We just planted back at home after a spur of the moment 2100 mile road trip to one of our happy places.

My bride finished tax season late afternoon on Tuesday April 15th. For those of us in the USA, this is both an auspicious day and an infuriating one.  Tax day!  For those in the accounting/tax profession it is the day that ends the brutal 80hr/wk tax season that starts in mind to late January.

DW got home at five.  She had already taken Friday off. Her boss told her to get out and that she did not want to see her tuntil Monday. So, we were on the road by 6PM on a 1050 mile dash to spend a long weekend with my parents in Terlingua TX.  Yes, it is as remote as it sounds. It is a ghost town where Cinnabar used to be mined starting about 130 years ago and ended at the end of WW2.  It is now a dark skies town that draws artists and get out of cities campers, etc.  It borders Big Bend National Park on the W. side of the park. And it borders Big Bend Ranch State park  on the E end of that park.  Both parks are incredible and I highly recommend them.  Though if you want to see all of the really interesting stuff a high clearance vehicle is necessary. 4X4 preferably.

We overnighted in Tucson AZ getting to our hotel at midnight. after 6hours of driving. Then hit the road Wed AM for another 10 hours getting into Terlingua at about 21.30.  Finding my parents RV in the pitch dark was a challenging but we finally got there.

We visited for about an hour before we all hit the sack.

Wed we had breakfast in the RV then headed for BBNP starting with a drive to the Chisos Basin.  It is an incredibly beautiful place.  We did some sight seeing on our way to the basin in the Chisos mountains a  short hike in the basin before having lunch at the Chisos Lodge. The Lodge was built by the CCC in the 1930s.  After lunch in the lodge we headed to the W side of the park to Castolon store.  The store burned down about 6 years ago.  Embers from crop burning across the Rio Grande in Mexico blew N and caught the palm frond covered picnic patio on fire. That ended up gutting the store bldg and another historical bldg on side. Castolon started as a border fort during the Mexican revolution in the 19-teens.  After touring some historical structures and a small museum we headed W to the mouth of St Elena canyon then out Maverick road to head back to Terlingua and the RV for the night.  After an hour on Maverick road replacement of many cracked fillings are in order. Much longer and all of my teeth would have rattled out of my head.

Thursday we had breakfast at the Chili Pepper in Terlingua then headed to Indian Springs Trail for a hike. A beautiful day.  It was low 80s, partly cloudy, and a beautiful petroglyph, rocks, and blooming Ocotillo filled hike.  On Wed and on Thurs the blooming Ocotillo was incredible and there were countless thousands of them in bloom.  After the hike, 2miles round trip, we headed to the dinosaur exhibit in the N central part of the park for a picnic lunch.  The ravens were lobbying hard for their share but my bride being the caretaker of wild creatures reined mom and in on feeding the bread from our sandwiches. I don't eat bread, just the meat and veg.  The ravens were not happy and let us know it.   After touring the dinosaur stuff we headed N to Persimmon Gap then W on Old Marathon Rd/Terlingua Ranch Rd.  Yes, it has multiple names.  We have done that road a number of times over the years and it is usually not too bad.  Famous last words.  There were torrential rains in January of this year and there were several places where the washes had deposited several feet of sand.  There was flood debris covering fences in several stretches and several washes where debris was 6ft up in the trees.  First we encountered an abandoned motorcycle about 5miles in.  We stopped to check to see if anyone needed help.  There was no one to be found. So I plotted the location on DW's Jeep's GPS and we headed on our way. The goal was to get to the Bad Rabbit Cafe on Terlingua Ranch for dinner.  another 5miles on or so we were flagged down by a heavily off-road outfitted vintage Landcruiser. We stopped to find out what was up.  The young man and young woman in the Landcruiser cautioned us about several places on the road and shared that they had just pulled someone out of the sand a few miles behind them. We were heading in the direction that the Landcruiser had come from.  Interestingly, the Land cruiser had several bullet holes in the side of it behind the rear passenger door. One of those don't ask things.  The young man driving the Landcruiser gave our tires and vehicle a close look before blessing us with a wave and a parting "You'll probably be okay."  So on we went.  A few miles after the Landcruiser meeting we started hitting areas with very deep sand.   Nothing the Jeep could not handle but the "not too bad" road from Big Bend trips past was no more.   Then..... I found the guy that the Landcruiser couple had pulled out of the sand.  His truck was buried up to the rocker panels, his hood was up, and steam was billowing out of his radiator.   He had about 2/3 of the road blocked from side to side.  The sand was so deep that there was no way I could stop or we would have buried ourselves in the sand as well. So I went up on the L side bank of the road with the L tires, and put the R tires on the center hump of the L side of the road straddling very deep ruts and blasted by the truck with a couple inches to spare.  This genius decided to step out from behind his truck to stop me to help and I blasted the horn as I powered by his truck with sand flying all over the place. He dove out of my way back behind his truck so I did not end up making him my hood ornament.  About 30 feet past his truck was a gravel patch on the R side of the road that looked hard enough not to risk getting stuck so I stopped.  The very sweaty sand covered gentlemen that thought it would be a good idea to step in front of us waving his arms plodded his way through the sand to my gravel patch for a pow wow.  In conversation he shared that he was the guy that the Landcruser couple had rescued earlier. Though that was from a sand pit about a mile behind him.  They advised him to keep his momentum up as he transited through the sad pits in the washes across the road.  The one he was stuck in this time was several hundred yards long with occasional though rare gravel patches randomly present at various places.  The Landcruiser guy had mentioned those during our conference a few miles earlier.  It turns out that the stuck truck guy had interpreted "keep your momentum up" when going through sand as "stomp the gas to the floor and go like a bat out of hell".  Well when hitting mounds of sand with deep tire tracks all through it keep your momentum up means don't stop but pick your line wisely.  This guy did what many people with 4X4s but who have never and at best rarely used them off road. He hit the sand, his suspension bottomed out, so he slammed on his brakes, which causes your nose to dive, then you smash the front of your vehicle into a mound of sand several hundred pounds of which scoops into the front of your vehicle and into either your transmission cooler or radiator causing all kinds of mayhem and foolishness.  Dad and I got out of the Jeep to talk with the guy and see if we could help. There was not a snowballs chance in hell I could pull him out in DW's very capable and also very lux Grand Cheroke. Her's is not a Wrangler.  I was not about to tear her car up trying to get this guy out. Though it would not have mattered if I did pull him out, He told us he had blown a radiator hose when he hit the sand. Dad and I took a look. Nope, he had ripped the bottom hose out of his radiator. That was not all. He hit the sand so hard that it actually torn the side tank partly off of his radiator.  That was what he thought was a "blown hose".

So, we got his business card and two professional contacts to call for help when we got to cell phone coverage.  He would not ride to Terlingua Ranch HQ with us (23 more miles W) because he had expensive camera equipment in his truck that we did not have room for. He had plenty of water, a tent, sleeping bag, and food. He ... is a professional real estate photographer who was contracted to photograph some remote ranch property that was for sale off of Terlingua Ranch/Old Marathon road.   He shared that he had been all over the area but never out that road before.  Go figure.

He grilled me quite a while asking how I knew how fast to go, how to drive in sand, and why he got stuck and broke his truck and I didn't,  I shared that I had learned to drive in the desert in Saudi Arabia starting with motorcycles when I was 6yo and moving up to 4X4s when I was about 12.  He was boggled and just kept on about how the Landcruiser guy had told him to keep his momentum up and that was what he had done.  Nope, he was trying to drive like he was racing the Baja 1000.  Never a good idea unless you are driving a purpose built off road racing vehicle.

Ask me how I know,  While in Qatar I had done exactly what he did.  Though I was on pristine beautiful sand dunes.  I made rookie mistake 101 in 2013. I went somewhere that I did not walk beforehand.  A slight rise on the side of my dune looked innocent enough, until I went over it and then nose first into a deep hole scooping hundreds of pounds of sand into my grill and bending my transmission cooler in half loosing all of my coolant.  I had just enough to get to a man track where there were regular 4x4 vehicles transiting.  We got towed home by friends who were with us on that trip.  GR10,000 ($2500) and 3wks later my company vehicle was back in service. I payed for the repairs of course.  I had to rent a vehicle while the repairs were being done.  Also out of my pocket. I was a dumb ass. I had been doing this stuff since I was a kid and I brain farted the basics.  If you do not have a clear line of site on where you are going. Don't go there without walking the route first.

The line of site was clear when passing Mr. Stuck Truck guy.  He just had never learned the momentum does not necessarily equal balls to the wall speed.

My story did not comfort Mr. Stuck Truck guy much at all.  

As we left Mr. Stuck Truck guy about half a mile later we met another truck heading in the opposite direction. He also flagged us down. He was ghost pale, white knuckling the steering wheel after struggling through the sandy washes behind him. He asked if I had seen a motorcycle. Yes, yes we had seen a motorcycle. He was towing a small flatbed trailer behind his truck.  He had barely made it through the previous sandy section. The one that Landcruiser couple had towed Mr. Stuck Truck guy out of about an hour earlier.

I told him how much further his bike was and gave him the GPS coordinates, but also told him he could not get his truck with the trailer past Mr. Stuck Truck guy and would have to turn around, drive 2hrs back through the park, enter the road from the E. side and he would find his motorcycle no problem with zero problems getting to it our getting his bike out. That end of the road was a veritable super highway compared to the rutted washed out W side. He did not like that suggestion and decided to keep going.  I just shook my head and mom, dad, DW and I went on our way as he headed into the bowels of sand and Stuck Truck hell.  

There was only one more hairy section of the road but that was not all that bad. My guess is that is the one where Stuck Truck guy got stuck the first time and pulled out by the Landcruiser couple.

An hour later we pulled in at the Terlingua Ranch HQ bldg to call the contacts Stuck Truck guy had given us the contact information for.  We had to WiFi call from the HQ because there still was no cell coverage.  Both of the contacts were out of town and asked us what we wanted them to do about it.  I told them that Stuck Truck guy had said to call both of them and tell them what had happened and for them to send help. According to both of them they were out of town or they would have been with Stuck Truck guy.   The last thing we did was send them the pic of my dash GPS with the location coordinates of Stuck Truck guy.  I am sure that Stuck Truck guy and motorcycle trailer guy had a nice evening together in the desert.  We got no follow up from anyone on the rescue effort beyond that.

A half mile past Terlingua Ranch HQ is the Bad Rabbit Cafe. We had a great dinner then a nice leisurely mostly paved drive for the hour back to the RV.

Now for Saturday.  Up early for breakfast in the RV, then we headed W from Terlingua through Lajitas on our way to Presidio for lunch.  Mid way we stopped at the Closed Canyon trial head to do the Closed Canyon hike.  A leisurely hike of about 3/4 of a mile to the mouth of a slot canyon that goes in about a mile until it drops down a cliff into the Rio Grande river. We have all done this hike together several times.   The only difference is that dad is almost 83 and mom is 80.  For dad these things are no problem. He is a fitness fiend and can hike me into the dust all day long.  The canyon is a beautiful hike. Cool, out of the sun, flat, ..... until. You hit a series of rock ledges about every 200 yards. Mom stopped at the 3rd ledge to sit on a recliner like rock in the shade while dad, DW, and I hiked to the end then returned.   There were plenty of people on the trial and mom attracts kids, dogs, and people like bees to honey.  We finished the canyon then returned to mom after about 45minutes. I did a truly artistic fall on my butt on the last ledge.  My eyes are shot. The step down was about 6inches deeper than my brain thought it was so I landed on my feet leaning just slightly backwards were gravity took over pulling on my 25Lb pack and I sat very gently and gracefully on my butt then laying back on my pack like I had planed it that way.  Two young lady hikers started clapping and then ran to my aid.  My bride just stood on the ledge above me shaking her head as the co-ed aged young women came to my rescue.  I calmly loosened the straps to my pack, slipped the straps off, stood up, brushed off the sand, and put my pack back on while the young ladies smart phone pic'd me into immortality for whatever social media they chose to immortalize me on.

If I was not married to the most stunning, brilliant, and elegant woman on the planet, and if I were 20yrs younger, okay, maybe 30yrs, and if I did not have a distinguished well groomed ghost white beard that resembles an albino Chia Pet with mange, I would have gotten some digits to give those ladies a call.

We got the end of the canyon but stopped bout 50ft short of the DO NOT PASS THIS POINT sign. That whole distance was about 3ft deep with stagnant water from wall to wall across the canyon.  Of course the younger types were having a great time splashing through the who knows what microbe, worms, etc... infested waters to look over the cliff and decide if they wanted to try the cliff.  

Dad, DW and I turned around at that point and headed back to mom.  After a several minute water break with mom we headed back to the mouth of the canyon. Not far from the mouth dad kicked up a conversation with another Marine. Dad had on a USMC hat.  So, 30mins of gab fest later, we headed out of the canyon and up the hill to the parking lot.  Just as we got to the Jeep and mom and DW headed for the restroom, the USMC couple came running full speed up the hill.  They had continued into the canyon and were about 2/3 of the way to the DO NOT PROCEED PAST THIS POINT sign when they heard a gun shot and a basketball sized rock dropped from the top of the cliff into the canyon landing a few feet from them.  This area is along the Rio Grande river in a very remote area. However, on the S dide of the riven there is occasionally some escapades. Apparently a fairly recent source of fun for the cartel on the opposite side of the river is to shoot at rocks along the rim of Closed Canyon trying to knock rocks into the canyon.  Apparently the preferred time for this is when the trail head parking lot is full. It is sad. The park service will likely completely close that trail if this kind of thing continues.

After Closed Canyon we continued W along the river to Presidio and had a late lunch at the El Patio restaurant. Another favorite when we are in the Big Bend area.    After the late lunch we hit a favorite bakery that my mom likes when they are in the region. We then headed back down the river to Terlingua about an hour before sunset.  DW and I showered then packed in preparation for an early start this AM, Easter Sunday, for our 1050 mile15hrs of drive home.  As we finished packing out bags in the RV a weather alert came through on all 4 cell phones. The National Weather Service alert was for a massive dust storm that was due to hit withing a 2hr winder between 20:00 and 22:00.  We all pretty much ignored it. As I took my bag and DW's bag to her Jeep I happened to look to the W and what to my eyes should appear?  A massive wall of boiling dust clouds coming over the hills. I called my dad, mom, and DW out to take a look.  The dust storm was massive and rolling on primarily from the N NW.  Dad and I scralbled to get the awning stowed and the folding chairs put into the storage compartment under the RV.  This was a major deja vu thing for all of us.  All of us having lived and worked in Saudi Arabia have seen any number of sand storms.  AKA Shamaal (when from the N) also AKA Haboob which is your usual run of the mill massive sand storm from any direction other than from the N. This was definitely of the Shamaal variety.  We stepped into the RV locked the door, checked that all of the windows and vents were closed and locked, and all climbed into bed.  About half an hour later the RV started rocking. The wind was howling outside, dust and sand were blasting the RV, dad's behemoth of a truck and DW's Jeep.  It went on for about 2hrs.  I pretty much slept through it.  DW was less enamored with a dust storm as lullaby music. 

Btw, the RV, is a 39ft 5th wheel trailer that is very comfortable. Mom and dad have it set up exactly how they like it which was hard fought over years of amazing RV trips.  They have the MBR and we sleep either in the  queen bed in the sleeping loft over the back, or on the fold out queen sized sofa bed.  Fortunately this trip we were on the sofa bed. Had we been in the sleeping loft that dust storm would likely have made us sea sick with how much the trailer was swaying. Dad balks at the term "Glamping" but DW teases him with it every time we join them on an adventure.

This AM we got up at 05:30 dressed, gave mom and dad a hug, and got on the road.  We pulled into our condo about 3hrs ago after a 17hr day.  Terlingua to Alpine, Alpine to Van Horn.  Halfway between those two is Marfa. Marfa TX of the Marfa lights fame. Which I can say I have seen. Though on a trip about 20yrs ago.  Another very famous Marfa point of interest is the Marfa Prada store front.  Yes, the high end designer Prada brand.  Out in the middle of nowhere is a small bldg with PRADA signage, 1.5inch thick bullet proof glass, behind which is a number of current season PRADA purses  on low display tables and shoes on shelves on the back wall..  6 purses to be exact. We stopped to get pics of my glamazon supermodel bride in front of the PRADA Marfa "store". It is really not a store. It is an art installation.  In addition to the 6 purses there are also about 50 shoes on display. Though not in pairs. One of each current season shoe.  Apparently PRADA sends a rep out at the beginning of each season to display the new stuff. 

  BTW, Marfa is famous for being where the Rock Hudson, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor classic was Giant filmed.  The set for the ranch mansion house is on a massive ranch near Marfa.

After the blessedly inexpensive shopping stop at PRADA Marfa we continued to Van Horm for a fuel stop then went on I-10 tW o El Paso.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a Rudy's BBQ on the E edge of El Paso and stopped for an unplanned lunch. Rudy's is one of our favorite TX BBQ places. Though true hill country BBQ aficionados will go only for one of the old family BBQs places that dot the hill country.  Rudy's is great quality and very consistent.  They also have stores all over TX and some other states. If there is one reasonably close to you I recommend it. Particularly the Pork ribs, the extra moist brisket, and make sure to order a hottie.  That is the Jalapeno smoked sausage. DW likes the smoked turkey.  I'm more of a pig and cow guy myself. But the turkey is good.

After lunch it was the 700 remaining mile dash home.

And that.... is how I spen. my Easter weekend.  Or more accurately, how WE spent our Easter weekend

6 days of driving, I did all of it, Highway, on road, off road. and I am wiped out. I went to bed, and forgot to save.

So, I saved this AM.