Big Bend National National Park is first up on our two week vacation.
To start our vacation, we got up early Saturday morning and went to the Cracker Barrel out by the airport for breakfast. This is a sort of ritual of ours to start us off in the right mood for long vacations. Then we went back home to get the dogs and the rest of our stuff before heading off to our camper storage place.
At the storage facility, we got everything loaded into the truck, camper and Jeep. We hitched the Jeep. Pulling out of storage we turned onto the outer road and headed west toward the I-10 on ramp. We merged onto I-10 West and were on our way. Since I-10 turns into US-90 in San Antonio, our plan was to stay on I-10 to take US-90 to Marathon and then head south on US-385 to Big Bend National Park entrance.
Then we saw the big freeway information signs – US-90 closed in all directions at I-410. We couldn’t actually get out of San Antonio on this route.
We got off US-90 and onto I-10 West by going through downtown San Antonio. New route: I-10 West to Fort Stockton to US-385 South through Marathon and on to the park entrance.
In Marathon, there was a sign indicating that the campgrounds might be full and to call the park for details. We thought that was a bit unusual for this time of year. At the park entrance, we expected to pay a $25 entrance fee good for two weeks. Instead, we found out that the entrance fee was waived for the entire Veterans Day weekend. That was why the park was getting full.
We arrived in Big Bend National Park at Rio Grande Village campground by 4:00 PM. It was eighty degrees, the sun was still shining. The campground was the fullest we have ever seen. We opted to take the first unoccupied campsite we came upon which just happened to be the same campsite we stayed in last year. Crazy. I unhitched the Jeep and Linda drove over to the pay station to pay for the campsite.
We didn’t setup our campsite. We just settled in for the night. This campsite is across from what seems as the most popular restroom in the campground. People use it all night long. They drive to it. Slam their car doors. Run the noisy air blasting hand dryers.
In the morning we will just find us a new campsite.