Day 3 of ALAA-Mon, May 16th, 2011. Laredo to Big Bend National Park, TX

Well, this is about Day 3 but is being written at the end of Day 4. Why, you ask? Well, last night was spent in Big Bend National Park . . . where there is absolutely no cell coverage! I wasn't surprised because BBNP is about 90 miles from nowhere . . . . . and that's NOT a joke, it's literal! It was over 400 miles from Laredo to BBNP but there's not a lot to see in West Texas!

The scenery is pretty in a stark, desert kind of way. I camped in the Chisos Basin campground which sits at 5,400 feet and is surrounded by peaks in a Crater Lake kind of way. Anyway, yesterday began in Laredo, TX and ended at Big Bend. I ran into a Danish couple riding a rented Harley from Orlando to LA. I went through 2 Border Patrol inspection stations looking for drugs and illegals. The bike and I got sniffed by 2 drug-sniffing dogs. Now that was weird!

Oh, two interesting things happened at the campground: 1) I saw this "creature" run through the campground I thought it was a small feral hog but it was smaller and didn't have the ugly snout that feral hogs have. The couple in the site next to me said that it was a javalina-whatever in the world that is! 2) I got up about 6:00 this morning and it was so light outside you could see your moon shadow. I walked down to the little boy's room to clean up and it was much darker when I walked back to the campsite. I looked up at the mountains surrounding Chisos Basin and the full moon had set behind the mountain. I guess I saw my first moonset! I was a little concerned because the campsite had a food storage locker to keep bears away!

Today is more of BBNP, the River Road along the Rio Grande, and Westward toward El Paso. Will I EVER get out of Texas??