Healing Waters

Healing Waters

Photograph by Tim Hussin

In the spring of 2011, National Geographic Grantee Tim Hussin and his brother Noah set off on a nearly 5,000-mile trek across the United States, riding bicycles built from recycled parts. As they biked west, the filmmaking duo encountered rich diversity in the rural communities that took them in—and from those experiences they created their documentary film, America reCycled. Between adventures, the brothers occasionally took a break from biking; here, Tim (left) and Noah relax in desert hot springs after a strenuous week.

"After cycling for ten days across the Chihuahuan Desert, we rejuvenate in the Langford Hot Springs. J. O. Langford was one of the first homesteaders in the area and developed the springs into a commercial bathhouse. The structural remains now lie in Big Bend National Park on the Rio Grande.

"A year and a half into the journey, our bodies and relationship had been heavily strained by the road, and tensions were running high. The healing waters and loving people of Texas' Big Bend fully embraced us, recharging us for the final leg of the adventure."