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.