Breaking -- not Brokeback -- Mountain Camp

Was walking about my campground on Saturday night and I smelled my downhill neighbor family's -- mom, dad, three kids, three tents, five bikes, u-haul trailer behind a Suburban -- dinner cooking over the charcoal. Classic scent. I wanted a hot dinner, I wanted home cooking, I wanted Cantura food, I wanted Jill cooking. Well, I had tuna and cottage cheese and a Hershey bar and a peach and some icy cold milk.

I thought about taking down my tent in the Chisos Basin on Saturday night and sleeping in the Escapay just in case it were raining in the morning up there at 4600 feet but I decided not to be a weenie. Not that the tent doesn't keep me dry -- it do. I just didn't want to pack a wet tent. Shouldda learned not to second guess myself by now. It was raining plenty on Sunday morn. Didn't rain all night, commenced to rain as I was poking my nose outta the Coleman. But: I did learn how to successfully clean-in-the-rain-and-pack a wet tent. The Escapay was completely disorganized, but the tent part went ok. Anyway, gassed up -- this is the kind of business I'd like to have right now in this kind of place -- and the old guy at the Fina station called me Mr. Harris and I asked him (see, I'm forcing myself to talk to strangers on the road) how long he'd been in Big Bend. Three years. Still has a home in Las Vegas, lives with the Mrs. in their motor home here in Big Bend, but "I can leave any time I want" he added with a wink. Looking at the overcast he said "This is about the best we can hope for today." Hey, it cleared up nicely yesterday, and when I went the 25 miles over to Rio Grande Village and the hot springs yesterday it was misty-drizzly here and sunny and desert hot over there. Thanked him for being there early on a Sunday morning and motored on.

I tried to go to St. Elena Canyon and to see St. Elena across the Rio Grande, but the road was flooded at Old Castolon. There's St. Elena from a distance. That's their water tower across the rio (a little Espanol lingo for ya). The little Mexican town is at the bottom of those huge mountains past all those cottonwood trees over here. The old lady that lives and works at Old Castolon, who told me the park service would hire me (me talking to two strangers in one morning), loaned me her binoculars so I could see the waterfall caused by the excessive recent rain. "I could see three waterfalls yesterday." I couldn't get pics of the waterfalls because my camera will telephoto splendidly but only telephoto so far. Not to worry, I have hundreds and hundreds of other photos for your imminent enjoyment. Well, this connection is too slow right now to upload my pics so I'm agonna pack the Escapay and hit the road. ....... I'm in Alpine. I'm trying not to stay another day. The town is lovely. Better than expected. The Edelweiss restaurant serves the best breakfast I can recall. And those Bavarian pancakes may rival chile rellenos as treat of the drive. Anything with raisens AND coconut (!) with cinnamon as punctuation catches my attention. .... And the university here is surprisingly lovely. Red brick (no ivy). Nothing I've seen online does justice to Alpine. I could blog all day but I'm heading west instead, I think. P.S. No cell service for me since last Wednesday.