Halloween in the desert

Post for Friday - October 31, 2014

It there is something my best friend is known for...it is her ability to make the best jello shots.  I am not a liquor drinker, mostly I stick to my beer but I make an exception when it comes to her jello shots.

Unfortunately my cheap camera does not take good night time pics so I failed to document the stash she brought.  We usually go to the guys camp at night to enjoy their roaring fire and many of them are from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. She somehow convinced them that a jello shot would protect them from Ebola as well as those of us that don't even live anywhere close by.  Yep, she really tried hard for us to consume them...she twisted our arm :D

It is no wonder we all woke up with a terrible headache!  Worst part was having a headache and waking up at 5:00 a.m. and not being able to go back to sleep.

Again I considered setting up my tent shower but found it easier to go to the quarter showers in Study Butte.  It costs $2.00 and I believe they last five minutes...I could be wrong though.  Locals please feel free to correct me.

My best friend's boyfriend is a great cook.  Today we enjoyed "pollo borracho"...that means drunk chicken in Spanish.  I do not care for sweet potatoes but his were fabulous...I even had seconds or was it thirds? :D

It is cooked with a beer can in its cavity and it made it so tender and moist. Can you see the beer?

Trick or treaters came by but we had to send them to the guy's camp as bringing candy was not a priority this year.  It is funny how I have gotten to know a great deal of them and can tell how much they have grown these past years since their parents started bringing them on Halloween.

The guys gave us these cute little solar figurines. Mine was the dancing pumpkin and my friend's the ghost.  If you are wondering why my eggs are sitting in the sun...they are not eggs, I put my tent stakes in the egg carton so I could transport them without them accidentally causing damage to my camping gear.

In comparison to last night...tonight was a quiet night.  My friends said the wind blew pretty good but in my warm toasty car I did not feel a thing.  I am so glad I car camped this year.

Is this not a neat motorcycle?

I know my pictures do not exactly follow my story line but bear with me. Many of you have told me you want pictures so I am inserting them wherever I can. However, it is not easy when I am only getting one or two bars. :(

Stay tuned for more stories from the desert and pictures to back them up.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Second trip to the desert

Post for October 28 to October 30, 2014

On Tuesday October 28th, I took mother to her doctor's appointment and she got a clean bill of health...what a great relieve that was for us both...as you never want your loved ones to be in pain.

Since I did not know whether or not I would be able to return to the cook-off...I decided to bring my stuff back. The last thing I wanted was to give my friends extra work by having to take down my camp. Then having the extra burden of having to bring the stuff to Del Rio, when they were going to be pretty loaded down themselves.

I never got around to setting up my tent on my first trip.  Decided to put it up at home and I am glad I did.  Even though I had cleaned it last year, I failed to set it up to make sure all the dirt and mud was gone and boy was it muddy.

Like I mentioned on last year's post...cheap mesh tents have no place in the desert...unless of course you use them to reserve your campground.  Decided I did not need it and left it up in the backyard so I could unload my stuff whenever I got back.

Why would you put your stuff in a tent versus your home?  Though it may not bother you when you are at the cook-off...the smell to campfire is overwhelming when you get back...trust me on this.  Do NOT bring in any clothes, or camping equipment into your home, except maybe in the garage or your house will smell awful!

Unfortunately, this year as well as last...I ended up hurting my back from loading and then reloading stuff...guess I will never learn!  I really need to get Terlita fixed (my camping van).  I could fit the kitchen sink and them some when I used to take her :(

On Thursday October 30, 2014, I made my second trip to Terlingua. Drove like a mad woman since I got a very late start.  Even though I arrived after sundown I was surprised how well I was able to see on this particular night.

I was so glad to be able to see my best friend.  Though we both live in Houston, the only place I get to see her, is at the Chili Cook-off.  The last time I saw her was two years ago!

Stay tuned for more stories from the desert and pictures to back it up.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Bid good-bye to my favorite desert

Post for Monday - October 27, 2014

Last night I turned in early as I had a long drive ahead of me today.  This morning I was able to sleep in until 6:00 a.m. too dark to start the trip back to Del Rio.  If I had better night vision I might have attempted it, as it was a waste of time to sit around waiting for sunrise.

Drive back to Alpine, Texas 

As I had mentioned on a prior post, this year a unique set of circumstances presented themselves. I could either spend 3 days or 6 days in the desert if everything else fell in place. That "everything else" involved another trip to the doctor for my mother.

While I told my friends that I would be back Thursday or Friday...in all honesty I did not know if that would be the case.  The main purpose for arriving early was to reserve a camping spot for myself and my Houston friends. With that accomplished and the guys camp guarding the prime real estate, I left happy knowing that at least I was able to make my 19th trip to the Chili Cook-off. Anything after that, would be icing on the cake.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

A beautiful Sunday in Terlingua

Post for Sunday - October 26, 2014 

Yesterday was wine day so needless to say I retired early and I mean early like 7:00 p.m.  It turned out to be a good thing since once again I was wide awake at 4:00 a.m.  Folks, I am used to going to bed at 4:00 a.m. not waking up at this ungodly hour!

As soon as the sun came up I had breakfast...cereal and milk and a ham sandwich.  Considered setting up my tent shower but decided it was easier to just drive into town to the quarter showers in Study Butte.  No worries about the heat (law enforcement) as they do not swarm the area until Wednesday.

The guys camp arrived this afternoon and I was sure glad to see them.  They are great friends that I consider my uncles, brothers and cousins and they always look out for us girls.  They give us our privacy but they keep a watchful eye just in case.

I have mentioned many times in my Terlingua tips section that you need to bring some type of shade structure as it is still pretty hot during the day even in October and November.  I was going to buy an Easy-Up Shade Canopy when I went to the Academy grand opening in Eagle Pass. However, when I tried to lift that sucker...it was just too heavy for me :(

I know the employees would have placed it in my car...but how was I going to get it down when I got home?  Man, I sure miss my camping van!  Maybe I will win the lotto and can finally purchase another transmission for Terlita.

Though not visually attractive...I did manage to rig me up some shade...don't laugh now :D

Decided to take a ride down to Krazy Flats to take some "before" pictures. Krazy Flats is the spectators camping area and is geared toward the younger crowd that had not yet arrived.

A better view of the cooks area in the background.

A lot of people arrived Sunday - October 26th.

These guys came to claim their own piece of Chili Cook-off real estate...parked their Casita and left.

Enjoyed a nice roaring fire at the guys camp this evening.


Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Jinxed by the Internet Gods

I do not know what is going on but I am obviously jinxed when it comes to Internet service, providers and reception.

In Del Rio we do not have many Wi-Fi locations.  Even the local library does not have a very good signal.  On my last three visits I have barely been able to answer a few comments and then it goes away.

I must say the people that work there have been very helpful, even helping me debug my computer but the lack of reception is something that happens to almost everyone and they are aware of the problem.

If I use their computers I am limited to one 30 minute session per day.  If it is not crowded...which is never the case...you are allowed two sessions.  However, you are not allowed to upload photos to Photobucket so how can I add them to my post?  Who wants to read a blog without pictures? Especially when it comes to the Chili Cook-off :(

I had enough of not even being able to read my e-mails, so late Friday I bit the bullet and though I hate the word...I committed...to a two-year contract on a hot spot.

Thought it would be great, I would no longer have to make the trip into town or fight the expansion project currently underway at the library.  It took me HOURS to do the last post.  I was barely getting two bars and then it would drop to one.

It never dawned on me that because of our physical location (very close to Mexico) and lack of towers in this area...I would have the same problem I did when I had Cricket as my ISP.  Worked like a charm when I was in town but not at my mother's house!

Just like with Cricket, I am currently blogging from the kitchen.  It was a later addition and does not have the rock exterior that gives me one bar if I am blogging from my bedroom.  Like Billy Bob would say...this sucks!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

A good friend

Post for Saturday - October 25, 2014

Last night I went over to Debi's camp to catch up on what has been going on in the past year. She had recently had surgery and the doctor had told her, she could not drive or lift heavy stuff which pretty much insured that she could not make this years event.

This is Debi's camp and in the background you can
see the cook's section.

A couple of years back I introduced her to Frann and they have become good friends.  Yes, I am talking about our fellow blogger from Terlingua, that many of you are familiar with.  She and a friend of hers made the eight hour trip to where she lives and brought her down, set up her camp and came and checked up on her daily.  They also drove her back home.  Talk about being a good friend!  Way to go Frann :)

I have not had anything to drink in the past seven months as I have been taking a lot of medication.  Though I quit taking them some time back, I decided to wait and have my first beer when I arrived in my favorite desert.  First beer was awful!  They got a little better with each passing one :)

Newly draped off area that cut my campground
almost in half.

Was hoping with the beer, my aching back and plain old being exhausted I would be able to get a good night's rest.  Wrong...was wide awake by 4:00 a.m.  What can you do at that ungodly hour?  Nothing but sit in the car and wait for the sunrise.

We were the only two camps (if you can even call mine a camp) on the ravine until more people started arriving Saturday.

I flirted with the idea of setting up my tent and shower structure but was too tired.  Instead Frann invited me to her house and gave me a tour of Old Town Terlingua...that beats setting up a camp any day!

Frann, if you happen to be reading this please send me your e-mail address so I can e-mail you the pictures for your approval.  My e-mail is terlinguadreams@outlook.com

The black garbage bag has my tent
that waited patiently to be set up.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

A unique set of circumstances

Post for Friday - October 24, 2014

This year a unique set of circumstances presented themselves.  I could either spend three days in the desert or six days.  The only catch was that it would involve two trips.  What do you think I went with?

Last year we had a rain event on Sunday that pretty much almost ruined the trip. Packing and then having to clean wet gear is not my idea of fun.  While I cleaned it, I never set up the tent and shower again to make sure it was mud and dirt free.

Yes, I know I am a procrastinator...waited till the last minute to do it and then I had help from Ralph who decided to show up on this particular day after being missing in action for days.

If your cat can get under your tent shower....you probably did not set it up very well :D

 

If you have a favorite campsite you tend to get pretty attached to it even though other people may not see the beauty of your prime piece of real estate at the cook-off.

I wanted to avoid having them beat me to my favorite spot so I left late on Friday October 24th and barely made it before it got dark.  Fifteen miles out of Del Rio the low tire indicator light came on.  I was not a happy camper as I SHOULD of remembered to have them inflate my tires while the car was at the dealership as I knew I was going to be fully loaded down.  This my friends is why I go into so much detail, so next year I will remember things when I go back and read this cyber journal :(

It was Friday late in the afternoon...neither Comstock or Langtry have much to offer in the way of gas stations. Turning back to Del Rio was not an option. Against all odds I made it to Sanderson where at the local Stripes I asked a very nice (and cute) Sheriff's Deputy where I could have my tires checked.

He sent me to Slim's.  The gentlemen was nice enough to check the pressure on all my tires and inflate them to accommodate the ungodly weight I was hauling. When I asked him how much it was, he told me nothing and for me to have a great time at the Chili Cook-off.

If you are ever in Sanderson, Texas and need a mechanic, tire service, or a tow please consider giving Slims Auto Sales and Wrecker Service your business. After thanking him I asked his permission to take a picture of his business and to mention them on my blog.

Did I mention I got a late start?  Did not stop to eat in Alpine as I usually do. Pressed on to beat the setting sun.  As I drove by the American Legion Post, I honked my horn...being Friday they had a good crowd.

As I arrived at the cook-off there were quite a few people there considering the event did not start for six days. You can not see the cooks section which is located to the left of the picture but each year people get there earlier.

This year the official festivities began on Wednesday October 29, 2014 versus the usual Thursday of years past.

This folks is my little piece of Chili Cook-off real estate, I came to claim.

This year they decided to drape off a big junk of land to keep people from driving down the ravine?

It cut off a good piece of my campground.  Especially the part that has taken me years of rock raking to clear...but it did not matter, I was finally here in the desert that I so love.

My bare bones camp

Stay tuned for more adventures from the desert and the pictures to back it up.  I am still without Internet service but will try to make more trips to the library now that the weather has improved and that our out-of-town doctor's appointments have concluded.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Much needed rain event

On Tuesday November 4th, the much anticipated rains started falling in Del Rio. It has been a long time since I have seen it rain in such a beneficial manner.  It rained enough to soak into the ground, would quit and then start up again.  No flash floods, no ponding, just wonderful slow falling rain.

As I sit here at the library it is 64 degrees outside and it feels great! Maybe a bit cooler inside since they just turned on the air conditioning.  I have been meaning to come into town but I do not like driving on wet roads and besides I am still recuperating.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.