02 May 2013 – CHASE 2013 – DAY 2 – Heading to the Big Bend
0700 – I’m awake! Did morning chores. Pulled myCharge, iPhone, camera batteries off their respective chargers.
0800 – packed everything but computer gear and iPhone. Transferred Nikon D7000 photos to my portable hard drive. Made shrunken copies of key photos for the day. Updated my blog entries for yesterday
1030 – meet others at the van to load up for the day.
10:35 – Do weather briefing. No expectation of storms for 2-3 days, at least. We will head to Terlingua,TX where we’ll set up our.base to explore
Big Bend National Park.
10:40 – Headed to The Beehive for lunch; arrived 20 minutes later. Excellent brisket and great stories about Albany and the restaurant from the owner, Ali (who came 33 year ago from Iran).
12:50 – stop for damage photos and video at a local oil company, Sazama Fuel & Oil. Departed Albany westbound, toward I-20.
14:36 – Continuing west on I-20, passing through Sweetland.
50 minutes later, exit at TX350 (Big Spring) for provisions.
15:51 – Continue west.
16:00 – Dust streaming across the interstate. All that is left of a lake north of us is a pitiful lakebed dotted with old tires and the dust spewing at us.
18:45 – We do a 20-minute Walmart stop in Fort Stockton then head south from I-10 on US67.
_____ – we stop the McDonalds in Alpine for dinner (a grilled chicken Caesar salad for me).
21:00 – Arrive at our motel near Big Bend National Park (in Terlingua, TX). Unload gear, set up chargers, turn in for the night. (I briefly tried to find a view of Saturn, but low clouds and trees are blocking the view until hours later.)