May 17 - June 2, 2016: A Trip to Fort Lauderdale
	April 24, 2016: A Going-Away Party for Tom and John
	Return to Index for 2016

For quite some time now, Prudence and Ron have been talking with us about their next trip out to Big Bend. Usually, they, her sister and husband and Guy go out there every other year or so. This time, they have again asked us to join them, and we had decided some months ago that we would. We knew that the Ruckmans and Gleims might not want to do all the hiking that Fred and I might, but then we thought that we and Guy might split off occasionally to do our own thing. So Prudence started doing the planning, and with Karl's online help, got reservations made for hotels in Marathon and Fort Davis- two rooms for them, a room for us and a room for Guy.

(L-R) Prudence, myself, Fred, Karl, Ron, Vickie, Mike and Nancy

Then Guy's plans changed and he needed to spend the summer near his family in Connecticut, and he had to back out of the trip. This left us with no hiking partner (or so we thought) and Prudence with an extra room. We didn't think of changing our own minds about going, though; we thought that we would just do as much as everyone else wanted to, even if it meant some of the longer hikes might go unhiked. For the extra room, Prudence invited Mike and Vickie, a couple they know from Wimberley, a few miles north of San Antonio; Mike was a member of Ron's poker group.

The plans Prudence made had us staying for two nights in Marathon, Texas and then two nights at Indian Lodge, the lodge within the boundaries of Fort Davis State Park. We would work in two days in Big Bend National Park, an outing to McDonald Observatory, a tour of Fort Davis National Historic Site as well as other shorter side trips.

Fred and I would drive his car out to Marathon on May 9th, hooking up at the Gage Hotel there with the other six folks who had driven in two cars- Mike and Vickie from Wimberley and Ron, Prudence, Nancy and Karl from San Antonio.

I'd like to mention right off that Fred and I thought we might be the only extended hikers, but this turned out not to be true. Everyone did quite a bit of walking and climbing, and Prudence even took Jax along on some of the hikes where animals were allowed. We never found ourselves wanting to get off on our own, save for one hike that Mike, Fred and I took in the Chisos Basin on the Lost Mine Trail. Everyone kept up with everyone else, and it was an extremely enjoyable trip.

BIG BEND TRIP INDEX Monday, May 9 The Trip to Marathon The Gage Hotel The Gage Gardens Dinner at the Gage Tuesday, May 10 Morning Walk in Marathon Boquillas Canyon The Chisos Basin The Lost Mine Trail Alpine Dinner/The Star Party Wednesday, May 11 Santa Elena Canyon The Terlingua Ghost Town The Lajitas Resort Thursday, May 12 The Indian Lodge Resort Fort Davis Historic Site Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center

We took hundreds of pictures and movies during our trip to Big Bend, so I have had to find a good way to organize them so that they are not simply overwhelming (and so the album pages don't take too long to load). For this trip, I'll simply have a page for each day, beginning with our drive to Marathon on May 9th.

At right is an index into these pages; as you can see, I have listed the major sights or activities for each day. If you want to simply accompany us on the entire trip, just start with Monday, May 9th. But if there is something particular you want to see, you can go directly to any of the other days just by clicking on its date.

Once on one of these pages, you will see the same familiar buttons at the top and bottom of each page that will take you (as appropriate) to the next day, the previous day or back to this index. When you are done looking at the pictures from our trip to Big Bend, please use one of the "RETURN" buttons that appear at the top and bottom of every day page to return to the top of this index page. Then you can use the links you find there to continue forward or backward through the photo album.

We hope you enjoy looking at the pictures from Big Bend!