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Park #4 Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

I did not do a good job of exploring this park as I did not understand the ride system they put in place.

This park is very large and offers golf cart rides on the hour where they can take you into the park or out of the park or deliver you from one area to the next.

I thought I was getting onto a guided tour of the park.

Oops.

Because of this I did not do a good job of exploring this lovely location.

Lesson learned.

But, one of the loveliest moments of this weekend happened here.

After arriving I parked my car and began my walk to the front office and was stopped by an older couple and offered solar eclipse glasses.

My response to this delightful old lady was “I thought the eclipse was over.” to which she replied “It’s still happening now.”

I thanked her several times and enjoyed the delightful view.

While waiting for that golf cart ride I watched the ants.

I collected my third (and final) entry band here as well. There was a bit of confusion when I checked in as it looked like I already had an entrance band as the color of my previous park band matched the band here.

Also grabbed a t-shirt gift for the missus.

Park # 5 and the final park for Saturday October 14th: Falcon State Park.

It was 3pm and I was exhausted.

The rangers here were kind enough to alert me that finding a campsite would not be an issue and so since the day was still warm, I splurged and rented a cabin with air conditioning and wooden bunk beds for $40.

Coming to terms with my disappointment at the archaeology fair I chose to complete a Wreck This Journal page.

The situation at this park was complicated for a few reasons.

I immediately fell asleep, but my phone was not charging as I only brought a car charger… which I was about to discover had broken.

Also being right next to the Mexican border was wreaking havoc on my phone’s internet connection.

I needed food. I needed more water. I needed a solution to keep my phone charged. I needed to complete this in about two hours as I woke up at 8pm to realize all of these issues and the park gates are closed and locked at 10pm.

Add to this the issue of extremely unreliable internet and I had to wing it just a bit.

At the nearest mini-mart that I could find that was open I used my broken Spanish to ask if they had phone chargers. No luck. After a “buenos noches” and a “gracias” I returned to my car and was lucky to have a better internet connection. Down the road was a dollar store…

They charged me $10 for a phone charger.

Fuckers.

But I had what I needed. Food, drinks, a way to keep my phone charged, two blankets and a collection of reusable grocery bags.

I forgot to bring a pillow. The grocery bags worked surprisingly well, though.

And so I slept through the night and only accidentally set off my car alarm for about five seconds at 7am the next day.

I did briefly visit the butterfly garden and learn about butterfly sight, but I wish that I had spent more time here hiking and exploring.

Also I bought glue at the dollar store and fixed the car charger.

Lauri. I’m sorry that I used your butterfly chomper to fix the phone charger. I promise that I got no glue on it.

View of the bunk bed feast.

View of the sunrise.

View of the Keanu “Hi”s.