up with gas at $2.83. We stopped at the Amistad Recreation Area Park headquarters and chatted with one of the rangers about Big Bend - he gave us a heads-up on some of his favorite hikes in the park. We drove partway out across the dam, but didn't continue as there was a border crossing and we didn't intend to go into Mexico. We found a turn around and got out of the car to enjoy the view: Amistad Resevoir on one side of the dam and Rio Grande on the other. We heard loud noises and looked down where we discovered the US Border Patrol was conducting rifle practice on their range. We drove on and soon we were in new territory (beyond Langtry). This area reminded us of the Badlands in South Dakota - rolling, barren hills. It was quite windy and we saw some tumbleweeds blowing about. As we got closer to Marathon, the landscape changed - the hills were steeper and were reddish in color. We stopped in at visitor information in Sanderson to change drivers and chatted with a disabled man from Quebec City, Canada who was on a bicycle! His bike had fallen over due to the wind while he was in the visitor center and Dave helped him right it. He had been on the road since July - as far north as Alaska and was now heading to Brownsville, TX to cross over into Mexico - his final destination is Cancun - what an amazing person! We continued on to Marathon where one of the entrances to the park is and were glad that we had decided to stop in Alpine (30 miles further down the road). Alpine is a much larger town. The gas price here is $3.02 as opposed to $3.25 in Marathon. We found a motel for the next three nights and will have a good time exploring the area before we head into the park. We went to the Museum of the Big Bend which is located on the campus of Sul Ross State University (about 2000 students) and enjoyed the displays. We chatted with a fellow there who told us about a ranch where you can dig for fossils, opals, and agates - we will go out there tomorrow, although I'm not sure how many more rocks we can fit in the car! We walked around downtown and checked out a few stores and then stopped into a used book store run by the local library where we found a few more books to take with us. The woman running the shop was lovely and she said they came to this area to retire and her husband found a job teaching at Sul Ross. We came back to the motel and did a load of laundry - we want to have all clean clothes before we head in. We went to a local eatery for dinner - very good and then drove about 15 miles out of town to see the Marfa lights. These are a weird phenomenon that occur sporadically in this area. Apparently we were very lucky to see them. They looked light glowing balls being juggled way out in the distance. We were able to see three separate sets of them - white and then occasionally turning red or green for brief intervals. They have been studied by scientists quite often, but no one can positively explain what makes them appear and what is causing them. It was all very interesting - we will have to check the research when we have time.