All four of us were in the breakfast room at the Best
Western in Alpine at 7:30 so that we could grab a bite and head south to Big
Bend National Park. You may wonder why this was our destination for today. For
years, Frank and I have wanted to go there, but we never were “in the
neighborhood” way down near the border of Mexico. When we decided to go to Galveston,
we thought, “Why not go to BBNP while we’re traveling? It’s not too far out of
the way.” Claudia and Ivan were amenable to our suggestion because they’d never
been there either.
We were on the road by 8:00 to begin our two-hour drive to
the park. This part of Texas really is beautiful, and those of you who might
not think that The Lone Star State has mountains should travel here. Their
mountains aren’t the Rockies or the Sangre de Cristos, but they’re mountains .
. . and gorgeous ones, at that. My photos don’t do them justice because the sun
wasn’t shining. In fact, around lunch time, it started to rain.
Claudia said that she likes traveling with us because Frank
stops. Oh, my goodness, does he ever! And it’s nice because we were able to get
lots of pictures. Nice in spite of the dreariness.
We stopped at two Visitors Centers on our drive through. At
the first one, Chisos Basin, Frank bought a hat with a picture of Mule Ear
Mountain and two books for me—Terlingua Teacher and Lizards on the Mantle, Burros
at the Door. Both are memoirs. I was attracted to the latter because of the
title. I love it! I’ve already started reading it and found the following
quotation on page 15:
The
sun has riz, the sun has set
And
here we iz in Texas yet.
Truer words were never spoken! It takes forty forevers to
drive across this state. Just as the song says—it’s “miles and miles of Texas!”
We enjoyed our stop at the Chisos Basin Visitors Center but
didn’t even ask about a restaurant because we figured that the one at Panther
Junction would have one because it was the bigger center. Wrong! Instead we
found that the ONLY restaurant was back at Chisos. No problem. We’d find a
store a little farther on after Panther. We found it, but there wasn’t much
there. Frank and I had chicken salad sandwiches which the proprietor said were
fresh because they arrived frozen, and he took out just a couple every day.
They turned out to be pretty good, even if a bit wet from being frozen. Ivan
had a turkey sandwich, and Claudia was satisfied with trail mix. I had THE BEST
bottle of sweet tea. The brand was Gold Peak. It was the closest to REAL sweet
tea that I’ve ever had! And some of you know that I’m a connoisseur of sweet
tea, the nectar of the South!
The most important stop of the day was at the Rio Grande
River. Ivan vowed that this would be the high point of the whole trip for him.
As we stood on the bank of the river, we were only about 100 feet from Mexico!
There were places in the river where a person could walk across. I doubt that
anyone ever came to our country at this exact place because of the mountains so
close to the river on the Mexico side, but I imagine that the places where they
do cross look similar.
Before leaving for Marathon, TX, our destination for the
evening, we broke in to our bag of Black & White Drizzlecorn. Oh, my
goodness! If you haven’t tried it . . . DO!! Our friend Sherry Graeb gave us a
bag to take as a snack. Yummy! Popcorn with dark and white chocolate drizzled
on it! Snacks don’t get any better than this. We’re rationing it in the car,
but we shared it with Claudia and Ivan before we set off for our destination.
I made reservations for all of us online before we left
home. The Best Western was just a Best Western, but I was sure that The Gage
Hotel would be “something else” . . . in a good way. And something else it was!
You’ll see by the photos that it was an elegant old hotel that has been kept in
beautiful condition. We found out that it was built by a very rich man in 1927.
He decided to build his own hotel when he came to Marathon one time and
couldn’t get the room that he was accustomed to having at the only hotel in
town at that time. After the original owner died, the hotel fell into
disrepair, and another wealthy man bought it in the 1950s and completely
restored it, also adding additional rooms in separate buildings. The rooms in
the hotel (where we stayed) all have private baths except a couple of them,
left that way to preserve the original ambience. Besides, a young lady named
Shelly told us, some people enjoy sharing a bathroom with others. Can’t imagine
it! Have you ever seen European Vacation? The bathroom scene is hilarious but
not for me!
After we checked in, Frank and I took a little tour of the
area around The Gage, and toward the end of our walk, spotted Claudia and Ivan
doing the same thing. We met in the lobby and decided that, even though we had
made a reservation for the restaurant for the evening, we wouldn’t eat there
for two reasons: it was TERRIBLY expensive and, even more importantly, the menu
didn’t look all that good. We cancelled our reservation and headed to the bar
(we liked to call it the Pub) at 6:00. No reservations required, and we snagged
a great table for four in the only corner as soon as we walked in. We had
already checked out the menu, so we knew what we wanted. Each of us ordered the
White Buffalo Burger. “Delicious” doesn’t even come close to describing the
burger. It had grilled onions and mushrooms on it, and it was served with the
hugest pile of fries that I’ve ever seen on a burger plate! The whole meal was
scrumptious!
We returned to the hotel with full tummies and ready to turn
in for the night. We agreed to meet in the lobby for coffee and tiny muffins a
little before 7:00 so that we could get on the road for the long drive to
Galveston.
No comments:
Post a Comment