Sunday, February 2, 2014

Getting out of town…

Galveston, Austin, San Antonio…it was time for us to leave town literally and get ourselves out into the country.  Our next goal in Texas was Big Bend National Park.  According to park literature:  “The region was named Big Bend for the drastic change in course of the river from a southeastern to a northeastern flow. As the Rio Grande flows through the Chihuahuan Desert, it carves not only majestic canyons, but also a political boundary. Big Bend’s location on the United States/Mexico border has always provided a mystique to the park.”

On the way, we over-nighted in Fort Stockton, Texas, home of the World’s Largest Road Runner.

His name is Paisano Pete.
Here's the real thing that we encountered later that day.
In the morning, we picked up some sandwiches in Marathon where we met this handsome pooch.


Then we proceeded to take the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive through the park.  Here is some of what we saw.




I was fairly awestruck by the beautiful scenery and am still wondering why the Rio Grande is so green.  My attempts to look to Google for the answer to that question have failed so far. I imagine that it has something to do with the mineral makeup of the area.  But, even if I never find out, I will never regret the time we spent in that beautiful place.

We got home yesterday evening around 5:30p.m.  Round trip from Central Massachusetts to Marfa, Texas and back:  6,716.1 miles in 25 days with over 5,000 photos stored on my laptop...most of which will be dumped into my virtual garbage can.  But I have to say, I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.


11 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

glad you made it home safely! i'm really sorry no whistlers... *sigh*

happy you got to see a real paisano bird, though.

The Furry Gnome said...

Some spectacular pictures there, but 25 days and only 5000 pictures? Why didn't you take more!?

Pamela Gordon said...

That was quite a trip and I'm glad you are home safe and sound. Beautiful photos. You must have enjoyed seeing some new scenery and capturing them with your camera. I hope you share more here.

Debbie said...

Wonderful landscapes, Pete's not bad either!!

Tina Fariss Barbour said...

I'm glad you're home safe. You really took a great tour of Texas! That landscape in today's post is stark but beautiful. So different from what I'm used to. You've made me want to visit Texas. :-)

MadSnapper said...

pete and the dog grabbed my heart. love both of those... the river looks like algae in it. our pool looked like that when we came home from vacation and the pool pump had quit.

Gail Dixon said...

You took some beautiful photos there! I'd love to visit that part of Texas someday. How cool that you saw and photographed the roadrunner. I saw one in Austin once, but it was too far away and too fast for me to catch up to him.

Lynn said...

This was an amazing photo journey-I do enjoy seeing the little Road Runners and had to chuckle at the statue, he is indeed large! 5000 photos yike...

Brian King said...

That's a darn cool statue of a roadrunner! Gorgeous country!

Rose said...

It looks like such a lonely coountry...and I love that look.

Unknown said...

Road runner...if he catches you you're through...Wiley E. Coyote...but not when u are that big LOL!..Cute doggie pic...my husband loved it there Big Bend...I've not been.