It was a dark and stormy night …….
The rain continued all night and through most of the day on Wednesday. Some of our group ended up sleeping in the laundromat, the floor in small museum and in the van. A few of us stuck it out in our tents. The whole area was saturated with rain and pools of water were everywhere. His was the first heavy rain in the desert in some time. I managed to stay mostly dry and warm all night and had a great sleep. When I got up in the morning around 6:15 it was still raining steadily.
A decision was made by the group to pack up the bikes and gear and go the Alpine to get motel rooms and dry out tents and clothing. Before we could leave we had to get help from a truck with 4 wheel drive to pull the van out of the newly formed thick mud. We arrived in Alpine just before noon and had a good lunch at the Pizza Hut. After lunch we checked in to the a Highland Inn and spread out our gear to dry. I walked to the Big Bend Museum with one of the other guys to check it out. It was a interesting little museum that had some very good displays on the geography, geology and history of the area.
After the trip to the museum it was my turn to help prepare dinner. I functioned mainly as an assistant because of my lack of culinary expertice. We had burritos for dinner. After dinner we had a brief map meeting to discuss the ride on Thursday. The plan is to drive back to the park and get dropped off so we can continue near where we camped yesterday. It will be a shorter distance but a fair bit of climbing to the Chisos Basin group campground in Big Bend National Park. The weather forecast calls for showers and cooler weather.
Big Bend Museum
