2019 Terlingua Chili Cook0ff - Part 2

I am glad I stopped and picked up the food, camping items and gassed up before heading home so tomorrow all I had to do was just drive back to Terlingua.  I filled up at Walmart at $2.189 a gallon for unlead gasoline.

Like I mentioned in Part I...I brought home a lot of items I did not need and picked up some that I did like my reclining zero gravity chair and a smaller ice chest.  Boy, I sure do miss Terlita (my old camping van) and her spacious interior even though she was a heavy drinker (gas guzzler)...jajajaja!

I decided to display my Terlingua Dreams sign on the way back (Friday) as this is usually the day a lot of people head to the cook-off after work or after school as is the case with the students at Sul Ross State University in Alpine where I went to college.

Realizing that I forgot to take a picture of the interior I stopped at a rest area to photograph it for reference for future trips. I am sorry if I am going into so much detail but since I misplaced my spiral notebooks to document it all I have to do it here in my Cyber Journal.

Back of the passenger's side...

Back of the driver's side...

Then I covered it to keep my frozen water jugs from melting and I am proud to say I still had ice four days later.

The passenger's side...

The driver's side,,,

The trunk...where I remembered to throw in a small broom which came in handy when I broke camp.

I could actually see out my back window!

On this trip, I was able to stop in Alpine and have a late lunch.

It was so odd that on the road between Alpine and Study Butte (80 miles) there were not a lot of cars and stranger still that I did not see a single DPS (Department of Public Safety) squad car when they usually swarm the area.

If you are new to my blog you might not know that I was issued a $260.00 speeding ticket back in 2016 on Trip 2.  With that still fresh in my mind, I drove under the speed limit of 70 at 60 mph as I was in no hurry to get there.

Camp behind me

When I arrived one of the elderly gentlemen that were camped in an RV behind me said: "You're back, where did you go!"  I told him "I went for a ride" with a smile he said, "that was a mighty long drive".  It felt good to know I was missed by a perfect stranger.

I was quick to incorporate my zero gravity reclining chair into my camp and sat there gazing towards Krazy Flats which is the official area for spectators to camp. When I first started coming to the cook-off that area did not exist. They opened it up mostly to keep the younger crowd who party all night and make a lot of noise from bothering us older campers but you can still hear the noise.  Though if you are looking for peace and quiet perhaps this is not the event for you.

Krazy Flats

Junior, from the guys camp, took me for a ride in his brother's Jeep. Thank you!

Sadly most of the pictures I took I had to delete as my cellphone takes terrible pictures or perhaps it is the user?

I love Terlingua skies they are always so blue.

 It was a cool breezy day.  Wow, this camp took a lot of ice chests.

Maybe these tent campers are like me and prefer a small tent where they can have their privacy as opposed to staying in an RV with their friends.

Tent campers are a dying breed.

I wish I could have asked this gentleman in what city he was able to rent this RV.

I have to give kudos to the company that serviced the port-a-potties this year. They did an excellent job. They start servicing them at 4:30 a.m. and they were always clean and had more than sufficient toilet paper.

The chili judging lest you forget there is an actual chili cook-off competition takes place at high noon on Saturday. While the judges do their thing, there are showmanship teams putting on shows as well as having the public participate in a variety of games for prizes. You can get all types of trinkets, souvenirs, and T-shirts if you care to participate.

Here is one of the guys with a prize he won

I did not go this year because I did not realize that on Thursday the morning I could not get up and even after using my hard seat cover and a pillow to protect my knees in that attempt, I ended up hurting my right knee and it was painful to walk.

Besides I was hoping Sandy, Charlie and Jeelbare would drop by and have a cold one with me...but they never showed up :-(

My best friend Ms. D got all dressed up to go to the Día de Los Muertos celebration held at the old Ghost Town cemetery.

I met some new friends and had a blast talking about every subject imaginable including politics and finding that despite our age, social-economical background, and race we had so much in common.  I finally ended up finishing off my wine box.

This year I took three 30-packs of beer and two wine boxes.  I brought back 2 1/2 30-packs and one wine box. It is better to have enough than to run out.

The last day is very busy as people are trying to cook up the last of their food and start packing to be able to leave tomorrow morning.  Usually, there are big parties everywhere.  The guys camp was going to have "Steak Night" but since I had too much vino I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. and did not wake up till midnight.

What was my surprise but that all the lights in the camps around me were off and you could only see two vehicles riding around Krazy Flats. Other than that everyone appeared to be asleep...we are definitively getting old!


Sunday - November 3, 2019 

Today we set the clock one hour back for Daylight Savings. The guys camp left before sun up as is usually the case.  Unless you are in an RV or have noise-canceling earphones there is no way you are going to be able to sleep on Sunday morning.

My best friend and Max (her boyfriend) stayed a while longer and enjoyed breakfast then she came over to help me take down my shade structure because there is one button that is difficult to press and neither one of us possess enough strength so Max helped out.

They were headed to Marfa for a couple of days then they thought about heading to other parts before going back to Deer Park (a Houston suburb). I decided to try the new camo tarp I bought for shade but it did not work out.

I was sitting in my zero gravity chair when the daughter of the man in the RV behind me came over. We had had a long conversation the day before and when she found out I was going to stay a few more days she offered to give me all the left-over food they cooked yesterday.  How could I say no?

She gave me three huge steaks, sausage, ribs, hamburger patties, baked potatoes, corn, cut up salad still in its packaging, toasted jalapeños, cut up onions, tomatoes, lettuce, and some homemade potato salad. That was very nice of her and her husband who cooked it all.  Thank you guys!

A lot of people still here as those attendees who do not have to be at work tomorrow would rather stick around instead of being in a long line at the Border Patrol Checkpoint Station before you reach Alpine.

I had a wonderful dinner and was in bed believe it or not by 8:00 p.m.  Making sure that I strategically placed a cardboard box under my steel chair so it would not move in case I once again could not get up.

Monday - November 4, 2019


Debated whether or not to stay another day as I had plenty of provisions but it was going to be a warm day without a shade structure.  So took my time to pack up as I did not want to stress my back once more. I even moved my car closer to the tent to make it easier to pack.

You are probably tired of seeing my packing configurations but I need it as a reference of how NOT to pack,

When I left there were still people around...

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I look forward to it all year long, I savor my days there and then there is always the sadness once it is over. Yet you still have the illusion of returning next year.

Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip to the desert. Now you can breathe a collective sigh of relieve, that I will not be mentioning it for another year :D