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| (c)2019horst kelly photographer |
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| (c)2019horst kelly photographer |
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly Photographer |
I'm guessing that I'm a little behind the power curve in providing an after actions trip report of my adventure to Big Bend back in March....I left early the morning of 25 Feb..First order of business was to get a set of tires for Ms Casita...the old ones looked brand new, but have 3 1/2 years of sitting in the hot South Texas sun....felt more comfortable getting some new ones... got there just as the doors where opening and half hour later was beginning my adventure... It was overcast, in the low 50's. Perfect day for travel.
I was traveling east on US 90 enjoying the open road, no real traffic...no issues, just humming along...about 100 miles out I stopped for gas and more importantly to empty my bladder(seems like I have to do that more often these days) :)) As I was doing my walk around making sure all was secure with truck and camper, I happened to glance at my Casita license plate....yup u guessed it it had expired....WHAT, that can't be right. without boring you... they where expired. It was all caught up during the time my Bride had the month stay in the ICU, hospital and physical rehab. ok ending, called them, wife got new sticker, took photo and sent me what I needed...I finally found a useful application for smartphones, texting and phone cameras...I do feel old!!
I decided to stop in Del Rio at the National Recreation Area-Amistead( San Pedro Campground). It's dry camping with pit toilets,,,couple of bucks with the Senior Pass...campground was almost empty, sun was out which fed my solar panels....very relaxing.... grilled a filet of salmon, coleslaw, Texas toast and a German "Dunkel" Bier.....watched the sun set, read some Texas history and fell asleep.
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly Photographer |
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly Photographer |
Got up before the crack of dawn, the area was covered with early morning fog. I was rolling before the fog lifted and headed west for the "Promised Land"..Big Bend....Before I knew it I was in Marathon Tx., got gas, turned south on US 385 and 70 miles later was pulling into the Panther Junction Visitors center to procure a primitive campsite.....Did my Dream balloon of staying at a primitive site just get busted...yup, they where all filled up and BTW it doesn't look like any of the sites will open up in the next 10 days or so....and that's a whole other post...Two of the established campgrounds where filled...I scrabbled down to Cottonwood which is my favorite established campground...no large rigs, a different type of "camper folk" stay there...Anyway that's where I settled in for two weeks...
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| (c)2019 Horst Kelly Photographer |
And it was a enjoyable time...2 more Casita's there so we had a "Mini rally" a couple of nights...One Couple was from northern Nevada,retired Army, had a '14 Casita, the other couple where from New Mexico had an '09, Professional photographer..maybe semi-retired. After the Casitas left, 2 VW campers(Montana folks) adopted me for the duration of their stay(a week)...and then a class C Guy, retired, enjoys photography, hiking etc ...from Minnesota pulled in next to me and we hung out and shared experiences for a couple of days....
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly Photographer |
You couldn't asked for better weather though it was pretty windy most days...I have never seen that many Bluebonnets and that hardy. what was nice is though not complete solitude, there was alone time...some evening I would venture up to the middle of nowhere to see if I could get some night photography shots or witness some wildlife roaming around....
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| (c)2019 Horst Kelly Photographer |
The last 3 days things cleared out and the stillness of the evening was refreshing...So I would say that this trip trip I had the best of both Worlds... camaraderie and solitude. I did take some photo's and did some hiking and testing my Ram, as this was the first camping trip with it and it worked great.
In summary I had a terrific time....not the way I had planned it out, but worked out better for the most part. Big Bend as a Park has changed....up until recently it was , in reality, a Texas Park....maybe 1-5% or so where visitors from out of state...and for the most part the park was close to empty...In my opinion that has all changed...it is now truly a National Park, with its Tour Buses, Foreign visitors , and at times impatient, demanding people, etc. The down side of this is that the infrastructure is gasping to try to keep up with this increase in visitors, need more pull-offs, wider roads, larger staffs, more campsites....and the reality is most of that won't happen.. The Park was never meant to be explored like Yellowstone , Zion, Bryce, Grand Canyon or the like. With the increase also comes stuff like an increase in trash on the roads, trails, campsites... dirt bikes using the primitive roads , etc... I realize Big Bend isn't alone in this boom/increase in visitors...Zion and Yellowstone are maxed out, as is the Grand Canyon and other Parks. The Slot Canyon in Page is like a major metropolitan area during noon rush hour . I also know there are still places that have vast emptiness...nevertheless, I miss the old "hideaways"....So now the adventure is one where I seek out and find new places as yet undiscovered...and to me that's a big part of this "experience" called exploring/camping ...
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly photographer |
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly Photographer |
All in all I had a terrific time, and am looking forward to my next trip. The only "wart", I need to fix my fridge. It stopped working about 4 days into the trip. It looks like I may need a new one.....maybe I should sell the Casita and get a another one or maybe a very small slide in truck camper like a Capri or four wheel popup camper(truck camper)....stuff to ponder!
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| (c)2019Horst Kelly photographer |
Thanks for stopping By...Until the next time........Happy Trails , Horst sends
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| (c)2019Horst kelly Photographer |
ps...And Happy Mothers Day
