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The cold weather and snow storms have chased us south till we can go no further staying on this side of the Rio Grande and the border.  And still the cold nights have found us: 21 degrees last night.  Arrived at BJ’s RV mid-afternoon  Thursday the 22nd to a woman who recognizes my voice, 75 degree temps and beautiful skies. Since then we have been hunkered down waiting for the cold and damp air and overcast skies to go elsewhere. Firday night ‘went to pizza’ as Nel would say at the Long Draw Pizza establishment on RT 170 W, the River Road, out beyond the Terlingua Mines historical marker and overlook. Good pizza and cold beer; don’t kid yourself, get the large pizza to start. Everyone else seemed to have gone to ground because of the weather. Less than a dozen folks eating pizza that Friday night.

Ventured out looking for a warm breakfast meal of some substance Christmas eve morning. It is amazing how quick the tin and fiberglass tent on wheels we call an RV gets to the ambient temperature. Great to have a furnace/heater on board. Although after the CO beeper went off in the middle of the night back at the beginning of our journey and I have been a little weirded out by the on board furnace since. Back to breakfast; ended up at the Terlingua Ghost Town Cafe (which apparently just changed hands) with an interesting mix of local musicians and river boys, RVers and motel mavins. Found a great breakfast plate of home fries,  eggs and a porkchop!

Good and tasty, tasty and good!

Drove around some in the mid-day overcast, enough to realize we needed to stay around until the weather broke to appreciate the grandeur and scale of the remote desert, the river corridor and the  rugged mountains that make up the Big Bend of west Texas.

We found our way that evening to the Starlight Theater to here Jon Hogan and Maria Moss play their guitars and sing us some songs.

Scorched folk as they put it. Lots of odes and references to Townes van Zandt and one Blaze Foley and duct tape.

Enjoyed my brief chats with Jason, the Starlight’s general manager and jack-of-all and new friends from the far north of Minnesota.

Everyone that was at the Ghost Town Cafe for breakfast was at the Starlight as well: a community of sojourners all.

Enjoyed Hogan and Moss’ music and I believe I captured some of their stage presence.

It is a challenge to critique and edit one’s own work, mercilessly; challenging but rewarding, and an ongoing learning process.

As it is this Christmas Day in Terlingua, Texas, hard up against the desert, the Rio Grande River and the Chisos Mountains, the sun  has triumphed over the high overcast and the temps are climbing back above the freezing mark.