March 20, 2020 - Big Bend National Park

I ended up about halfway to Big Bend the night before and crashed off the expressway where I would have to turn off to get to the park.  I still had a few hours of driving left but I'd have a harder time finding a place to park at night, so I chose a place heavy on hotels and truck stops, so I knew I'd be good.

I enjoyed a great drive to the park.  Found a family of prong horns in a field.  Found a Prada store in the middle of no where that is actually part of an art exhibit.  Found a s

imilar Target Store.  They aren't really stores.

The visitors center at the entrance was closed, this was expected.  The indoor bathrooms were closed.  They had outside bush toilets that were open.  They were out of maps.  I really wanted a map.  I'd already pulled up the map on google and I knew this would be a huge park.

I decided to follow the main road and hope there is signage.  Hopefully I would be able to find a map somewhere else.

I found an auto-trail that didn't provide any specific directions, such as...is this a loop, how long is it or what does it lead.  I decided to take it and I had a really nice drive.  It took up a good hour at a slow pace and eventually ended in a little turn around.  I saw deer and some interesting birds.  The terrain was interesting and it was a good drive.

I found a Dinosaur educational center.  That was good.

At the end of the road, I had some directions to different areas.  I took a left and had a nice drive to the campground.  There was a gift store and the owner of the gift store was obsessively counting the people.  It was a 10 person max.  I asked for a map and I left.  I had a map!  I'd done pretty good so far.  But now I knew how much of the park I had done and how much of the park I had left.

I spent the entire day exploring the park and used every minute of daylight.  It is a really beautiful park.  I ended up in a border town a couple miles outside the park hoping they had gas and lodging.  They did.  One gas station that was closed except for a pump that worked on credit cards.  I had a credit card but I was supposed to be using quality gas due to my catalytic converter issue.  I had no way to know what the quality of the gas is here.  There was a motel that is a mom and pop owned place but luckily there was enough cars there I could blend.  I went in to ask about the restaurant but it closed around 5 or 6 as do every restaurant in the area.  The park doesn't close until sunset and people want food when they leave.  Turns out at a ghost town 5 miles away, there is a restaurant called Starlight Theater that is open.  I passed a couple of other places in that area that were open, but not sure if they were still serving food.  Onto the Starlight Theater I went.  This little "ghost town" called Terlingua had probably the only bars/restaurants in the country still serving in a dining room.  I didn't even think about it at the time, I was just hungry.



The Starlight Theater was an old movie theater that was abandoned back when Terlingua really was a ghost town.  When modern folks started moving in, they would meet in the roofless old theater to play music.  Eventually  someone bought the old theater and renovated it, put a roof on it and turned it into a bar and grill.  The walls are left the same but they put a new roof on it.  I ordered the "Texas Antelope" which is apparently an Asian antelope called Nilgai that is raised on a ranch in the middle of Texas.  They were raised to be released on a hunting ranch and people would come hunt them.  But you can also eat them in Terlingua.  I ordered chicken fried Nilgai fingers.  They weren't good.  But at least I know.