{Our trip to Big Bend // part 1 // Alpine & The Marfa Lights}

B I G B E N D has been on our radar/bucketlist for quite some time. At the beginning of this year, we kept saying we would plan a trip for October 2021. Then life happened and we never truly planned it. When our friends, The Chiles, told us they were planning a trip the 14-17th of October, we knew we had to join them! They were so gracious to let us tag along!!

We headed out Thursday morning, October 14th around 8 am. It was a little over a 7 hour trip for us which put us in Alpine right around check-in time. We decided to trailer our Jeeps to make for a more comfortable drive there. Nate's truck has so much more room and it gets better gas mileage! Keri & Michael trailered their Jeep as well. We had another friend (and admin of our Jeep group - Jeep Around Texas) meet us there in Alpine.

We had a smooth trip there and seemed to make good time! We only stopped a couple of times for lunch and fuel. It was so cool to see Alpine after all these years. Fun fact - Nate got a full ride to Sul Ross University to play baseball, but he turned it down because it was so far. I can't even begin to fathom how different our lives would have been had we moved to Alpine all those years ago! Alpine was such a cute little town and I was so happy to finally see it.

We arrived at our lodge shortly after check-in time. I love the lodge that we chose...it was so cute! I especially loved the cactus everywhere! Our room was right up my alley with the serape and the turquoise appliances!

After we all got settled in, we headed to grab a quick bite at Dairy Queen. There weren't many things opened in Apline and we were hungry, so DQ fit the bill. Next, we drove out to the Marfa Lights viewing area. This has been on our Texas Bucketlist for quite some time. We were so excited and hopeful about actually seeing the Marfa Lights.

The viewing center was so incredibly nice! And while we didn't see the Marfa Lights this time, we did see a billion stars. And that right there made the whole trip to Marfa worth it! I've never seen so many stars before.