Sandy, We just got back from Big Bend. Stayed 10 days, did quite alot of hiking AND driving! We camped at Rio Grande village, but we were in or thru Lajitas several times. It is a long ways from Lajitas to everywhere! If I were going to get a room, I would probably try in Study Butte. They have got 2 or 3 motels there. ( might have more, not certain!) It is closer to the park than Lajitas. Lajitas is VERY nice, and there are so many new buildings and projects going on there right now, it really is worth driving to it, and there is the State Ranch Park between Lajitas and Presidio. This is a very scenic drive (atleast to us!) Also, there is Closed Canyon which is a really short hike, but is interesting... There is the movie "town" on that road, also! I think they used it filming Lonesome Dove. Big Bend has a really colorful history, and has some truly unbelievable rock formations and ruins. It is not a place that is easy to describe! We have gone back to the same places and found things we overlooked the first time! I could type all night and not even scratch the surface of the places we have gone there, and I have loved them all! We figure we could go 3x's a year, for the next 10 years and still not see everything. A few of our favorite hikes from our first trip were the Windows trail, Lost Mine, Cattail Falls, Hot Springs, Burro Mesa. We canoed up the Santa Elena Canyon and that was wonderful! Ernst Tinajas was interesting. We loved Glenn Springs. Interesting drives (and hikes!): Old Ore Road, Maverick Road and River Road. If you haven't already found it, there is a chat forum on Big Bend, called Big Bend National Park Chat Page, and Desert Sports has a very interesting site on the web. This last trip we enjoyed Grapevine Hills (we have a habit of finding springs or ravines and following them a long way off of the regular trails!) Saw alot of cougar tracks. If you get the chance, try Pine Canyon! I was right when I thought of the desert as being hot and dry, but I don't think of it as barren and treeless anymore! It may not be your cup of tea, but we certainly enjoy it! Hope you have a wonderful time!!! Take warm weather clothes and cold weather clothing. Also, if you just step out of your vehickle for a quick look at something, carry your water bottle! Those five minutes can turn out to be a very long time! LOL. There aren't many convience stores there, so be certain to carry your food or snacks with you! Specially if your son is like my kids were at fourteen! My husband wanted to go to BBNP for YEARS, but I just was not interested. I thought of the desert as hot, dry, barren, dry, nothing to do, dry, no vegetation, dry! No water, no lakes, no trees... etc. He finally talked me into going about 3 years ago, and we have gone back numerous times. I can't wait to go back!

I found myself in a very uncomfortable situation among professional peers recently. A woman was "holding court" and telling about her recent vacation, and mentioned crowds attending the concert of a rap performer in the area where she stayed. She said, "You know, those sorts of things tends to attract a lot of undesirables ..." I was so taken aback that all I could think to do was to instantly excuse myself and walk away. Undesirables??? Someone is instantly viewed as and understood to be an undesirable based upon the music that they listen to, and presumably the color of their skin and the outer persona that they project? This is the mindset that has GOT to change! How I wish I'd stood up and said something then and there to let her, and everyone else in the room, know that I felt her comment was out of line. I'm not naïve enough to think that I can change mindsets, but I can, by God, speak out whenever something untoward such as this is said publicly. I may very well have another opportunity to speak up in the near future, as I'm sure to hear the story again and I'm assuming she'll tell it the same way. I pray I have the courage and the right words at the time, and don't merely walk away from the situation without protestation.

Small house that is wonderful that you are going for the wreath removal. I do that also and you are right that they get far fewer people. I'll give you a tip for next year to make it easier. The Pentagon parking lot is always open. We park right next to the 911 Memorial walk through the tunnel under 95 at you are at the service gate to the cemetery. Just go early enough y friend has a family pass to park in the cemetery garage but we never use it. Another friend had the pass and waited in line for 2 hours and went just about a mile.They gave up and went back to Vienna and took metro. It was already done by the time they got there! thanks for posting the link to the other National Cemeteries.

IdaClaire mining companies think that they should be open for mining, so that they can extract whatever gold is left, pollute the rivers with arsenic, and then expect the taxpayers to pay to clean up their mess, when the mining companies do not even own the land. Logging companies are just as bad. They think they should be allowed to clear-cut forests in parks on land that they do not own - just so that they will have jobs. However, once the gold is gone and the lumber is gone, the jobs are gone too - except for the jobs to clean up the mess. This is why we need strong regulation of our natural resources, as they can be gone in an instant and then (like gold) never return or take centuries to recover, in the case of redwood forests - if they ever do recover. Some people believe that a deity created the earth for humans to exploit in any way that they please, and some people believe that the earth itself is sacred and should not be desecrated. Basically, some people are just very selfish, thanks to their capitalistic beliefs. My father read one of my books on American Indian religions, and he told me that he believed like the Hopi Indian Tribe, as they were better stewards of the land.