The Harris Family: Day One: Lajitas, Texas

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Day One: Lajitas, Texas

After meeting our new nephew Tom at the hospital, Ben, Mary, Lainey, Walker and I got in the car to make the long drive to Lajitas, Texas. Lajitas is on the border of Texas and Mexico. And it's quite hot there. It's beautiful but hot!

The mayor of Lajitas is a goat. For real. His name is Clay Henry and his first lady is Annabelle.

Annabelle

Lainey with Clay Henry

The goats live in a cage near the general store. This general store saved us a few times...first, it had swim trunks for Ben because he forgot his at home AND it had close-toed shoes for Lainey and me to use for our horseback ride. They were close-toed water shoes, but they worked!

After visiting the goats, we went to Big Bend to do a little hiking.

We set out on a little hike (what we thought would be no big deal)...it turned out to be way more of an adventure than we thought.

Walker learned to blow bubbles with his gum on this trip. Lainey learned to whistle. Good times! They were both so pleased with themselves.

one of the few trees that grew on the mountain - we lovingly referred to it as the "Lorax Tree" (from Dr. Suess' book)

It was while taking this picture that I fell backwards into a cactus plant. I literally sat on it. I got four to five giant thorns in my rear end (I'm grateful that there weren't 100).

one of the thorns

the offending cactus plant (each tip is a thorn)

All of these rock formations are beginning to look the same.

a giant tarantula...just feet away from where Yiyia was resting on a rock

waiting on a little rainstorm to pass

After a brief rainstorm, Lainey, Ben and I made it to the top of the mountain! Yiyia and Walker had turned around after about a mile in. It was probably about 2.5 miles to the top of the mountain. Ben taught Lainey all about switchbacks and she did a fantastic job keeping up with him. She's a good little hiker!

taking shelter from the rain

capturing the rainbow rocks

After I took this picture, I packed my camera away for good because the rain had started to come down quite steadily. And by "steadily," I mean it started thundering loudly and raining hard. We ran out of places to duck for shelter as there weren't any tall trees around. We got SOAKED, and hiked downhill in the rain for about 2.5 miles. Slippery rocks, ankle-deep water, muddy patches...and hail. Oh yes. Marble-sized hail. Did I mention we were without shelter? Lainey had my hat, Ben had his hat, and at one point we all stopped and put my backpack on top of us to protect us from the hail. My backpack had my wallet, camera, phone, manual for my new car (forever with water damage, now) packed inside it. Everything got soaked...thankfully, no real damage to the camera or my credit cards. :) Also, while all of this rain and hail were happening, the temperature dropped about 30 degrees. I'm not kidding! We were FREEZING. Lainey, who remained so positive and upbeat for the longest time, finally lost it because she was so cold and scared of the thunder.

The "after" picture. We were soaked, freezing, and miserable, but had to smile for a picture. It took me a solid hour or two to get feeling back in my hands.

Lajitas is next to Terlingua, a ghost town.

To add more fun to our day, we took a sunset horseback ride! This is Ben riding Gunner, his horse.

Yiyia started off on the horse but because he became a bit cranky, she didn't feel comfortable so she didn't participate in the ride.

Walker rode a horse named Roja.

We were trying to go in the opposite direction of this storm. (Thankfully, we did.)

Lainey rode DeeDee. :)

Beautiful - and rocky! Not very many trees.

stormy but beautiful

I took this picture right after Walker got back on his horse after falling off! He surprised us ALL by not crying and getting right back up there. We were all so proud of him! I kept telling him that he was my hero and I think he liked the praise. :) I think I might use that phrase again in the future.