Into the Inferno

Kregg's brother and sister-in-law, Don and Shiela, invited us to go to Big Bend over the Memorial Day weekend one year. We told them that was really too late in the year to go; it would be way too hot. Shiela's brother is a geology professor at TCU in Ft. Worth and he was taking some doctoral students on a tour of the park. We were going to be able to tag along and listen in on his observations. The suggestion was made that it would be much better to go earlier in the year change the destination, but they really wanted to hear the geological lectures. And they really wanted us to go with them.


Against our better judgment, we agreed. :)


Hannah was about 6, Mackenzy 4, and Caleb was 2. An old pop-up camper was our home on wheels and we had just spent $700 to have the air conditioning repaired. Ignoring a growing sense of foreboding, we started planning our Wild West odyssey. The lure of spending time with Don and Sheila and their boys was just too great. After all, how bad could it be?

Boy, were we naive!


Don and Sheila, along with their two boys Tim and Austin, were going to drive to our house from Ft. Worth and then we would all head south. The night before we were to depart, God even tried to get us to change our minds. A terrible storm blew into Midland. Hail literally sanded all the paint off the trim on the back of the house. It broke windows and ripped shingles off the roof. Rain came in our bedroom horizontally through the broken window! The floor was wet half way across our bedroom. After pulling up the carpet, we set a fan blowing on it to dry everything out. I suggested that we might possibly reconsider our plans to depart the next afternoon. 

Silly me!

Kregg had to go into the office for a few hours the next morning. When he got home, he climbed on the roof in his dress pants to nail the shingles, found across the street in the ditch, back on. While he was finishing up, the Fort Worth Conders arrived. Like lemmings to the sea, our two vehicle caravan departed. What were we thinking?


I was driving while Kregg slept; it had been a short night for him. Those of you who have read previous posts about my uncanny ability to get lost need have no fear, for I was following his brother. They had made the reservations for our campground and knew where we were going. We drove through some very remote, seemingly uninhabitable terrain. It looked a great deal like the surface of the moon; definitely not my idea of a vacation spot. Never having been to Big Bend before, I had no idea what to expect. Somewhere in my mind, I guess I thought we would come over a rise and see lush green landscape magically appear on the horizon. 

Unexpectedly, his brother turned into a parking lot. I pulled in behind him and woke Kregg up. Wondering why they had stopped, I asked him what we were doing there. Maybe someone needed to make a facilities check? Ask directions? Reconsider our fool hardy plans? 

Kregg said, "I think this is where we are staying." 

It was a dirt parking lot with a little 6 foot tall cottonwood tree beside each trailer hookup. This was our campground??!! 


Looking at Kregg I said, "This is what I imagine hell looks like." (I know I am very naive. Hell is much worse. But, I'm just being honest.)


Well, time to put on a good face and make the best of it. Of course, Don and Sheila felt the same way. The campground had advertised itself with the phrase "a tree at each campsite." Their definition of "tree" and mine differ considerably. Each of them had about ten or twelve leaves. "Sapling" maybe, "tree"? Not hardly. 


Time to unload and set up camp. And, boy was it was HOT! The thermometer said it was like 104 degrees. Thankfully, we could turn on the air conditioner as soon as the camper was set up. Dust clung to everything. The flies came in swarms. And the millipedes!! EEEKKK! Horrible black crawly creatures were everywhere. Caleb, of course, found them fascinating and continually tried to pick them up. Not a good idea. They sting! Of course.


Eventually the pop-up was set up and things were unloaded and arranged. Then the eagerly anticipated moment arrived. Time to flip on the air conditioner. Momentarily, we would be cool and comfortable and our brains would quit sizzling. 

It ran for 5 minutes. Then to our horror, it quit, never to run again. Now what??? 


Well, dinner time was upon us so Sheila and I got everything ready and set out on the tables. Trying to catch any hint of shade cast by the campers, we had moved the tables between the two pop-ups. The flies arrived in attack formation. While standing over the tables swinging a fly swatter back and forth as fast as I could, everyone scurried through the line and filled their plates. As soon as they finished, we grabbed all the food and through it back inside the campers; that is, what the flies didn't steal. We then sat miserably inside our camper while sweat dripped into our plates. Very appetizing. 


By the time it started to get dark, we decided to get in the pool. To say it was small  does not paint an accurate picture. It was about 15 ft long and 8 ft wide. Seriously. When everyone got in, it almost overflowed. But at least it was wet. The thermometer on the wall said 98 degrees! This was between 9:30 and 10:00 pm! Then the bats started swooping down, skimming the surface of the water. At first, it was alarming until we realized they were just trying to get a drink!! After our refreshing dip, it was time to get out and get the kids ready for bed. Laying in our beds sweating profusely, we gradually slipped into a heat induced coma.


The next morning, we got up and readied to leave on our geological adventure. Expectantly, we arrived in the park and met Sheila's brother. At least the drive into the park had been nice and cool inside the van. The tour was very informative and we enjoyed it as much as we possibly could. However, when we arrived on the banks of the Rio Grande, the temperature had reached 108 degrees!! At one point, I bent over to pick Caleb up and sweat dripped off my face all over his head! Okay, that is just ridiculous. We wimped out and headed back to the relative comfort of our campsites.


Thinking we could pass some time inside somewhere, we looked around the little town for any potential shopping opportunities. Choices were very limited and we ended up inside the rock shop. You would have thought we had seen enough rocks for one day, but the appeal of air conditioning was too great. Not to mention our three animated children couldn't really break very many things in a rock store. We stayed as long as we thought we could, without being asked to leave, and then returned to our home away from home. 

The only shade was between our campers when the sun wasn't directly overhead, but it was still too hot to be outside. The pool was boiling. The flies tried to eat us. So we sat inside the pop up and sweated. 


After dinner, I took the kids to the showers and got everyone clean. (All clean, all at the same time) The only way to keep them clean was to drive them back to the campsite, about 30 feet away, and carry them from the van depositing them directly into the camper. Walking across the campsite stirred up so much dust, I believe I know where Charles Schultz got his inspiration for Pig Pen. Once the dust was stirred up, it stuck to every sweaty surface, which meant your entire body was again covered.


When Kregg and I finally laid down in the camper for the night, he said, "We can lie here and sweat until 3 or 4 in the morning when it finally cools off enough to sleep. Or we can get up. Pack up. And leave now. We would be really tired, but at least we would be cool and clean."


Thirty minutes later, We were on the road. We had folded up, loaded up, and broken down camp in record time. The kids slept comfortably in their seat belts or car seats and I drove for the first leg of our return to civilization while Kregg slept. My job was to get us to Alpine. The air conditioned part was great. However, the amount of wildlife that comes out around there at night is unbelievable! Praying the entire time that nothing would run out in front of me, I would see 4 deer on one side of the road, then 50 yards farther there would be 5 more, then 3, then 6, then 2. There were eyes everywhere! Steeling myself against the natural reaction to swerve if something appeared in the road, I kept telling myself that the van and camper would be very easy to roll. At one point, I did smoke a large feline of some kind. No way I could miss it. It was just there. It didn't survive. Thankfully, that was the only thing I hit and when we rolled into Alpine, everyone was still sleeping peacefully! The good news is there was never the remotest chance of becoming sleepy behind the wheel.

Kregg took over at that point and drove the rest of the way into Midland. Exhausted but happy, we carried the kids in and put them to bed. They never missed a beat. 


The truly amazing part is: we still go camping!!