We started off the morning walking down to the Stop Start coffee shop two blocks from Padre’s and next to the radio station we were at the night before.
After procuring some replacement sunglasses for TG, we headed south on 67 toward Presidio. The skies were a full light gray overcast. There was lots of green from a wet August.
We arrived a bit too early for lunch, so after driving through the main streets of town, we took El Camino Del Rio along the southern edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park.
The clouds got even darker over the impressive mountains. We would intermittently parallel the Rio Grande, which was running turgid from the recent rains.
After a few low water crossings, we came upon Terlingua and it’s ghost town. We walked about the old murcury mining town ruins, then looked for some food. The three or four establishments that announced food were all closed.
In Study Butte we lucked upon the Rio Bravo Mexican Restaurant. Our hunger certainly helped the tastiness, but we enjoyed the meal thoroughly.
The place had five tables, the waitress was also our cook, and her four year old was our hostess.
From there we headed north again for Alpine which was over an hour away. We made it into two hours by stopping for a nap.
In Alpine, I was hoping to visit the Edelweiss Brewery and Grill, but we found it closed for two days “for cleaning”. Later I learned that it has recently changed ownership.
I also apparently missed the biggest selection of beer in West Texas at one of the local places, and instead ended up at the Lobo Bar & Grill, which did have pool tables and $1 Lone Star.
After a few games of pool we headed back to Marfa without dinner.
We found David finishing a day of hard work. We chatted with him and Rachael (from the Yard Dog). Rachael tipped us off to a free movie showing outdoors at the Thunderbird Hotel. So we spent several hours in the chilly evening watching Being There (1979, Peter Sellers).
After that we went east to the Marfa Lights Viewing Center. We did not see anything abnormal but did see some amazing stars.
We stayed for a short while then headed back and slept till 9am the next morning. A long day.