A few notes about Alpine. It's a rather small west Texas town, but it does host the annual Texas Cowboy Poetry reading event! We were about 2 weeks early, so we didn't get to experience this piece of the west. Also, it's the home of Sul Ross University, where Dan Blocker (Hoss from the TV series Bonanza so, so many years ago) attended and played football. You might recognize him in the town mural.
There's also an interesting museum of the Big Bend. It has a replica of a huge Pterosaur (the largest flying living creature ever with a wing span of 51 feet). As they say around here, everything is bigger in Texas!
We then did the 70 mile drive south to Terlingua, population about 500. We drove for about an hour without seeing another vehicle in our lane. This is really Texas desert country. Bill caught a glimpse of a group of javelinas (a small desert animal that looks like a pig but is only a distant cousin) but too quickly to get a picture.
Terlingua is a very small towns. The town calls itself the "gateway to Big Bend" and it's also (somewhat) famous for its ghost town and annual chili competition.
This area is very dry, as expected based on the fact that it's a desert, but Texas has been experiencing the worst drought in years. Perhaps we brought some good luck, because it rained (lightly) all night and off and on during the next day. We went to the local church and the rain was the number one topic of conversation. The pastor's wife is from Marion, Ohio. Small world!
We had a beautiful sunset, predicting a good day ("red sky at night, cowboy's delight?").
We're looking forward to more exploring and some hiking on Monday.
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