Should I stay or should I go?

Post for Sunday - November 2, 2014

Last night I went to bed with the chickens but woke up at 4:00 a.m. once more!  The beauty of car camping is that I can leave whenever I want without worrying about breaking camp.  However, I am not crazy (I know that might be debatable) and was not about to leave at this ungodly hour let alone with my poor night vision.

Sunday morning view from my prime piece of real estate 

Watched the guys break camp at 5:00 a.m. and leave shortly thereafter.  Tried to go back to sleep but ended up watching the sunrise.  Would have gotten up and sat in my chair but Friday morning my best friend's boyfriend killed a snake by his truck.  Needless to say that left me and her traumatized!

Looking towards the cooks area

The time change took place last night, as soon as the sun came up...everyone started leaving. Back in the 90's when I first started coming, people would cook breakfast and linger for a while before going back home.  Now days it seems like everyone wants to get the hell out of Dodge.

Always a good idea to photograph your campsite in case
someone dumps trash on it after you leave and they
try to blame you next year.

I did not know whether to stay another day or make my own way home.  I did not make up my mind until after my best friend left.  While I wanted to go to the Dia de Los Muertos celebration at Terlingua Cemetery, I knew I would probably end up partying afterwards...I must be getting soft in my old age but I was pretty much partied out...can you believe that?  You can't?  Well, neither can I... but I was!

Went to visit a local blogger, Tffnguy at his home.  We chewed the fat for a long while as we watched all the cook-off traffic drive by.  He along with other locals are privy to some spectacular views from their porch and basically from every direction. I am so looking forward to the day that I can call Terlingua home.

Last year I had to drive home on Sunday but I did not encounter as much RV traffic as I did this time around.  While a lot of the people at CASI had left, you have to keep in mind that there are two cook-off's that take place simultaneously in Terlingua.  The other one is more family oriented and with mature adults that do not necessarily have to go work the next day.

When I got to Alpine the train was crossing.  The trains are the same ones that cross through Del Rio and let me tell you, they are long and take forever to cross the tracks.

I, along with other chili cook-off attendees pulled over into the Sul Ross State University stadium, turned off our vehicles and waited it out.  Afterward decided to brave the crowds at Stripes and top off my tank as well as purchase some hot chocolate.

I ended up following this truck and the pit they were hauling all the way to Del Rio. When I stopped in Sanderson, they stopped as well.  One guy bought a large bag of ice and he was not happy with how much he had to pay for it.  That is one thing about ice in the desert...it is not cheap!

I guess it must have been the driver's first time out this way because he stopped at the Comstock Border Patrol checkpoint going east when you are only required to stop when heading west.

Last year when I passed through here the new inspection station was under construction, figured it would have been finished by now but that was not the case...maybe 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

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.