A West Texas adventure!

Back in 2016, before Sean got his orders to deploy to Kuwait, we had started planning a trip to the Big Bend area of western Texas. Sean spent a few weeks in Big Bend when he was in high school, and he's been wanting to take me out there for years. Unfortunately, the Army forced us to cancel our plans. We knew we'd eventually end up going back...just not exactly when.

Well, now is about that time. Sean has sufficiently recovered from his surgery to skip a few days of PT, and since I'm currently between jobs, there's no time like to present for us to hit the road! It also helps that we now have a 4x4 truck so we can have a little more fun!

Unfortunately, this weekend is the annual Chili Cookoff in Terlingua, so all of the lodging in or near Big Bend is totally full. So, we are doing a "drive thru" of Big Bend this time. We will have to go back and stay longer to see most of the park.

So, here's our plan:
Day 1: Grapevine to Monahans State Park, and then to Fort Stockton
Day 2: Fort Stockton to Marathon, then to Big Bend National Park, Terlingua, and along the River Road to Presidio.
Day 3: Presidio to Valentine, then to Marfa, and Fort Davis. Evening special viewing night on the 82" telescope at McDonald Observatory! (This is a Bucket List item for me!)
Day 4: Fort Davis to Guadalupe Mountains National Park, to Carlsbad, New Mexico
Day 5: Carlsbad Cavern, then head east and stop for the night somewhere along the way.

Watch for more posts this week. I promise to take lots of pictures!