Big Bend Adventures (12-04-14)

Since no one can hike all day, every day, we looked for other adventurous outings to fill our time.

Eating may not seem adventurous, but dinner at the Starlight Theater is always a fun time.  Some day we’ll branch out and try other restaurants, but at this point, we've always headed here. 

The food is excellent, there is usually live music, they have $2.00 Margaritas, and you can’t beat the sunset view from their front porch.

We thoroughly enjoyed the original songs by Moses Martinez, touting the benefits of living in Terlingua, Texas.  As quirky and “off the grid” as the town is, you never have to walk anywhere in Terlingua.  There is no one who won’t stop to give you a ride. 

And, of course, the town is 90 miles from the nearest traffic light.

The hot springs are always a welcome destination after spending several days on the hiking trail.  It’s on the opposite side of the park, so we combined it with another trip. 

Cooler weather would have kept us hanging out in the 103* water longer, but we still enjoyed sitting and watching the Rio Grande River flow by.

We have had two major outings, and they were both adventures that we’ve never been able to do before:

Rio Grande Rafting Trip

Rafting down the Rio Grande is something that Paul and I have always wanted to do, but there is hardly ever enough water in the river for this particular adventure. 

With all the recent rain, the river is flowing pretty strong.  Paul and I were the only takers for this trip, so we spent the day on the water with just our guide, John Parker.

The river led us through Colorado Canyon, where the “rapids” were fun but barely worthy of their name.

Our lunch was over the top, with enough food to feed a much larger crowd- and it was all set up on a table, complete with tablecloth and paper plates.

I think the best part was our conversations with John.

  It was interesting to hear about the town and the area from the perspective of someone who decided years ago to make it his home.  John came for the hot springs, and loved the town so much he bought property 16 years ago, for a mere $100 an acre.

We learned so much from John that in the days following our river trip, our conversations were peppered with the phrase "John said"...

As for our other adventure- well, this post is getting to be too long, so I will give our other trip it’s own post..