Serendipity (Part 1)

Serendipity (Part 1)

We love backcountry camping Big Bend National Park.  There is nothing quite like waking up to ocotillo, cenizo, cactus and the Chisos Basin in the background. After another fabulous family camping trip in the Chihuahua Desert (which included micheladas and enchiladas in Boquillas, Mexico, of course), we were headed home toward Austin on a Monday morning.  I took over driving at Marathon and proceeded to head north to Fort Stockton where Hwy 385 meets IH10 and we begin traveling east toward home.   Anyway, that's how we usually go, but I missed the turn to Fort Stockton.

The thing is I didn't know I missed the turn.  A desert view for the most part is a desert view and it took thirty minutes before I started wondering why the roads signs weren't marking milage to Fort Stockton.  GPS didn't have a signal for me out there, so I was traveling the old fashioned way.  What was this Sanderson place on the mile markers and why had I never heard of it before?  

An hour from Marathon we arrived in the small town of Sanderson and stopped to map our way back to IH10.  The small town was tucked inside some hills and didn't even have any traffic lights.  The drive to Sanderson had been pleasant and cars were few and far between.  I kind of liked this drive...as long as it didn't add minutes to our journey, which surprisingly it didn't.

Now the plan was to catch IH10 in Ozona.  It was the Sanderson to Ozona drive that blew me away.  The roads stretched on for miles with green hills in the distance and not a house or business in sight for about an hour and a half.  I had the entire road to myself and the feeling was astounding.  

We made it to Ozona and our usual drive home the rest of the way.  But now we had a a new way to west Texas and Big Bend.