Big Bend to El Paso, TX - Worse Drive Yet

Yesterday's drive to El Paso, Texas from Big Bend National Park was far more exciting than I care to experience. In fact, it was like a nightmare come true. That may sound a bit dramatic but you have to understand that my biggest anxiety regarding driving the motor home is that it will start sliding and we run off the road, or a mountain side. 13 tons sliding and rolling. Oy!

And let the record show I had vowed *never* to drive the motor home in wintery conditions.

Never say "never."

Yesterday was rough from the time we got up - the wind was howling and gusting like crazy. The occasional raindrop zipped past, but the park gets so little rain per year I wasn't worried about rain. It was not easy or pleasant hooking up the car in that gusting wind.

We agreed to leave for El Paso anyway, windy conditions or not. Lynda went into the campground store to check out and she asked about the weather. The clerk did not know much but a fellow visitor overheard Lynda's question and said, "There's snow in Alpine".

I could not believe it. Had to be a joke.


So we decided to go to El Paso via Fort Stockton instead of Alpine. According to Weatherbug, it was 34°F in Fort Stockton (it had snowed there also) and warming up faster than Alpine. For sure by the time we get there, the snow will have melted. Right?

So we headed toward Marathon for gas, with the intention of going on to Fort Stockton and then El Paso.

The good news is that we left the wind gusts behind as we made our way up to Panther Junction in Big Bend. But by the time we passed Panther Junction, it was raining pretty hard. I think the park may have received at least half its annual precipitation that morning. I don't care about driving in the rain, but it was strange to see all that water coming down in the desert.

While we were gassing up in Marathon, a car pulled up with about 8" of snow on the roof. "Where did you guys just come from?" I asked. "Fort Stockton," the driver replied. He said the snow was heavy.

Crap.

So, we decided to go by way of Alpine after all. It was a more direct route and surely the snow will melt before we get there.

Nope.

It started about 7 miles west of Marathon and continued until about 7 miles west of Alpine: slushy nasty snow on the highway, and pristine beautiful snow on the desert around us. Lynda did a great job coaching me and helping watch for ice.

I drove 30 miles at around 35 MPH with my stomach in a knot and my foot no-where near the brake. The one thing that brought me some comfort was that a snow plow and salt truck were ahead of us, clearing the way somewhat.

Anyway... see some pictures below.

We made it through the snow safe and sound - the rest of the drive was rainy and overcast, but that was fine by me.

The only other issue was that, when we stopped for lunch, we discovered the stairs were stuck in the deployed position and packed hard with snow. Once Lynda cleared the snow out with a cooking spatula (a handy tool for the job) and I dried off the sensor in the door, the stairs retracted and we were able to continue our drive.

One thing of interest we passed was an Aerostat Radar System tethered near the highway, a few miles outside of the town of Marfa. That was kinda cool.

I slept like a rock last night.