Back from Labor Day LABOR in the Mountains
Howdy! Just back from Big Bend National Park last night. WOW- I had forgotten how beautiful nature is. It is amazing how so many times we just take it for granted! Any way, very memorable trip. Since my hubby is deployed overseas, my in-laws came down to join my son and I. My father in law is a BIG nature lover, he has hiked allot of places and really seemed to enjoy this one too! We drove west and stoppped for lunch in Mexico- lol- what an experience! Of course it was POURING rain, not just a sprinkle but DOWNPOUR! So we had to stop and get some plastic tubs for our food (mine of course was tuna and my vegi mix!- my splurge was a few peppermint patties- VERY low fat and yummy!). We pulled into our "hideout"- a local car wash - to weather proof everything. As we headed into Mexico we were supposed to declare any food or animals- I FORGOT! AND I had my puppy with us as well. So after sloshing around in the rain, about 2 feet of it, we headed back out. They asked if we had anything to declare and I said no. He noticed our coolers and sent us to the agriculture folks. SO- they looked through the cooler and explained that we could not take anything out that we did not declare and it was punishable by a $300 fine PER item. They took my hard boiled eggs but let us keep the rest. Thank goodness they did not try to take my dog. They would have had to pry him from MY COLD DEAD HANDS! LOL.
We finally made it to the park and yep, it was raining and COLD! By cold I mean low 60’s (yes that is COLD for us Texans!). Since it was so late, we headed into the lodge and had dinner. We hit the sack early and got up at dawn to hit the trailhead. We wanted to hike Emory Peak (the highest peak in Big Bend). Strangely we were the only ones on it! We saw 4 other folks on our way down and THAT was it! It was cold and about zero visibility when we hit the rest stop (about 1 mile from the summit) and the weather was so bad (fog, wind and rain) we decided to play it safe and head back down. PLUS my son was complaining NO STOP so that was irritating too!
We then went to an amazing natural mineral spring that was georgeous! All and all it was a great trip. Today was legs day and I worked them until I almost puked, the BEST kind of workout!
Hope you all had a great holiday and stuck to your clean diet! I did, although it was difficult I hung in there! I ate Oatmeal with a small orange and walnuts in the AM, protein drink for snack, small serving of almonds for snack and Tuna w/ vegis for lunch and chicken (grilled) for dinner w/ vegis. I DID splurge after the hike and had 3 pepermint patties (snack size). About 100 CAL.
We hiked 4 hours and loved it! It was a very active holiday hence LABOR day right?
Now off to the pool to hang and grill up some chicken and RIBS (for my inlaws) later. I also made a cherry cobbler which I will NOT be partaking in however it smells awesome!
WOO HOOO! Go Willpower!
Cya!
