Left San Antonio the day before, drove several hours, and finally arrived near the eastern entrance of Big Bend National Park at nightfall. So my dog and I slept in the car that night on the side of the road. We awoke to coyotes howling in the early morning hours. At least, I'm assuming it was coyotes. So I waited until there was enough light out to step out of the car. Morning in the desert:
Then we made it to the entrance:
Spring in the Southwestern Texas desert:
I was almost there; could not wait to get to the Rio Grande:
There it was. The Rio Grande. And there was Mexico just across the river from me:
(below) Mexico on the left and U.S. on the right:
I had hiked up a trail to take the picture (above). I found art on the trail, on the U.S. side (below):
There were Mexicans just across the river maintaining this art auction. I even watched one guy cross over to check if any money had been left in the canisters and then return to the Mexican side:
Those are Americans in the foreground on the trail (below). The Mexican is
in the red shirt, crossing the river; the water got up to his chest at
the deepest point.
What I don't have a picture of, is the man from Missouri that was sitting at the head of the trail near the parking lot holding a shotgun. I found him sitting on a rock as I was returning from the trail to my car. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was looking for Mexicans trying to cross over to our side. OK, time for my exit.
I camped in the park for almost two nights. The first night I stayed in the Rio Grande Village Campground. I ended up in a spot next to a man who travels down to Big Bend from Minnesota every year for star gazing. There is a reason for that: an absolutely amazing night sky. This was my spot for the night:
Big Bend is part of the Chihuahuan Desert Biosphere Reserve. The biosphere reserve program was started in the 1960s by UNESCO to conserve samples of the world's ecosystems. Evening in the Sierra del Carmen:
The next day, I drove up into the Chisos Mountains located in the middle of the park. A complete change from the desert landscape. The mountains are a favorite for many who come to stay here because it's relatively cooler in the higher elevations:
Since it was spring, I was fine with the desert. I returned to the Rio Grande, this time on the western side of the park:
It was already almost 100 degrees both days I was there and this was April. My dog (Kiana), not being allowed on most trails, was allowed to go in the Rio Grande and she did:
Then we headed for a drive through the desert in the park:
Captured a glimpse of the geology:
Finally, returned to the canyon for sunset:
We had a full day:
The plan was to stay in the Cottonwood Campground that night. I set up camp and met my neighbors. This time, they were a couple from Lake Charles, LA with a camper. Just like the man from Minnesota I had met previously, they came to the park on a yearly basis. However, the wind picked up to the point that it kept blowing my sleeping bag and other belongings off the table. Then something at the campground really freaked Kiana out. She kept crying and would not leave the side of the car. I have no idea what it was, maybe a coyote in the bushes. So we left in the night. Headed for El Paso.
[ Preface: When I started this blog, my aim was to "show and tell" my experience of going across the country from North Carolina to Seattle and back to New Orleans. I was determined to try and lay that out in a chronological fashion. I have utterly failed at that, which will be obvious, if you choose to look at my other posts. The difficulty is that, first, I have not stopped moving. Second, I feel compelled to talk about certain places on certain days that have nothing to do with the chronology of when I was there. So the blog is evolutionary. It is more a patchwork quilt of American places stitched together from different times. It is my experience of America as an American. From the inside looking around.]
NYC >
Since I was moving up the East Coast, my cousin and I stopped on the way up to go to New York City for the day. At 33 years old, it was probably time for me to visit there at least once.
So the Budget truck, my car, my dog, my two cats, my cousin and I stayed in Stamford, CT for two nights so that we could take the Metro in to NYC for the day in between.
We got up early and after an hour or so train ride we arrived at
Grand Central Terminal:
Then we had breakfast here:
We took a roller-coaster ride, I mean a taxi-cab ride, through the city to the waterfront:
Statue of Liberty ---
This is where the 9/11 Memorial started for us. Below is the globe that used to stand outside the Twin Towers. Now it's at the waterfront showing all of its dents and holes from debris hitting it. I wasn't expecting to find the Globe there and it was chilling to me to see it because it bears the scars of that day.
When I turned to the left from where I took this picture, I could see One World Trade Center. There was construction being done in the park so my first glimpse of the building was from behind a fence and since construction on One World Trade Center had not been completed yet either, it seemed an appropriate view. So from where I was standing I could see Past, Present and Future NYC at once. Marking the Globe above as the Past, the tower below as the Future and what I was seeing on August 11, 2014 as the Present, a point in between:
We began walking through the City toward the tower since that's where the official 9/11 Memorial is:
(Don't you love it when Google Auto-Awesomes your photos?)
We passed by the bronze plaque (below) before arriving at the Memorial. There was a man cleaning the plaque as I passed by and he just kept repeating, "Doesn't matter who you are or where you came from. Everyone was affected on this day." He kept right on cleaning and saying that amidst all of the people walking by and taking pictures. The plaque is much longer than what I caught in the picture. Then we arrived at the Memorial:
On 9/11, I was working in a GAP Kids in a mall in Asheville, NC. I usually worked in the GAP not the Kids' store but on this day, that's where they put me. My supervisor got off the phone with someone, turned to me and said, "a plane flew into one of the World Trade towers in New York." I didn't even understand, it was so surreal. At first, I thought she was telling me about a movie. I was in a strange place and someone I didn't know at all was telling me about this calamity. Then I had to keep on folding and organizing children's clothes while the rest of the events of that day unfolded. I just kept wondering why someone would ever want to fly planes into our buildings. I was about to turn 21 in a few days and 9/11 made me realize I knew nothing about the world (still may not know much). I only had that job for about a month and a half. What a strange place to be on that day.
Then we moved on. More to see. Next stop was Central Park. But first we happened upon an oasis: Whole Foods Market.
The second floor dining area has a view!
We took a cab ride to the edge of Central Park, Columbus Circle:
Then we headed into Central Park:
And we sat there for a while and enjoyed the peace in the City. My cousin took a nap on a rock.
We left the park to find some lunch and we ended up at the Hudson Common, a block over, that had a neat courtyard with very expensive, not-very-good-tasting food and a toilet that didn't work. But cool atmosphere. So maybe a better place just for beer and drinks.
The plan was to finish the day with a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. So we started walking in that direction, hitting a few key spots along the way:
Times Square---
The 2014 Ball ---
Statues of Liberty ---
Starbucks ---
When we came to the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue (below) all I could think about was Ghostbusters from the 1980s. Growing up with those movies highlighted this city for me. Especially the scene where they use the Statue of Liberty as a vehicle powered by music and goo --- classic!
(Couldn't find the whole scene from Ghostbusters 2, of course.)
The Rose Main reading room was and is still closed and we were told it is because pieces of plaster gilding from the walls has begun falling off. Since it was August when we were there, they moved the reading room outside. They have begun looking into the structural integrity of the building.
As we left the library building, one of the guards at the door began quacking in my general direction. Must be a New York thing. I did not quack in response.
Next stop, Empire State Building.
When we arrived, there was a huge line and something like an hour and half wait to go up.
Wasn't going to wait. So we discovered a rooftop bar, 230 Fifth, a block down that had a view of the building:
Don't you see Godzilla up there?
So we had some overly expensive Prosecco, toasted the City and enjoyed the view:
Then we took our last exhilarating NYC cab ride back to Grand Central.
While we were waiting down in the hollows of the Terminal for the next Metro to Stamford, I was wandering around eating chocolate and looking at magazines. I came back over to my cousin, who was sitting down, she looked up at me with big eyes and said, "Robin Williams died today."
So probably my favorite actor of all time dies on the day that I go to NYC for the first time. Unbelievable. I grew up with his movies. During the entire Metro ride back to Stamford I was in shock. Next to me, in the aisle with their bikes, was a group of four 12, maybe 13, year old boys. A conversation between two of them follows: "Whoa, Robin Williams died. He committed suicide." "So, who's that?" "He's an actor." "Must not have been too good, I've never heard of him." (I'm cringing at this point) "No, he was good, actually. Dead Poets Society." "Dude, I want a Ph-ablet." "What's that?" "It's a phone and tablet together." Their conversation made me think of Mrs. Doubtfire, when she (Williams) hits his wife's new boyfriend (Brosnan) in the head with a piece of fruit, he turns around and she yells, "I saw it, it was a run-by fruiting!" in a high-pitch tone. Well, that's what I wanted to do to the Ph-ablet kid, a run-by fruiting.
So many of my favorite movie quotes come from Robin Williams....
Just as a note in contrast, when I went with my cousin to the top of the Space Needle in Seattle for her first time back in 2011, Bin Laden went down. That was a comparatively better ending and maybe more appropriate for this trip.
But to finish it off nicely. When we returned to my car, after the Metro ride back to Stamford, I put on one of the best NYC tribute songs, ever:
