It rained a little overnight, but the threat of continued rain seems to have dissipated.

We took the dogs on a nice long walk out on a peninsula on Lake Amistad and they frolicked off leash on the rare occasion we were in a contained situation where they could roam free. We returned to the RV and readied Thelma for the next leg of the trip.

We reached out to the folks at Roadrunner Travelers RV Park in Terlingua, TX to see if we could arrive early and they were very accommodating. It is a new RV park only 4.5 miles outside of the Big Bend National Park. There was no availability inside Big Bend’s precinct, so we opted for the closest park with availability.

Chris and Alison from Roadrunner have been incredibly helpful over the phone and we are excited to get to Terlingua and Big Bend.

We headed off from Lake Amistad mid morning. There is a lot of road work on the way which slowed our progress. The landscape continues to be incredibly barren and we’re troubled by how depressed the Texan country economy seems. There are a lot of drilling, fracking and distillation operations peppering the landscape, but everything seems to be at a low ebb.

We travelled through some small towns and stoped a couple of times for diesel. Given our consumption of diesel we hunt for good prices, but that’s not always easy. We use an app called GasBuddy which is really good in urban and suburban areas, but proving to be less adept at divining the best gas prices in the backwoods.

As we approached the outskirts of Big Bend National Park, we decided to get some drone footage of our journey into the mountains. Jack operated the drone as we drove toward the park. It’s a windy day and incredibly cold with sleet peppering the bus. 

The severe cold had reduced the drone’s flight time and we lost contact with it. As Jack headed back to the drone’s home point, I ran back to the RV to get the Jeep. It is sleeting and everyone is stressed as the drone was a birthday present for Jack.