49 Blue Bells

Feb 12 Tuesday,
From Stillwell"s we headed back
into Big Bend one more time.  The terrain in the west end of the park was quite different and reminded us a little of the Bad lands of South Dakota.  We were anxious to put on some miles so we only stopped in Terlingua long enough to do a quick look around and read about the Chisos mine.   Ruthie had some interest in the cemetery and spent some time reading the markers.  Some of them date back to the early 1900's and are victims from the dangerous working conditions of the mercury mines. 

Mission, White smoke, could be the new Pope?

      We spent even less time at the Ghost town, we had heard stories about the reputation of some of the squatters that lived there and we didn't want to take any extra time.  We passed a wealthy resort and golf course, no sense stopping there.  It was the Lajitas Resort, information later told of a wealthy telecom individual building the $100 million resort $95,000 memberships and $900 a night for a two bedroom suite.  I guess we were correct in not stopping.  Nice looking place though.  Wonder if they made it thru the bankruptcy hearing.  I don't have the same sad feeling when I see wealthy entities trying to accumulate more money like I do when I see a for sale sign where someone is struggling to survive.    

 At the edge of the Big Bend Ranch we stumbled onto the Contrabando movie set.  Many western movies have been filmed here with the Rio Grande River and Mexico as a back drop.  Kind of fun roaming in and around the fake buildings, Mel Tillis, Roy Clark, James Garner, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, we were in good company.
     Once we passed the movie set the terrain started to change,  we were following the path of the Rio Grande again so the road had a lot more curves in it.  The rock hill to our right was very rugged.   Define rugged:  A solid wall of rock!

    At one point we seen a cable stretching across the river to Mexico, we turned around and seen it had a basket that appeared to us like it could carry a person to the other side.  On the other side it disappeared into a hole in the rock cliff.   Later at a breakfast stop we asked some border patrol men having breakfast about the transfer.  They told us it belonged to The International boundary water group to measure the river flow rate  when it is to dangerous to go gather water samples.

     This is the stretch that (forum)  George had told us about the Terlingua/Presidio road.  Another good call,  lots of curves, hill, and amazing scenery. 

     When we reached Presidio we headed North on 67,   we talked to some people that had stopped in Marfa overnight to see the mystery lights, didn't see any, glad we went on.  It was starting to get cooler. ( I know, we had been warned)

    



We seen a few blue bells and other wild flowers along the side of the road.  . Here, a self portrait with the blue bells.  Good job Ruthie!  If the temperature hadn't have been dropping so quickly I could have pulled over, I'm sure I at least slowed down. 
As we were approaching Fort Davis we seen huge green houses along the road they looked to cover as much ground as a football stadium.  They seemed out of place in the middle of this rocky desert land.  They were for growing tomatoes.
     So many of these southern towns regardless of the size have a large beautiful court house and town square.  There must have been a competition back then. 

    We drove around the square and then started checking out places to stay,  Ruthie was pretty chilled by now.  Among other more notable things Fort Davis will probably remain in our memory for lodging challenges.  Later I found out that one of the places I was trying to call was a grocery store.   In our search for moderately priced lodging we checked a couple of the historic downtown hotels, evidently they didn't realize it was the off season and chose empty rooms over price adjustments.  We drove into one that looked like it should be okay,  rang the doorbell a couple of times and was getting on the trike to drive on.  A gentleman ( first impression) came out of a nearby camper.  Getting a bad vibe here, "what do your rooms go for?"  After the answer ( had already made a decision before I asked the question, but was trying to be polite.)  I said, "thank you, we are going to look around a little."  "you mean you dragged me away from supper and now your not even going to look at a room?"  "That's right."  as we drove off, this could have got ugly.   We live by Wabasha, famous for Grumpy Old Men.  I think we said something like "Grumpy old fart" as we drove off.  I apologize.   Around the corner was a reasonable motel.  I moved Ruthie and the luggage inside, she was going to turn up the heat while I went to pick us up something to eat.  We were almost to tired to really enjoy it, at least we were warm again.   Tomorrow we explore!