Noahs Ark: Lions, Marc Cubin, and Bears OH MY!

Friday, June 12

It was a bright balmy morning of 90 something degrees as we woke up late Friday after out long outing the night before in Austin. We had a 6 ½ hour drive ahead of us towards Big Bend National Park where we planned to spend a nice peaceful shabbat resting, eating and hiking. Some of that happened.

It all started as we waved goodbye to Shira’s apartment and began our windy drive through Southern Texas. We followed our map on the 290 to the 10 where we stopped for a restroom break and a live performance at the road side rest area.

I guess every band starts somewhere. Literally couldn’t hold a tune for their life.

We stopped in Fort Stockton to pick up gas and almost lost a few beloved members of the squad to wind gusts. LeeAnn got super excited as we drove by the largest road runner in Texas.

We then headed south on the 385 into Big Bend National park. This drive was straight and flat with fields of different plants and flowers on both sides of us.  There were prairie dogs crossing the road, a sun shower with huge rain drops, border patrol on the northbound road, vultures everywhere (LeeAnn dubbed it Vulture Territory), and some of the mountains looked like they were made of kale.

We were welcomed into the park by a hairy and LARGE tarantula.

We kept our eyes peeled the rest of the drive into the National Park looking out for other creatures. We had a possible bear sighting but it also could have been Marc Cubin. Unclear. We got to the camp grounds by dusk and the girls put up the tent as Meir cooked dinner. Our campsite was in the middle of beautiful mountains on every side of us. We said the Shabbat blessings, popped open 2 bottles of wine and ate our tuna pasta while watching the sunset. The fist night there was extremely windy and loud.

Tuna noodle casserole, chips and guacamole

We had a slow relaxing morning as we got ready for our day hike. We watched some vultures in the trees by our tent and encountered our second tarantula by the tent site next to ours.

Becky and Becca decided to walk to the visitor’s center where they ate breakfast.  When they came back we got ready with water (jeri-can included) and sunscreen and began the hike.  The ranger told us the trail began about a mile up the mountain but it was about 2 miles up hill (we had to walk the same 2 miles after the hike as well).  

After finally getting to the trail we took a break for some snacks and more sunscreen (already sweated out the first layer).  We started the hike stopping in only shady areas as it was extremely hot.  

Finally made it! (To the START of the hike...)

As we climbed the view of the mountains got more and more beautiful.  One of our breaks consisted of a dog owner (no dogs allowed on trail) forcing her little dog to carry a dog backpack up the mountain.

We continued up the mountain to the switchbacks.  The uphill climb was difficult but worth all of the views that we saw.  When we thought we were at the top we stopped under a huge boulder for shade and ate lunch.  At the top of the mountain Meir realized that he left his walking stick that he had found outside of Nashville and was hoping he could get it on the way down.  A few minutes later he got bit/stung by an anonymous Texas sized flying bug.  After a few minutes of hopping around and sitting he was better enough to continue walking on the plateau.  We relaxed near some rocks where we had a nice view of the valley and mountains surrounding us.  Meir and LeeAnn were talking quietly about 50 feet away from Beccas and Becky and finally Becca decided to respond to one of Meir’s comments.  Meir and LeeAnn were shocked that they could hear as they were so far away and speaking softly.  We all realized how good the acoustics were at the top of the mountain and had some fun with that.

While on the top we saw an animal that looked somewhat like a squirrel but was different.

He's hiding under the rock

On our way down it was hot and hunger set in so we went back under the big boulder for shade and a snack.  As we continued down, Meir knew where he thought he left his walking stick and saw it where he remembered seeing it last.  Thank goodness!

Ominous looking clouds began settling in as we walked more quickly.  One lone hiker was walking up and we all thought it was a poor decision.  Rain smell was in the air and we knew what was bound to happen.  As we continued down the trail and made it to the main road we discussed walking to the visitor’s center for shelter to stay out of the rain.  On our way down the main road, though, the clouds cleared a bit, so we decided to head back to the tent.

When we got to the tent we took off our walking shoes had a snack and relaxed for a bit.  The clouds began creeping back in towards the valley where our campground was.  The ranger had told us that there was no need to be worried as the clouds were going to go away and all would be good.  We took out some beers and began drinking.  A few sips in we began getting wet as the rain began slowly and we could see lightning in the distance.  It was nice for a little and then the rain picked up so we made sure everything was in the tent and continued drinking the beer in the tent.

The rain began falling harder and the wind picked up.   As we began accepting our fate the thunder and lightning picked up with the strong gusts of wind.  Becca and Becky stood by the sides of the tent, Meir moved stuff to the middle of the tent and LeeAnn laid in the middle of the tent in fetal position.

The water began creeping into the tent and there was nothing we could do but hold down the fort.  Becky and Becca both said they felt hard pellets of hail on their backs so we looked outside the tents through a window and saw the balls of hail as they hit the ground.  The puddles in the tent began getting bigger in the tent so we threw more of our stuff on LeeAnn in the middle to keep a few things dry.

Our intoxicated neighbors were yelling and we weren't sure if they were in or out of their tent and what the condition of the inside of their tent was.  As everything died down we attempted to form a plan.  Drying our stuff did not seem to be an option so we decided that packing everything up and looking for a place where we could dry our belonging was a good choice.  When we finally left the tent, LeeAnn was dry and Becca and Becky looked like they had just showered.

Mud where our site had been.  The lesson: be careful not to pitch your tent where the rain collects

After throwing everything into the car and trying to keep our composure, we remembered that the roads heading into Big Bend were hilly and had flood gauges indicating possible floods especially after a storm like that.

Despite that realization we headed out of the camping area and drove north on 385.  Meir began driving but got tired quickly so when LeeAnn drove he fell sound asleep.  The three awake people tried to keep their cool as they saw beautiful lighting and small creatures running across the road (hopefully we didn't run any over) in the pitch dark and the off and on rain.  Water puddles seemed like they were directly ahead, and it was impossible to decide how deep they were.  We weaved back and forth trying to stay as safe as possible.

We finally arrived in Marathon, Texas where we spoke to a person in a nice hotel and asked where we could find cheap lodging.  He directed us half an hour down the road (West on 90) to Alpine, where we had to search to try to find a reasonable place.  After walking into a few different motels to figure out prices and availability, we found a place.  We unloaded many of our wet clothes to air dry in the hotel room before showering and going to sleep.

In the morning we continued on 90 to Marfa, Texas to dry all of our clothes and sleeping bags and ate at a food truck (Boys to Men).

Laundromat Selfie

While we ate we left our wet shoes on top of the trunk of the car to dry while we ate.

The atmosphere at the food truck was unique as they told us that a typical order is a double order, they called everyone Evan, and refused to give recommendations (in a funny way).

After repacking the car with mostly dry equipment we headed towards Carlsbad in New Mexico.  We decided to stop by Balmorhea State Park which was on our way along 17 N, where our waiter in Austin (who shared Meir's last name) had recommended we stop for a swim.  At first we drove by this crowded swimming pool and thought that was it, but hoped we were wrong and kept going.  We ended up instead by this lake that did not look very swimable... so we took a few pictures and continued on our way.

That's not saying much...

The only two brave (or stupid) enough to put our feet in

After that quick stop we were ready for something more exciting.  On to Carlsbad.  On the way, driving on 285, we thought we saw a dead wolf on the side of the road.  Sad, but also kind of cool.
As we got closer to the boarder with New Mexico, our phones started freaking out.  Finally, we turned the corner from 652 W to 62 N and saw these sign:

Finally, our phones figured it out and stayed adjusted.

Before we got to the park we saw a house with a Jewish star and wondered what was there.  We backtracked for a second to find out, but it seemed like private property, so we drove on.

We turned onto 7 W and drove up the mountain to Carlsbad as LeeAnn gave us a tour of every place that said exhibit (we still do not know what those exhibits were for).

In the visitors center we relaxed, ate dinner, enjoyed the view with rainbows included, and discussed our itinerary with a ranger.

She told Meir that the bat flight was at sunset and then they returned back to the cave a little before sunrise.  We had discussed and decided that seeing sunrise and the bat flight back into the cave would be an amazing one time opportunity so we prepared mentally to wake up really early.  We went to the flight at night where the ranger told everyone about bats.

We were sitting right next to a large spider and Meir and LeeAnn tried to keep it a secret from Becca and Becky as they knew the two of them would freak out (they ended up seeing it eventually and Becky asked Meir to switch spots to get away from it).

We were told we had to be extremely quite in order to keep all of the audience and the bats safe.  Some fun facts about bats that we learned were that they eat half of their body weight in bugs throughout the night, they can not stop flapping their wings like birds or else they’ll fall since their bodies are so big, they poop while they fly, and a quarter to a half million bats live in that cave.  As it got darker the bats began flying out of the cave in an upward spiral direction.  They made such high pitched squeaky noises as they came out, and before each large group, you could hear their wings beating echoing through the cave.  Even once they came out, when they flew above our heads we could sometimes hear the beating wings.  When the bats leave the cave, small sparrows go spend the night there (since bats sleep during the day), so we got to see them going in as well.

After watching and listening for a while, we decided it was time to head out.  We drove back down the mountain (this time according to the night speed limit) to find a campground.  We went the wrong way for a little while (on 62), then realized that the campground was right at the bottom of the road, on 7 and went back.  We got there pretty late, set up camp, slept for a few hours, and left before it was light.  Good thing.  It turned out it was a pretty hazy day, so we didn’t think we’d really see the sun rise, but the four of us were the only ones at the amphitheater to watch the bats go back home.  Thank goodness.  Unlike the night before, which was supposed to be silent but had too many people for that to actually happen, this time we were all just quiet.

We got up to leave, and as we came up to the small bridge we had to cross, we saw there was already someone on it.

Our one and only (live) rattlesnake sighting

None of us had the guts to cross for fear he'd attack.  We just stood and watched him slither until he slithered just below the bridge.  Then one by one we slowly made a run for it.

After a short nap in the car and picnic breakfast, the caverns opened.

Meir and Becky making oatmeal

We took a quick peek around the small museum, before moving on.

The LeeAnn and Becky Bats

We're really from all over the country

We finally went into the cave where the bats had just entered.

It was so beautiful.  There was so many different colors and shapes inside.  During our journey in the cave we met a father who was in the army and his two daughters who were both full of energy and decided to give us their version of the tour.  They even made sure to keep running back to get any stragglers.  Although it was cute for a little and interesting talking to their father, they became clingy and added a little extra time to our cavern experience.

The elevator has depth instead of floors

After the caverns we continued in New Mexico to White Sands.  We took 7 E to 80 E, to 285 N.  82 W brought us through a mountain range (we thought it might be the Rocky's).  There was a tiny store that had a sign for free coffee, and we all wanted to use a restroom so we stopped.  Before heading in we looked at all the signs on the windows and took pictures, until we realized what they said.  It was one of the most uncomfortable places we had ever been.  We quickly jumped back in the car without heading inside and left.

As we got to the other side of the mountain range, we saw glints of white and started getting excited.

We turned onto 70 W and made it to White Sands, where we went out in the heat of the windy day to hills of white sand dunes.  We were used to soft dunes like the ones we have played on in Israel, but these ones were harder so our feet did not sink into the sand as much.  After walking around climbing and running up and down some of the dunes, the wind picked up, a storm was coming in, we were out of water and tired.

We should've brought boards

Becky, Meir, and Becca race up

We headed back to the visitor center to fill up water and asked about locations to camp on our way.  It was a simple drive, back on 70 W to 25 N.  We made a quick stop at a grocery store to stock up on some fresh food and more cans and snacks.

When we got to the state park where we wanted to camp we found a site and got out of the car.  There was such a nice view of the river that we were on and the sun was just beginning to set on the horizon but the only problem was that there were mosquitoes EVERYWHERE!

After a few minutes of discussing we figured we could not pitch our tent and we would be uncomfortable in this camp site, so we asked a park ranger who by chance previously worked at a near-bye state park and he said the other camp site was not as infested with mosquitoes.  We drove the half hour or so, through border inspection (yet again... and we realized we were back close to Mexico) to the other state park.

We got in pretty late, set up camp, ate some eggs and cheese, and went to bed.  We were a bit sandy from White Sands, so LeeAnn decided to shower, but everyone else just got more excited about the shower we were going to take in Albuquerque the next night.

The next day we drove up to Albuquerque further along 25 N where we made plans to stay at Meir’s friend from USY, Nathan’s house.  Along the way we stopped at a town called Truth or Consequences.  Aside from the name, which came from the radio show, they were also supposed to have hot springs.  Turns out they weren't exactly public, so we just drove through and left.

Prairie dogs right next to the highway!

We got to Albuquerque, where conveniently, Nathan was home for two days, one of which we were there for.  We got there in the early afternoon, met his family, dog, and kittens, and went around the city a little with Nathan who took us to a few highlights.

We drove up Sandia Crest and had a picnic outside next to hummingbirds and with a view of the city.

We looked around the gift shop for a bit, playing some games and looking around, before heading back down the mountain.

Figuring out where all the states are! (And she finished it!)

As we were driving down, we saw a sign for Tinkertown and decided it'd be fun to stop in.  It was made up of things that one man collected (I believe we met his wife).  We, as usual, didn't feel like paying to go in, but we looked around what you could see outside and what was in the giftshop.

Sign: Do not park on an angle... so Meir did

Art car (there's a whole museum of these that we missed but this counts!)

From there we headed to Old Town, a cute square with old buildings and lots of gift shops.

Becky, Nathan, Meir, LeeAnn, Becca

Becky and Becca were on the hunt for woven sweatshirts so we went in and out of a bunch of places looking for them.

Finally trying on a belt! But ended up buying the sweater behind him (Becky and Becca, who had wanted them, didn't end up buying)

Becca had hoped we'd get onto Historic Route 66 at some point, and I knew it was nearby, so we took a brief detour around the back of a store and found the road with a perfect sign! Check that one off the bucket list!

We also were apparently near where they recorded a bunch of Breaking Bad scenes.  None of us had seen it except Becca, who was excited.

What does that even mean?

The Big I: Where all the highways meet

After we got back to Nathan’s house we watched game 6 of the 2015 NBA finals and had a delicious hamburger dinner.  We did some laundry and looked at our plan for the next day.

In the morning we had breakfast at Nathan’s and began heading north.  His mom was kind enough to send us along with banana chocolate chip cookie squares.  We drove an hour to Santa Fe, NM via 25 N again to 85 N, where we saw the capital building (LeeAnn’s favorite of the one's we've seen).  It took us a little while to find it, and at first we took pictures of the wrong building before realizing our mistake.

Not it...

Found it!

Once inside, there was artwork everywhere.  It was basically a museum.

After wandering through some halls, we realized the reason there was no security and we couldn't find the building was because we had come in the wrong entrance.  We finally found welcome signs, security, and the main dome.

No agenda?

From there we had lunch on a bench at a park, and walked a little down the main streets and looked into different shops.

Can't forget to sunscreen!

The only place Meir and Becky could find a restroom while we picnicked

Spice store

Dream come true

Gallery

LeeAnn had really wanted to see an Indian Reservation but they are difficult to get a hold of them.  We called on in northern New Mexico to see if we could go see them but they did not respond or return our call.  The person at the visitor center said that it is usually difficult to get in touch with them and they do not have guests if there is a death or a birth in the community so we hoped for the latter.  To LeeAnn’s disappointment we did not go to the reservation and continued our way to Colorado.

Tired after so many long days

Motorcycle Gang

The first place we came to was Trinidad.  As we approached, we saw trucks each carrying a huge plane wing! It took us a second to figure out what they were.  Never seen that before!

The first thing we saw when we entered Colorado was a dispensary.  No doubts about what where we were!

We stopped for gas and realized how gross our windows were, so Becky came to the rescue.

A few hours later after seeing a few rainbows and some nice Colorado mountains we got to Colorado Springs, CO where Meir’s friend Rayanne lives.

Her father works on cars and we needed to get the car looked at so he was kind enough to look at it for a bit.  Rayanne’s friend, Jessica, was also visiting, and they prepared taco ingredients for us for dinner.   After dinner we played a game of Ticket to Ride (European) and did some laundry.  LeeAnn and Becky went to sleep and Meir, Becca, Rayanne, and Jessica went outside to the fire pit to hang out and make s'mores.

The next morning we picked up the car from Rayanne’s father’s shop and took it to get new tires because the tread on the back tires was almost non-existent (four people and all our gear really did a number on them).

Jess, Becca, LeeAnn, Meir, Becky, Rayanne

Then we all went to Garden of the Gods which is a free visitor and nature center where the hands on exhibits are very interesting.  They have exhibits about the Native Americans who are from there, and the local animals and geography.

From there we drove to different rock formations, where you can walk around and on top of them.  Despite the crowds, we were able to find some parking a bit away.  We spent some time there, climbed on the rocks, and watched rock climbers.

Is that Becky up there?? (NO)

At the end of the trail, Meir and LeeAnn were checking out a police car and saw the police officer give a kid a junior officer sticker.  LeeAnn asked for one, too, and after laughing a bit, he gave her one as well.

We got hungry and headed out to look for a place to eat.  We had discussed many different places and finally were on the way to one we had agreed on when we saw a Mexican restaurant.  Tacos had become a staple food.  We ordered different tacos, salads, and tostadas.  LeeAnn was extremely upset after the guacamole did not come with her meal, despite having asked for guacamole to replace the meat, and when Meir went to get some for both of them they barely gave any.  She marched back in to get more because she felt cheated.  They still didn't give enough, so she started collecting salsa to make it worth the money she'd spent.  It was not LeeAnn’s most happy hour in the Mexican place.

From there we continued to the Penny Arcade where there were many arcades with different games for cheap.  We spent a little time there playing, saw a heated fight on the street between a dog owner and someone who was criticizing how he took care of his dog (one of them ended up hitting the other with an umbrella), and played around with an “I said no” pen in the gift shop.

Staying dry

After leaving the arcade we went for ice cream/fudge at a fudge place.

Meir and LeeAnn went into a bar to go to the bathroom and when they came out Meir saw a free wine tasting place right next door.  They felt bad leaving Becky alone in the fudge store, but decided to go try some wine for a few minutes.  They could not stay long because they needed to head north for the next night.

By about 5pm we were heading out of Colorado Springs and on our way to Boulder, CO.

Back to the car (with new back tires!)

Showing off their newly labeled matching waterbottles

We took 25 N again (also called 87 there) where we stopped briefly in Denver to see the first ever Chipotle restaurant and while we were there we peaked into a dispensary that was right next door.  It seemed like a combo of places that were destined to take your money.

View of Denver as we drove by

We got to Boulder, CO (after driving further on 25/87 to 36 W through golf sized hail that we thought might break the windows) when it was already dark out and went to stay with LeeAnn's friend from study abroad, Jessica, and her boyfriend Blake.  We got there in time to chat a bit and then plan our morning in Boulder.  While Meir and LeeAnn were still upstairs, LeeAnn got a call from Becky, who was in bed and freaking out because a bug startled her awake, so LeeAnn and Meir went down to save her.

In the morning we woke up and threw our things back in the car before heading on 119/Boulder Canyon Dr. to a hike in Chautauqua where a deer came very close while we were putting on sun screen.

We took a short hike up a mountain so we could see the skyline of Boulder and saw some interesting looking plants on the side of the path.

The biggest dandelion we've ever seen

Becca and LeeAnn overlooking Boulder

We got tired and LeeAnn suddenly started feeling sick, so instead of doing the whole loop we just headed back down.  (We'd been warned that some people have trouble getting used to the elevation, but we weren't sure whether or not that was the problem).

We drove for many hours down 93 and across 70 through the Rockies all the way until close to Arches National Park where we spent Shabbat on the Colorado River at Big Bend Campground in Utah (no, we didn't intend to stay somewhere with the same name as the week before).  On the way there we saw a lot of nice scenery including mountains with snow on them, we drove through tunnels, and even had time to stop at a Trader Joes and Costco.  Apparently, gas at Costco is only the cheapest in the area because we learned that gas 50 or so miles down the road was much cheaper.

As we got closer, once we turned onto 128 S, from 70 W, we were driving along the Colorado River, and got into the Shabbat spirit by listening to Shabbat/Jewish music.

When we got to the campground there were no campsites available so we asked someone if we could share with him since each camp site looked like it could fit at least 7 tents and he said that was fine.

We set up camp and made spaghetti and sauce and parmesan cheese to go with delicious challah and cheap wine we had bought.  We all davened together despite our hunger and Becky decided to sing different melodies for the different prayers.  Afterwards we ate and before going into the tent for the night we lay outside and watched the night sky as the bats were flying over us looking for their own food.  It was so interesting seeing the bats over us less than a week after seeing so many bats at Carlsbad Cavern and thinking about all we now knew about them.

On Shabbat we woke up the second the sun came up past the mountains because it became very hot and stuffy in the tent very fast.  We woke up and davened before getting into our swim suits and going to the Colorado River.  We spent the majority of the day at the river since it was so hot.  There was a couple and a child also in the river area most of the day and the kid helped LeeAnn and Becky make (ruin) their sand castle.  We also played baseball with Meir’s hat and a stick we found. Naturally, Meir’s hat got caught in the river stream and was lost.  Towards the later afternoon we got out of the water and played cards in the shade.

When Shabbat was over we went to the near-bye lodge/hotel for Becca to print out a boarding pass because she realized she needed to get back to LA in order to get ready to go work at camp Ramah in Wisconsin which she was going to the next weekend.  After much confusion she figured it was not going to work to take the bus back and she would return with us through all the parks in Utah.  We had thought about going into to town but it was getting late and we had a big day ahead of us so we went back to the campsite and went to sleep.

In the morning we continued along the the Colorado River and the outskirts of Arches on 128 and went into Moab on 191 S where we picked up some things we needed and went to a visitor center to discuss where we might want to go in Arches.

After figuring out what arches we wanted to see we headed to the park.  The drive in was stunning and the camera stayed on the whole time.

We went out of the car a few times for some short walks around different arches.  We saw petrified dunes, not quite sure what that meant, a balanced rock, walked around and climbed the windows arches, checked out the tunnel and the pine tree arch, and went on to see the longest arch.  The red and layers of colors on the rocks in addition to the different shapes and sizes of the arches made the park a gorgeous place to look and walk.

Models at the Windows

The best we could do without being with our dads... at least we were thinking of them

So hot

FIT BIT!!

It was really hot, and we didn't have tons of time.  There was a really cool hike by the longest arch, that if we had more time we would have loved to do.  After being in the park until the early afternoon we made our way out of the park.

As we left the park heading on 191 N suddenly we began sweating in the car.  LeeAnn and Meir new something was up when it became very hot and the air condition stopped pushing out cool air.  They tried keeping it a secret from the girls in the back, but soon the windows came down and excitement began.  Becky was leaning on Becca’s pillow when all of a sudden the pillow was sucked outside by the air and thrown outside and over the car onto the side of the road.  We turned around to backtrack and find the pillow and somehow we found it on the side of the road in the grass.  We decided that back windows could only be down a little from then on, despite the heat.

We stopped in this small town called Green River back on 70 W because we saw that they had mechanics who might be able to help us.  After stopping for gas we asked where we could take the car in the town because the gas station had one of the towns’ mechanics but they could not help.  The other mechanic was close.  We asked many people in the area including a mechanic outside the Burger King what they thought we should do.  After eating our own canned lunch inside the air conditioned Burger King, Becca told us she made arrangements to take a bus to LA from that town in a few hours.  We relaxed in the air conditioning for as long as possible, got packets of mayo and relish, ate ice cream and downed some sodas before going back to the gas station to drop off Becca with all of her stuff.  We had moved from four in the car to three.

Final photo all together!