Thursday, April 20, 2017

It's A Small World!

We had so much fun in Terlingua, but our fun actually started when our good friends, Carol & Bill met us for lunch, at The Smokin' Cuban food truck, in Alpine. Before we took off and sort of caravanned to the Terlingua Ranch Lodge, where Tony and I were staying.


Omg! The Cuban food was absolutely delicious and we ate our lunch, sitting under a shaded patio. And this is a picture I took of the top of Carol's head while we ate our lunch. And not to start any rumors, please note that Carol does not have a little, round bun, on the top of her head or a big bump—it's the woman's hair, who was standing behind her. But it does look cute, so I'm now thinking that I might surprise Carol and buy her a little hair-piece-bun to wear on the top of her head for Christmas.


When we arrived at the Lodge, after Tony & I checked-in, we gave Carol & Bill a quick tour of the Lodge, which included the beautiful swimming pool, the corral & barn, the Bad Rabbit Cafe and our cozy #54 Cabin.

Because the four of us were a little road weary and ready to rest, we then took off to go show them our property, but that didn't actually happen, because I got us lost and couldn't find our land. 

So finally at one point, on this pretty dusty road surrounded by rocks and cactus and then more rocks and cactus, I asked Tony to please stop, so we could tell Bill & Carol to turn around and just go ahead and go on to the Terlingua Ghost Town, where they were staying, at Lorri & Jess' super cool, off-grid vacation home. (Please note that Jess & Lorri live in Bandera, which is only 22 miles from here.)


After I had confessed to them that I had gotten us lost and that I didn't know where we were or where our land was—like Tony, they had the exact same reaction. Sort of like "So what's new? We know that you always get lost. We're not surprised at all and it is no big deal."

So after we had quit laughing about me getting us lost-in-space—they took off for Lorri & Jess' place, in the Terlingua Ghost town. And we went back to our cute cabin and relaxed for a little bit, before Chet O'Keefe met us for a delicious dinner, at the Bad Rabbit. And before I poured myself a delicious, plastic cup of my favorite Chillable Red box wine, with some added ice cubes, here's a picture that I took from inside our cabin, of the remaining sunset.


Early Tuesday morning, Chet met us for a delicious breakfast, at the Bad Rabbit and Tony and I ate too much, because "We're on vacation!" And that is why I didn't eat much today.

After breakfast we went to talk to Chet's friend Ron, who sells these cute, cabin shells. And while we were visiting with him, a friendly man walks up to us, and says, "Hi Tony," and then Tony recognized him and they shook hands and started talking. Come to find out, Tony's friend, Steve, who also lives, in Medina, drinks coffee with Tony, at the Old Timer and he also owns property out there, too. So while they were visiting I'm thinking to myself, "It's a small world. We should have all carpooled."

A little while later, we adios-ed Ron and then Chet carefully explained to us how to find our land without getting lost, as I wrote it down and Tony drove us to our property.


We only spent about an hour there, but we found the perfect location for our off the grid, cabin-to-be and here is a picture that Tony took of "my favorite mountain" in our 360 degree beautiful view. It will be the mountain that looking out our front porch will face as we cozy up to our wood-burning stove.



After we left our property, we went to see Ronda, our friend and nearby neighbor out there, because she had invited us to come over to check out her newest Airbnb additions for her Tin Valley Retro Rentals, which is already famous and has a TripAdvisor rating of 5-stars. 

We had a blast visiting with Ronda and she gave us a grand tour of her vintage, RV rentals. She has tee pees camp grounds, adorable RV's and now she's added a "land yacht" and a awesome outdoor shower. And to say the least, we were totally impressed with all of it, especially her "Willie" vintage, refurbished Greyhound bus that is just like Willie's old touring bus. That she had an artist friend come over and spray-paint Willie's face, on the side of it. And when she told us that it only took the artist fifteen minutes to do it—our jaws dropped. Here are just a few pictures that Tony took at her place.





Later in the day, after I took a short nap, at the cabin, I finally got a signal and I text Carol to let her know that all of us would be at "the front porch" in the ghost town around 4:30, so we could all meet up. 

Chet, Tony and I arrived there first and we got to visit with our friends Jeff Haislip and Marc Utter, who were already sitting, on the porch, visiting and playing music. And a few minutes later, Carol & Bill and Lorri & Jess arrived, so we all hung out for a little while, on that famous porch, that is in front of the general store and the famous Starlight Theatre.

Then we went to Jess & Lorri's incredibly beautiful, off-grid home. We sat around and visited for about an hour and then we jumped into the trucks and drove to the La Kiva bar and grill, where Jess & Lorri treated us to a round of drinks. And while we sat around a picnic table outside on the porch, we hardly ever quit laughing, because we shared some hilarious stories about our pasts and younger days. And Lorri's, Jess' and Carol's stories were absolutely the best. 

Wednesday morning, we had planned to leave around 7:00 and Carol & Bill had planned on leaving a little later. Well, Tony's and my earlier plans changed, because we decided to stay a little bit longer, so we could eat breakfast with Chet, at the Bad Rabbit Cafe.

Anyway, when we packed and then took off, we had no idea if we were ahead of or behind Carol & Bill, because there were no cells. But we found out about an hour later, when we pulled into the Valero, in Alpine, to fill up on gas, because Carol's SUV was the only other car parked, at the pumps. And when we saw each other we burst out laughing, because there was no way that we could have timed it any better.

Ater a fun, but brief visit with our friends, they adios-ed us and took off first, because we needed to pay for our gas. Then the race was on as to who would get back home first. We doubted it would be us, because we had to make a stop, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to pick up Lori Darlin' and Henry Standing Bear, before coming home. 

To Be Continued...

Will Carol & Bill be the winners of our race to get home first or will it be us? Find out tomorrow night. (Sorry, Mari!)

2 comments:

Fay said...

Wow! Talk about a small world: Ian and I were watching Texas, Badlands on NatGeo a few weeks ago and they featured Ronda and La Kiva, the folks who live in Terlingua, etc. Looks like it was a great trip with lots of happy coincidences and fun with friends. Cool!

cousin nancy said...

Hi Fay! It is a small world, because Ronda left the Texas Hill Country to move to Terlingua. It was a fantastically fun trip and the next time that you & Ian come down here—let's go to Terlingua for a few days with Carol & Bill and Jess & Lorri.

And if we're lucky we can catch Chet O'Keefe and Jim Keaveny playing out there. So, let's start making some plans.

P.S. I got your e-mail today and I will write you back tomorrow, because I need to blog.