A few weeks back, I took a road trip to Big Bend National Park with my Texas-dwelling brother.  The park is in the middle of nowhere, but it’s worth the drive: we saw a pair of spectacular canyons, a ghost town, and the Rio Grande (a.k.a. the Muddy Ditch).  We also saw the entire length of one very long gravel road.

We camped in the mountains, thereby avoiding the 100+ degree heat in the valleys.  As night fell, my brother drove off to go find something to eat, leaving me alone in the tent without a flashlight.  After falling half-asleep, I awoke with a jolt when a sudden gust of wind sent the door flapping and the walls shaking (later, my brother received his own scare when a skunk tried to find its way into the tent).

We visited several other points of interest, all of which begin with the letter M:

• McDonald Observatory.  A humongous observatory that sits atop a mountain in the Davis Range.  
• Marfa. The home of the fabled Marfa lights—which, sadly, may be nothing more than vehicle headlights. In any event, we drove through Marfa during the day, so no lights for us. 
• Mentone. The county seat of the emptiest county in the United States.  We didn’t linger there. 
• Midland. The hometown of President (and fellow monkey) George W. Bush.  Oil wells, oil wells, and more oil wells.

Source: Bush or Chimp?