The Agnew Family aboard the "Dog House"

Ed still wasn’t a happy camper — he didn’t feel comfortable with the tire repair given where we were headed so he decided to track down a tire repair shop. They were able to fix the tire in no time at all. Big Bend National Park is very isolated — no cellular phone service, no internet, one small town is about 43 miles from the campground where we would be staying and a small town in the other direction is 89 miles. This is also why the blog wasn’t updated for more than a week. After running a couple of errands we were on the road headed to Big Bend. The drive was through a desert area (what else would you expect) and we saw lots of road runners, some quail and a couple of coyote. We arrived at the campground, found a spot and setup. When Margaret and Colin landed they had an encounter with Javelinas (pronounced hav-uh-Lee-nuh) also known as collared peccaries. These critters resemble pigs, but are not closely related to pigs at all and have been genetically distinct from them for millions of years. Later the band of Javelinas marched through our campsite heading back into the woods — these are brave critters as one walked to within 2 feet of Ed who busy taking its picture.

Ed had been told that the sunset from the nature trail was wonderful, so we headed out to the trail just before sunset — and it was very beautiful. While we were enjoying the sunset we started chatting with another couple. Turns out that they are Australians who have come to the North America for a year. They purchased a truck and a camper back and have been touring since last July. In June they will return to Australia with hopes of returning the following February for another year — and we thought we were adventurous.

Lastly, we took Zaph for a walk after supper and were totally awe struck when we looked up at the sky and saw all the stars. There’s a definite benefit to being remote.


Now that's one big Road Runner


Javelinas trucking through the campground


What's for dinner?


A view from the nature trail.


Can you make out Orion?