More Nature in the New Year!

Opal at sunrise (like 7:30 am) at our backcountry campsite

Happy New Year! We spent a week in Atlanta celebrating Christmas with my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and nieces and nephew! We did all the Christmasy things like baking cookies and ice-skating, and some not so Christmasy things like hiking on Christmas day! Us New Englanders are not used to the warm temps this time of year, but I have to say we’re getting pretty used to it as we head toward the Southwest. Between our celebrations with Corey’s family in Maine, seeing family as we made our way south, and getting to spend a week with family in Atlanta we headed into the New Year feeling very lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives! We wrapped up our holiday celebrations ringing in the New Year and my 31^st birthday in New Orleans! It was a very different experience being sober for New Years in New Orleans of all places, but we still danced our butts off and had maybe even a better time than we would have if we were drinking!

The Rio Grande cutting through the desert.

As much as we enjoyed our family time, we were really itching to hit the road, and put the lessons we learned on our first leg of nomadic life to work! The first thing we vowed to do is slow down. We saw a lot of amazing stuff this fall, but we seriously burnt ourselves out. On New Years Day, after having a lovely lunch with an old friend, we headed out from New Orleans and drove about 5.5 hours to a Cracker Barrel outside of Houston. We got in late, and figured we might as well just have dinner at Cracker Barrel—we’d done it once before and it wasn’t that bad. Worst. Decision. Ever. The dining room looked like a food fight had happened, and when I got my “It’s New Years Day and I’m trying to be healthy grilled chicken,” it was served to me on a dirty plate with old egg crusted onto it. Sorry Cracker Barrel, we will continue to sleep in your parking lot, but we will not be patrons at your restaurant.

A close up of light green cacti that look like green discs.

A selfie of Corey and I getting out of the the hot spring with the Rio Grande behind us.

In our resolution to slow down, we try not to drive more than a few hours on week nights, so we drove to Del Rio, TX on Thursday and drove to a campground right outside of Big Bend National Park on Friday. Right outside of Del Rio we got pulled over for going about 2 mph over the speed limit. When the police officer came to talk to us, she first tapped on our back window to open it up before saying anything to us. After asking us a few questions, she said she was going to give us a warning for speeding. Getting off so easily and quickly definitely made us check our privilege, and being in this part of the U.S. is a reminder of our country’s cruel treatment of immigrants and people crossing the border. We had another healthy dose of privilege checking when we arrived at a campground outside of Big Bend. I had been on the phone with a very patronizing man, trying to make a reservation, but getting cut off by the lack of cell service. The man was getting increasingly annoyed on the phone, and when we showed up at the campground office he just stared at us silently until we said something, and then he made some quip about us calling a million times. Corey ran back to the car to grab his wallet, and in the 2 minutes I was alone in the office, one of the guys hanging out drinking beer creepily said “you’re a long way from home…” when he found out we were from Massachusetts. While being a woman is no fun in those situations, we both reflected on our extreme privilege as a straight, white couple, and that traveling feels much safer to us than it does for many other people.

A view of the Chisos Mountains from the Lost Mine Trail.

Corey's reflection in the window of the Chisos Mountain Lodge Restaurant--a view of mountains behind him.

Corey and I often talk about how lucky we are to be living this life, and there is definitely a longer conversation to be had about the land that we’re on, who has access to nature, and just the fact that Corey has a job that allows us to do this. And then there’s the part that we’re living alternatively and trying to be more minimal and thoughtful with our lives. It’s all very layered, as is so much in life. So here we are, thoroughly enjoying the amazing place that is Big Bend National Park. The landscape is unbelievable, with so many different eco systems in a space that’s about as big as Rhode Island. We did a moderate hike in the Chisos Mountain area that was just my speed called the “Lost Mine Trail.” Its 4.8 miles round trip, well marked with high traffic so no fear of getting lost! The hike we did on Sunday was a little more triggering since it was way less busy and we were out in the middle of the desert—bringing back memories of getting lost in Arches National Park. We timed it so that we weren’t in danger of the sun setting, and it actually ended up being one of my favorite hikes ever! The trail led us along cactus covered mountains overlooking the Rio Grande, and ended at a natural hot spring on the river. The sun was beating down us, but a cool breeze kept us from getting too hot. Overall our weekend was pretty spectacular.

The inside of our trailer looking neat and tidy.

A little yellow flower growing out of a rock.

 It’s Wednesday today, and we’ve gotten into a real rhythm at our new home in Texas! There isn’t cell service in most of the park, which has made my resolution of less screen time very easy to keep! For work we’ve been driving the 15 minutes from our backcountry campground to the visitor center to use their wifi. We go back to the campsite (where we leave Opal) to make lunch, then head back to the visitor center to finish out the afternoon working. On Monday we let our legs rest from our weekend of hiking, and treated ourselves to dinner at the one and only restaurant in Big Bend that of course has a beautiful view. On Tuesday evening we did a short hike to “Balanced Rock,” one of the iconic things to see in Big Bend, then showered at the only place to shower in the park (we are far from a Planet Fitness). Today for our last evening in Big Bend we’re planning to do a hike that’s a few miles long and will take us to see some rock formations of an eroded dike. The start to this year is feeling really good, and I can’t wait to tell you all more about it!

Me sitting under a large rock that's balanced between two other rocks, creating a window of the view behind me.