Highway 190 the whole way — Menard, Eldorado, Iraan, Fort Stockton, Alpine. No interstate, no shortcuts. Two lanes from start to finish and almost no other vehicles. The Hill Country scrubland gave way to Chihuahuan desert somewhere past Fort Stockton, the landscape flattening and drying out, the sky getting bigger. Stopped at the Walmart in Alpine for food — felt like the entire town was in there. Just the two of us and the road after that.

Terlingua is a ghost town that didn't finish dying. The Starlight Theatre lives inside its ruins — string lights overhead, coyotes somewhere out in the dark, a cold beer for dad. The right kind of end to a long day.