Big Weather but not in Big Bend

     We have a weak WiFi link at the little store near our campground and a bit of cell phone coverage about 15 miles up the road from us.  I brought my laptop which has an amazing capacity to pickup WiFi so, although slow, we do have a small window on the world.  There is no TV or radio coverage in the park.  So we have been catching little bits about the huge hurricane moving through Mexico and Texas.  The weather here has been much hotter than we expected, but clear and dry.  Tomorrow we leave and drive first to Fort Stockton and then on to San Antonio the next day.  Weather in both places looks a little rainy for a day or two and then sunny again.  We have lucked out of this watery mess so far and tomorrow night will have access to regular weather reports.
    While checking on the weather for the next couple days Rick discovered that the little town of Marathon, that we drive through just outside the park, is having a marathon tomorrow.  Supposedly the road will still be open as it is about the only way to get north of the park fairly directly.  Our drive tomorrow is about 160 miles.  If we have to sit along the road and watch the runners for a while, so be it!
    On our last day in Big Bend we took a couple short hikes in search of birds.  It is so hot and dry they were just not around - maybe if we went out at dawn?  We also drove to Boquillas Canyon on the east side of the park.  At one point along the Rio Grande there is a Point of Entry into Mexico.  Tourists can pay about $4 for a trip in a rowboat across the river to visit the little town of Boquillas, Mexico.  Once in the town tourists have to hire a guide to take them into the town.  We drove to the border crossing to watch folks cross the river only to discover that we would FIRST have to go through the Port of Entry.  Nah!  Not worth the trouble to get to a tiny, tiny town.
   So we drove on to the Boquillas Canyon which is the easternmost of the three main narrows sections along the Rio Grande within Big Bend National Park.  The canyon area is about 20 miles long, starting just east of Rio Grande Village where we are camping.  At this point the Rio Grande gains the designation of "wild and scenic" river.  The canyon walls are towering and the river sort of disappears between them.  In the Nevada Barr book about Big Bend, Anna, the park ranger gets stranded in one of these canyons while rafting the river when the river gets very high after a rainstorm.  I can see how this could easily happen.
   We didn't go rafting.  We did get very hot and dehydrated and decided to cool down in the camper.  Since we were taking the afternoon off I decided to take advantage of the campground laundry while Rick cleaned some of the gravel out of the camper.  After watching a beautiful sunset of the Chisos Mountains we are ready to leave this beautiful park tomorrow.