The story begins:
Last year, we took the inaugural MLK/EAF trip to Big Bend National Park and spent 1 day in the nearby State Park on the way out. That experience in the state park left us wanting more. We knew we would return the minute we peeled out.
BBRSP (formerly a private ranched deeded to Texas) is approximately 400,000 acres bordering Mexico along the RIO Grande. There is not a paved road in the park. A few of the main arteries are semi-maintained gravel. It is 17 miles of teeth chattering washboard before you even get to the main ranger station at Sauceda. To say it is a "remote" is an understatement. To say it is beautiful is being indifferent if not insulting. It's fawking magnificent.
Because its a very long-haul (making caravaning tough), very remote and the campsites are small and require early reservations, the open spots were limited and filled in about 2 seconds. The cast was set and we started making plans about this time last year.
In attendance this year were 5 100 series cruisers driven by me and:
@Papalud - pro photographer and token hippie
@Bomar - BBQ guru who was traveling with an old college buddy (aka "new guy with drone").
@wngrog - chief pot stirrer, drone pilot and attention whore sponsored by Overland Textile and Skottle.
@ntsaint - Barrista and founding father of the Walt Whitman fan club.
The Cruisers were joined by 1 incredibly #EAF, but totally possessed LX (more on that later) driven by:
@under_psi - Chef in residence and "sergeant at arms"
And then there was "the BBT":
Sort of like when you have a perfect golf group and some hack in wife-beater walks up at the first tee and asks if he can join your foursome, we also met up with @Fireman , who showed up in a multi-colored (primarily electric blue), stretched, camper-top Tundra that was decidedly #NOT EAF and was quickly described as a "keystone light tall-boy on wheels." To say it was ugly is being indifferent at best, and perhaps generous. It's fawking heinous.
We huddled and discussed briefly whether we should run him off a cliff and leave him for dead in the desert. In the end... because his is a trained EMT and firefighter (the latter actually became necessary for our group), a "purveyor" of firearms, a carpenter, a hell of a nice guy and one of our favorite people on the planet, we decided to let him live, subject to some rules, like so:
The rest of the story to follow.
Last year, we took the inaugural MLK/EAF trip to Big Bend National Park and spent 1 day in the nearby State Park on the way out. That experience in the state park left us wanting more. We knew we would return the minute we peeled out.
BBRSP (formerly a private ranched deeded to Texas) is approximately 400,000 acres bordering Mexico along the RIO Grande. There is not a paved road in the park. A few of the main arteries are semi-maintained gravel. It is 17 miles of teeth chattering washboard before you even get to the main ranger station at Sauceda. To say it is a "remote" is an understatement. To say it is beautiful is being indifferent if not insulting. It's fawking magnificent.
Because its a very long-haul (making caravaning tough), very remote and the campsites are small and require early reservations, the open spots were limited and filled in about 2 seconds. The cast was set and we started making plans about this time last year.
In attendance this year were 5 100 series cruisers driven by me and:
@Papalud - pro photographer and token hippie
@Bomar - BBQ guru who was traveling with an old college buddy (aka "new guy with drone").
@wngrog - chief pot stirrer, drone pilot and attention whore sponsored by Overland Textile and Skottle.
@ntsaint - Barrista and founding father of the Walt Whitman fan club.
The Cruisers were joined by 1 incredibly #EAF, but totally possessed LX (more on that later) driven by:
@under_psi - Chef in residence and "sergeant at arms"
And then there was "the BBT":
Sort of like when you have a perfect golf group and some hack in wife-beater walks up at the first tee and asks if he can join your foursome, we also met up with @Fireman , who showed up in a multi-colored (primarily electric blue), stretched, camper-top Tundra that was decidedly #NOT EAF and was quickly described as a "keystone light tall-boy on wheels." To say it was ugly is being indifferent at best, and perhaps generous. It's fawking heinous.
We huddled and discussed briefly whether we should run him off a cliff and leave him for dead in the desert. In the end... because his is a trained EMT and firefighter (the latter actually became necessary for our group), a "purveyor" of firearms, a carpenter, a hell of a nice guy and one of our favorite people on the planet, we decided to let him live, subject to some rules, like so:
The rest of the story to follow.
