Snake Proof Boots

Well, I still haven’t gotten around to posting part 3 of the Big Bend camping pictures, and possibly I never will. Let’s not talk about that right now. In the meantime, the fabulous holiday known as Halloween has come and gone, and I have photographic evidence that I managed to put a costume together (see, I’m not completely unable to accomplish simple goals). In keeping with my tradition of concocting costumes that make no sense a first glance and even less after thorough explanation, Thomas and I – drawing inspiration from an article I’d read on Cracked.com about political parties having preferred monsters – dressed up as an undead bipartisan couple: vampire democrat and zombie republican. I wore contact lenses for the first time in a year, and further complicated matters with fangs and glue-on claws (the package called them “nails”, but let’s face it, they’re claws). If you’re thinking of using such costuming devices in your own endeavors, let me just tell you now that fake fangs make it difficult to talk, and fake nails make it impossible to do pretty much everything. How people function with those things in real life I can’t fathom. Anyway, here’s the resulting horror…

Your regularly scheduled programming of vacation photos will resume shortly. For now, we present this image of boring Austin (being invaded by aliens).

In sharp contrast to my beach camping experience, I slept shockingly well on my first night in the Chisos mountains. A big part of the difference was in our equipment. Beach camping had involved cramming 4 girls into a 4-person tent. That sounds fine until you add all the backpacks, wet towels, sandy shoes etc. In Big Bend, Thomas and I had a 6-person tent all to our self. I was a bit skeptical about using such an enormous sleeping apparatus, but that was the only tent Thomas had (purchased on the eve of some previous poorly-planned excursion) and I soon realized it was the best tent ever crafted. Not only could you stand up in the middle of the structure, but having that much space affords you the luxury of being a slob. Just like back home! Throw your boots, books, maps and whatever else on one side of the tent and still have plenty of room to set up bedding on the other side. A spectacular array of borrowed camping gear allowed us to sleep like kings on inflatable mats and sleeping bags. A battery-operated lantern illuminated our dinner table and served as a reading lamp. A compact camping stove made our morning coffee in mere minutes. It was better than a lot of motels I’ve stayed in.

To celebrate our first full day at the park we crammed in an exhausting amount of activity, including racing to the campground’s outdoor amphitheater at the end of the day to see a lecture on vultures (totally worth it).