Rio Grande Campground

Big Bend National Park

02-27-2026

There is always something “good” to be found in the day, or is there? We are now in Big Bend National Park and I thought I would take my E-bike out for a ride down one of the many gravel roads that lead off to some distant exciting place. Unfortunately, I got a late start, so it was almost noon before I got started and the temperature had already climbed into the 90s. It’s February, what the…..! I was feeling really good that I had packed so many snacks and water, and that I was able to keep my bike going uphill mile after a mile without passing out. After all, I am approaching 80!

I even found a place to stop for lunch with shade. It was an old campsite where they had a bear proof metal box. I was able to prop myself on the side, so that at least could get my torso in some shade. There, I had a pretty good lunch, pretzels dipped in peanut butter, an orange and a kind of mashed up over ripe banana. I even remembered to bring an inflatable seat to sit on so I was pretty comfortable.

An elderly couple pulled in with their brand new Range Rover and said the road ahead was really rough and that they had even bottomed out in certain places. I doubted that, so after I finished my lunch, I headed off to see if I could make it behind one of the mountains, and maybe find some real shade. I marveled to myself in what “good” condition the road was, and how I was still able to continue to keep climbing.

Then the display on the E-bike started to flash “hot” and threatened to turn off. I thought this is probably a “good” time to turn around. I was in five or 6 miles, and did not relish the thought of having to pedal a 70 pound bike all the way back to my car in 96 degree heat. The “good” was that it was mostly downhill, and I didn’t even need to engage the electric motor on my E-bike very much . I was actually flying downhill and was amazed how well the small fold up bike did. I even passed the couple who were now getting ready to leave, where they had also had lunch sitting in their air conditioned car. At one point, they threatened to overtake me and so I pulled off the road and let them pass. I was feeling really “good” about my progress downhill, until I hit a switch back and the back tire slid out and down I went. That was truly the “bad” part. I thought to myself, as I lay in the gravel with various bits of blood pouring out from the gravel gashes, I thought how “good” it was that I didn’t seem to break anything. Once I got up, I could feel the pull of a groin muscle and thought, still it’s better than snapping a bone. Then I looked down at my knee. It was truly “ugly”, and a considerably deeper one than I had ever had.

I righted the E-bike, limped uphill, and again started the downward coast. It really hurt to walk, and so I decided to try to ride the bike, and did surprisingly well for a “good” half hour. I made it back to what it looked like my car, only to find that the back tailgate was wide open, and not another soul in sight. That’s gonna be “bad” I thought. It crossed my mind that everything in the car would be gone, so I was amazed when I finally reached it to see everything intact. How “good” is that? The “bad” was I had to load up my very heavy E-bike into the back of the Trailblazer. No small feat. It’s one of those fold up types and I found I had a really hard time getting the combination of folding it in half, and lifting it up into the back of the car, while bleeding on everything, only to find that I didn’t do it in the supposed order that it should’ve been done and frustratingly wouldn’t fit. Then I got the great idea to turn it on side and it did messily slid in fine. I was gonna go up into the Basin where the temperature was about 20° cooler. I was very close, but I thought I might scare the tourists if they saw all the blood streaming down my ams and legs, so I decided to head back for camp and clean up everything there. Although it’s 98 degrees in the trailer, it felt very “good” to be sitting down with these very “ugly” wounds.
All in all that, it was a pretty “good” day, although I might not think so come morning!