Big Bend y las Dunas de Monahans para aliviar la cuarentena

La primer semana después de Spring Break, el lunes 16 de marzo empezó oficialmente mi cuarentena, con ciertas excepciones. Esta primer semana a los maestros nos pedían no mandar trabajos todavía pero sí pedían que estuviéramos al tanto de la información que venía de los equipos directivos de la escuela y el distrito. Al haber regresado de viaje la noche anterior fui al super por comida y a renovar mi licencia el segundo día. El cuarto día tuvimos chansa de ir a la escuela a aprender un poco más de Google Classrooms para mandar trabajos por internet. Estuve editando fotos de mi viaje anterior por los primeros diez días, pero con ganas de salir. Poco a poco estuve entendiendo la seriedad de este nuevo coronavirus. Empezando la segunda semana el distrito se encargó de asignar tareas en papel con la idea de que casi todos los alumnos empezaran a recibir y mandar trabajos por internet a partir de la tercer semana, salvo los que no tienen tecnología. Uno de esos días me piden estar en una junta virtual, pero una vez que terminas de hacer las cosas divertidas o entretenidas, ¿Qué haces?

El día 12 me dije a mi mismo que ¡ya basta! Salir a caminar solo en las noches cuidando mi distancia no es suficiente. Llevo casi siete años viviendo a unas tres horas del parque nacional Big Bend y jamás había ido. Pensando en viajar responsablemente en estos tiempos de crisis sanitaria decidí ir y venir el mismo día. Esto fue lo que vi el sábado 28 de marzo, el día 13 de la cuarentena:

El Emory Peak es el cerro más alto de la región y tiene algo de bosque en el lado norte, donde también está una meseta llamada Chisos Basin. Aquí hay un hotel dónde quedarse y puede que cuando pase esto invite gente o me deje invitar:

De ahí me fui al Cañón de Santa Elena, en la frontera con México:

Hacía un calorón a pesar de que en zonas aledañas estaba a unos 24 grados centígrados, pero una vez que entré en la sombra sentí un aire fresco como si fuera un clima prendido:

Estando en ese cañón me sentí muy chico en este mundo tan grande. Me recuerda la necesidad que tenemos y de cuánto dependemos de Nuestro Creador. Puede ser que nos hayamos acostumbrado a la buena vida, a la vida cómoda y que no recordemos lo que es la crisis. Nos somos invencibles como a lo mejor creíamos.

Llegué de noche y al día siguiente en la tarde fui a las dunas de Monahans, que están a media hora de Odessa:

No sé cuándo va a terminar esto, pero el no haber hecho este descanso me habría vuelto loco. Esto me recuerda que el mundo exterior todavía existe.

The Last Trip, POSSIBLY in a While

I do my very best when I teach. When I'm off, I like to reward myself accordingly. This coronavirus had me postpone my trip to Japan for this past Spring Break. Not knowing how severe this thing was going to get I decided to drive to St. Louis Missouri, stopping in several places along the way and on my way back. On Friday, March 6 I drove from Odessa Texas to Oklahoma City and this is part of what I saw when I got there:

The Capitol was under renovation. I might come back one day to see it when it's fully renovated. On Saturday, March 7 I began my tour at the Henry Overholser Mansion, followed by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Myriad Gardens, The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and finally the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help:

On Sunday March 8 I drove to Tulsa, stopping at this Soda-Pop-Coke store right outside of OKC:

Once I got to Tulsa I visited the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Aquarium:

On Monday, March 9 I visited the Tulsa Art Deco Museum and the Cathedral of the Holy Family before driving to Jefferson City:

On my way to Jefferson City, I took a short detour to see this tri-state area:

After driving for a while in Missouri I found this Candy Store in Phillipsburg (Redmon's Candy Factory) and the largest gift store in the world, so I thought I'd take a look:

On Tuesday, March 10 I visited the Missouri State Capitol, the Governor's Mansion, and Saint Peter's Catholic Church. All of these places were at a walking distance from each other and from my hotel:

I drove to Saint Louis right after that, checked in to my hotel and visited the place that made me drive all the way up there. This is probably the most beautiful church in the US, and surely among the most beautiful churches in the world, the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis:

As there's no Whataburger and there was only one Shake Shack nearby, I decided to try Culver's before getting an oil change:

On Wednesday, March 11 I visited the Arch and the Saint Louis Art Museum:

On Thursday, March 12 I visited the Fox Theatre in the morning:

In the afternoon I drove to Little Rock on my way back to Texas and this was my view from the hotel window:

Everything had been going fine until I decided to visit the Arkansas State Capitol on Friday, March 13. The guard told me that the capitol was closed for visits until further notice, he did not seem to know if or when it would be open again so I left:

Before driving to Fort Worth, I was allowed to visit the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Little Rock:

As I drove to Fort Worth I stopped at the Texas Visitors Center in Texarkana:

My first unpleasant surprise came when I saw this sign at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth:

On Saturday March 14 I visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral before driving to Austin:

Based on what I saw online, I knew that art museums in Austin and San Antonio were closed, so I considered skipping those two cities and heading back to Odessa based on what I saw online. I still decided to go to Austin as my parents (who live in Mexico) were at a meeting in Austin. Saint Mary Catholic Cathedral in Austin was still open. It was the last place where I was able to go to mass before churches started masses online:

On that day I also found out that school would be cancelled at least until March 27. 

As I was sharing a hotel room with my parents, we went out for dinner that night

On Sunday March 15 I said goodbye to my parents, not surely knowing if I will see them again or not, at least for a while. As I drove back to Odessa, these are some of the pictures that I took:

Going to Germany at the end of May and then going home to Mexico at the end of June is looking increasingly unlikely (still not impossible, especially going home to Mexico for a month or so). I'm not sure when this health crisis will end, but I hope that we get to end this sooner rather than later. It was not the trip that I had originally planned, but despite some museum closures in the last two days, this was an awesome trip. My thoughts an prayers for those most affected by this.