Summer 2017 Vacation – July 25 – Day 6

Today we head towards Big Bend National Park from Lubbock, Texas.

It wasn’t an early morning for me since I didn’t wake up until 10am! So scooting around getting ready now. We are going to head south towards Odessa and then off in to the sparsely populated areas near the park.

Other than the temperatures now going up above 100º there is nothing remarkable about this countryside. It just goes on for miles. Today is a very bright and sunny day on top of being quite hot.

We stop for lunch in Odessa and ate at a sushi place named Volcano. If you’ve never been to Odessa it’s not known for sushi. It’s known more for it’s  petrochemical businesses and culture. Having worked in the oil industry for some time I made several trips into Odessa but always came in by plane. This is my first drive into that city.

The chef was quite talented!

We still have a ways to go to get to Big Bend. I’ve been here before so I know the populous starts to disappear, the terrain become more rugged and isolated until you finally arrive.

Sure enough, as we move away from Odessa the cell phone coverage starts to become spotty until it disappears altogether. That’s when you know you are getting closer to the park.

Similar to some parks around here the speed limit is 45 once you enter into the gates. After getting off highways where the limits are 75-80 it’s a bit of a challenge to slow down. The air is still warm but as we climb to the lodge area things cool down in a strong breeze. It appears to rain up here a lot as there is moss all over the rock formations, the grass is very green and the trees and brush are thick.

The speed limit continues to fall as the road becomes more narrow and steep until we finally make it up to the lodge. For some reason I was expecting it to be busy but it wasn’t. Until we go to dinner where there was only 2 people working trying to feed 30 of us. It seemed if you wanted to drink your dinner you were good but if you wanted to eat your dinner you had to wait. Unless you brought your food there are no other options.

We did finally get seated, got some water and ordered our meal when we noticed that quite the sunset was unfolding outside. I didn’t bring my “real” camera with me so I went back to the room to grab that. And I was glad I did:

Sunset at Big Bend, Texas

It was such a pretty evening and it would soon get better when the sun went completely down and revealed the milky way galaxy.

The Milky Way as seen from Big Bend, Texas.

The picture of the sunset was shot by hand. This camera can take some pretty amazing photos. The picture of the Milky Way does the evening sky no justice at all. It is seriously breathtaking there after the sun goes down.

At first I took some photos from the parking lot but then I grabbed Gloria and we headed to a hiking path where  it was even darker. There we could easily make out several planets and all of the Milky Way without the aid of any optics. Even with the moon out and being very bright there was no problem seeing the milky way from horizon to horizon.

Gloria is going to get up early tomorrow and head out for a hike. I’ve put in an order to sleep late which she has promised she would accommodate.

I’m doing a ton of post production photography and Gloria is fast asleep. The poison ivy is not bothering her much now so she can sleep soundly.

After Gloria’s hike tomorrow morning we leave and head north towards Carlsbad Caverns to see the bats then on towards Roswell, New Mexico where we see a different kind of batty.

We definitely want to come back here to Big Bend.

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