Texas

Carlsbad NM to Alpine TX via Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe NP (12/15)
Alpine TX to Fort Stockton TX via Big Bend Ntl Park (12/16)
Fort Stockton TX to Austin TX (12/17)
Austin TX to Wichita KS (12/18):

Back when we were young road trippers, one of our first stops was Mammoth Cave NP in Kentucky, where the rangers gave us a tour and mentioned several times how their cave was bigger than Carlsbad Caverns. Mammoth Cave may be bigger, but Carlsbad has more impressive formations. Unlike Mammoth, you can actually visit the cave on your own without a ranger-guided tour, which we also appreciated.



We spent awhile at the caverns, which only left us a little time to visit Guadalupe, a Texas national park not far from the caverns. Turns out that was plenty of time because most of the national park is also designated wilderness area, which means there are no roads, etc, so it's largely inaccessible unless you're ready to do some more serious exploring, which we had neither the time, equipment, or initiative to do. The visitor center at least had wifi.



Post-Guadalupe, we headed through the Big Bend region of TX, which is probably the least populated place we've been through. There are only a handful of small towns and absolutely NOTHING on the highways in between them...except outside of Marfa TX, we inexplicably passed a Prada storefront. And not just some shack where someone spray painted Prada on a piece of wood and nailed it to a shack. It was dark, so we didn't get any pictures, but some googling provides the explanation for the weirdest Prada location ever.

After a night in Alpine ("In the Alps of Texas"), we swung through Big Bend National Park, on the Mexican border. It was a pretty perfunctory swing-through, as Brad has given me his cold, and I was sick and didn't feel like hiking. We drove north from Big Bend, passing little except tumbleweed and border patrol agents, sleeping in Fort Stockton, a rather unfortunate little town, except for this road runner:



The next day we visited Austin, where we were armed with suggestions from my friend Rebecca as to places to go. Unfortunately, I was still sick and not up for much, so we satisfied ourselves with pizza and football (though, that seems an appropriate way to spend time in Austin). We're now on our way to Kansas City, a favorite from earlier in the trip and the location of the Browns next Sunday showdown.
-M