Big Bend National Park & the Rio Grande

And we thought school was out!  Here's our "charter bus" for the 10 hour trip to/from Big Bend National Park.  The seating arrangements were spacious - we each had our own bench, with extra ones for our bags.  And it even had air conditioning though it was a struggle to keep the cheese wagon cooler than the 110+ degree road we were on.  We finally gave up and surrendered to opening those tiny windows and having 90+ degree air flowing through the bus at over 70 mph as being the best solution.

Here we go - into the unknown...

An in-bloom Century Flower.  This desert plant blooms once every hundred years, then dies.

Though the purple fruit is edible, the Pricklious Pearus Cactus has a wonderful defense mechanism known as pricks to protect itself from predatory creatures who want to eat it.  For those who venture too close, it can be a very stinging and painful event (more on this later).



The Rio Grande @ Santa Elena Canyon
The left side of the canyon is Mexico and the right is the US.
This picture was taken after we went wading (even crossing into Mexico), searching for rocks (we are science teachers after all), and some of us getting stuck in the mud.  No, really getting stuck in the mud!

Grandpa"s House
Frick & Jesse (our school bus driver) at Jesse's Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents house located  within Big Bend National Park.  His family farmed and ranched the land back in the 1800's to early 1900's.  Jesse has been a life long resident of Alpine, TX.

Unfortunately, Frick had troubles on the trail when he tripped and landed in a deadly and poisonous Pricklious Pearus Cacti thereby receiving multiple prick wounds in his forearm.  Here our friends Calena, Tina & Anika gently tend to him trying to make his tears stop.  Since the medical kit was back in the hotel and his arm was beginning to swell, Anika was able to grab some Mexican mud and coat the wound.  This worked well and covered us for the 2.5 hour hot and dusty trip back home so he could dress it properly.

One last view of the beautifully diverse landscape that is Big Bend!