#43 / 2004 Tour 3: Pulling Out of Big Bend

LAST DAY

On Sunday night in Terlingua Abajo it was so warm we slept upstairs and for the first time since we left Tennessee, we had two screens unzipped. The next day we went to the creek Kurt told us about, took off all our clothes and took (illegally) baths. We were very conscientious not to get soap in the water so we got ourselves wet then stepped to the bank to lather up and rinse ourselves with a bucket further out on the rocks. It was my first bath in eight days, ten for Joe! I even got a little bit of sunburn.

So it was surprising to us how cold the next morning was, almost thirty degrees cooler. It was our last day. We cranked up the generator to show Kurt some of our toys, he really liked our mini DV digital editing system, charged up a few batteries, and bid him and Big Bend adieu. We had survived seven days in the wild for one week with $35 worth of highly overpriced groceries.

We stopped in the town of Alpine to restock our larder somewhat. I have been having dreams about chocolate cake, pimento cheese, and Baileys and coffee. I bought everything but the cake. We spent most of the afternoon in Alpines great little library, getting on line and catching up.

We are on our way towards El Paso, our last stop in Texas and only thirty minutes from Las Cruces. But it is getting COLD. So cold we finally pull in for the night in Van Horn, about 100 miles from El Paso, and call it a night. We found a room for $23, no tax! We saw on the weather channel that it is 21 degrees in Las Cruces. I’ll be seeing my real estate agent, Howard Dukes, in just two more days.  HoHo