We had a blast yesterday in Roswell, NM. We walked around downtown and bought some alien souvenirs and a comic book. We went into a shop called the alien zone and took pictures at their photo op. We are now in Durango, CO ready to hit the road again. Heres some pictures from the Alien Capital of the World!

More Big Bend National Park

Big Bend is so spectacular. Pictures don't do it justice. In our first Big Bend post we posted pictures of the east side of the park. This post will focus on the basin that we were camping in and the west side of the park. Our campground had running water and flushing toilets but no showers. Being in a desert, it was very important to conserve water. We took one shower while at Big Bend. It was down near the Rio Grande and it cost $1.50 for five minutes of water. There were several visitor centers, small jiffy marts and a small lodge with wifi available to us on the 800,000 acre National Park. It was kind of roughing it but not really! The second full day that we were there we spent doing laundry, working on the patio of the lodge, reorganizing our campsite after the big rain, and just chillin. It poured rain again that evening and we all sat in the bar and worked on our various electronic devices.

We made steak fajitas back at camp after the rain and played UNO. The star gazing up there was phenomenal. We were at about 5000 ft and it was so clear and windy and refreshingly cool. On our third full day at Big Bend we went on a road trip and explored the west side of the park. I was finally able to hike. I had smacked my ankle at South Llano River State Park when I slipped on some wet concrete and I could walk on it but not wear tennis shoes. So my ankle is working well and we are about to leave camp and I am reaching into the back of the truck into the cooler and cooler lid falls on my face and cuts the bridge of my nose! This is my fourth mishap and it is only day 10 of the trip. Yikes!

That evening when we got back to camp, Joe made a fabulous dinner of stir fry teriyaki chicken and rice. We left Big Bend this morning and headed to New Mexico. We are in Roswell, New Mexico tonight at a Quality Inn. Quint is in heaven that we are in the Alien metropolis. Jamie is sad that we aren't at one of Uncle Gregg's luxurious hotels!

Agave plant

"The Window" of the Basin

Casa Grande

Gordon's final farewell to his precious Big Bend NP and "the window"

We've been at Big bend for three days now. We have dealt with two rain events at the campground and learned a few things. It is 107 degrees down near the Rio Grande but quite comfortable up in the basin where we are camping. We are watching out for black bears and mountain lions.  Here's some pictures of the beautiful scenery.

 Our fabulous campsite in the Basin of an ancient volcano at about 5000ft.

Jamie and her hammock!

In a hot spring on the bank of the Rio Grande River

Incredible scenery

Driving into Big Bend National Park

Looking across the Rio Grande River at Mexico

Cool plant called an Ocatillo

A storm in the distance

South Llano River State Park

We arrived here Wednesday late afternoon, July 4th. We unloaded and set up camp and started to cook supper. Mom and me made a delicious goulash with venison, cheese, tomatoes, and peppers in it. Nothing like a warm meal when you're camping!! After supper the boys went and fished a little at the river while mom and I cleaned up and set up my air mattress. (Getting back surgery really improves your sleeping arrangements!)

Once the boys got back and we had all showered we sat around for a few minutes looking at the stars, listening to Quint play the guitar, before we went to bed. Later that night at about 12:30 it started raining and dad came by and zipped up all of our rain flies for us. Unfortunately that didn't help Quint at all and his tent ended up flooding and he had to come crawl into my tent. The next morning we discovered that mom and dad's tent had also gotten a lot of water in it so we had to get mom, dad, and Quint's stuff out of both of their tents so it could dry all day.

That day, Thursday, once we had gotten everything squared away at camp we headed off to go fishing and paddling all day. We started around 9:30am and ended around 5pm. It was so beautiful! Everyone who fished caught multiple fish, especially what we had come for, Guadalupe Bass! We finished the paddle at the campground in a swimming hole where lots of people tube and swim. It was over 8 feet deep! Lots of fun. As you can see from the pictures, the river goes back and forth from being like a little creek to a big lake.  It was so strange.  Mom was paddling me in the canoe and we came thru some rapids and she tipped over the canoe. Dad had to rescue us and help us turn the canoe back over.  We saw a lot of deer including a momma and fawn drinking in the river. We saw a flock of turkeys and Quint saw a snake.

We then went back to our camp site where we had wonderful taco soup that mom and Joe had made. Then we bathed up, and sat around listening to Quint play guitar under the stars. We all slept well that night.

Today, Friday July 6th, we all got to sleep in. Dad and Quint made eggs and bacon. Then the boys went off to the river to swim and fish while dad went to the lake to fish and read and mom and I came into town to do some laundry and get a little air conditioning and wifi. Later today we are gonna go tubing and have leftover goulash and soup. Tomorrow we will go to Big Bend National Park to camp for a few days!
-Jamie

Q on the South Llano River

 Joe got the biggest Guadalupe!

A crawdad in the throat of a Large Mouth Bass!

 Mom's Guadalupe!

 I wasn't happy that the Dr. won't let me paddle.