Feb 27, Day 3 -- Lajitas, TX

Lajitas was a sleepy little town once upon a time until a Canadian investor bought the town and created a desert resort for the ultra rich to hang out and or hide out with their girlfriends. He was eventually convicted of fraud and the town was bought by a rich guy from Kerrville who continued to pour millions into the place. It now has a golf course in the desert, a new airport, and a very fancy restaurant, vacant shops and boutiques, a resort hotel, etc., etc... Only problem is it is only tolerable three months of the year and the rest of the time it is a burning Hell on Earth. Even animals shy away from this place it is so friggin' hot most of the time. Today we cruised Big Bend National Park -- it wasn't long before we found dirt for about 15 miles going a short cut to Santa Elena Canyon -- IMO the most beautiful spot in the park. From there we wanted to continue through Castolon to the River Road but we heard it was really torn up and would probably take a whole day to do this much dirt. We also heard a guy broke his colar bone there yesterday on his dual sport bike. So, instead we decided to go to Chisos Mountain Basin via the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. It was very pretty all the way to the Basin. Next stop was Boquillas Canyon on the other side of the park. There once was a small boat that would ferry you across the Rio Grande to the Mexican side where a poor village made their income from tourist stopping in for a cold one or whatever. Since 9/11 that came to a halt and the town suffered. Now, some mexican paddles a canoe over to the U.S. side and leaves handmade crafts with a jar to put your money in. Every so often he comes back over and collects the money and leaves more crafts that the townspeople make there in the village. We came back through Terlinqua where we stopped for dinner on our way back to Lajitas. BTW, our plans have been changed and we can no longer continue on to Mexico unfortunately. Perhaps we can go to Copper Canyon later in March. Total miles traveled: 192