Saturday, November 14, 2015

Terlingua And Big Bend

Texas
We have arrived in Terlingua, Texas and Big Bend National Park. This is straight from one of the park publications: "Encompassing more than 800,000 acres of mountain cliffs, desert expanses and towering river canyons, Big Bend National Park is the king of Texas' national public areas."            On the way, we stopped at Pecos, Texas, at a Walmart. Pecos' claim to fame is being site of the world's first rodeo. Walmarts are friendly to RV folks with their large parking lots. We did not need to shop this time, it was good timing for us to stop and stretch from some tedious driving. Pecos is oil field country. It is all there is for miles and miles. Oil rigs, tanks and endless tanker trucks which have chewed up the highway. US 285 from Carlsbad, NM into this long stretch of Texas is one of the worst roads we have traveled. Rough and bouncy and zero scenery to take your mind off it. No joy in pulling a 12,000 pound rig of our own. Back to Pecos…we had a diversion while walking a stretching from driving loop around the Walmart parking lot. Sirens. I walked towards the road to see what the commotion was as three police vehicles went by with every light they had flashing and the sirens blaring. What was wrong? Then I saw they were followed by two school buses filled with uniformed high school football players. The buses were grandly painted school colors and loudly emblazoned with Pecos Eagles name and logo. They were followed by a procession of fans and player family vehicles all with school flags and streamers flowing. That was followed by yet three more police vehicles with lights and sirens. Wow! I was aware of how serious football is in Texas, Friday Night lights and all, but to see this was pretty impressive. Curious, I went into search and found they were on the way to a UIL championship game. From Wik, The University Interscholastic League is an organization that creates rules for and administers almost all athletic, music, and academic contests for public primary and secondary schools in the American state of Texas.

Intentional that their logo sure looks like the word oil?

Sad to say, The Eagles lost. They had driven 188 miles to the game. No doubt the 188 back were more somber then the sendoff.

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