How to Listen to Silence

Even bears sometimes hug the corner going downhill.  If you poke around Big Bend enough you will see a few signs for bear here and there.   I have been here many times but never ever seen one or even anyone who had seen one.  Now, I'm a believer.   This guy was just going for a walk in the middle of the afternoon and using the road for a little relaxation.   Gotta love it.

It's amazing to be in a place that you love and not be a complete tourist.  By that I mean have enough time to actually explore without having to be some place.  Tourists have an agenda.  See this and see that and then we go here and stay there..  All that.  Being lost in between tourist and local is a strange new world.  I am now a "toucol".  Half tourist  and half local.

One of my new favorite places is Sotol View.  A little point that rises above the Maxwell road on the way to Castellon.  Simply breathtaking.  It's a shame that the photo doesn't do it justice.  I spend hours  there in my new chair.... 12.99 in Alpine.   The silence was unforgettable.  Not a human sound for hours.  Just the wind in the brushes and sounds of flying creatures humming around.

How to listen to Silence

1. Find a place that is silent.  Not quiet but silent.  Lot's of places in our world are quiet but few are silent.

2. Get a comfortable chair.  Spend more than 12.99

3. Face the sun.  Not for the sunset but for the warmth.  Looking into the sun will make you close your eyes and stop looking around at things.  Feel the warmth on your skin and breath.

4. Open your ears.  Relax all those things around your ears.  I know it seems weird but try it.  You will know when it happens.

5. Then here is the big one....move yourself outside yourself.  Stop thinking and listening to yourself and move your awareness just 10 feet from your body.  practice makes perfect.

6.  Find those sounds that have been lost from you.  The sound of grass rustling, leaves rubbing together, branches and bugs....  then listen to the sound of wind as it moves over your ears, that little roar that comes when you hold your head just right and how silent it is when you move it the other way.  Now it's time to move yourself farther out....until the reach the silence itself.   I think there are few things like it... 

Is that all you got?

Every once in a while a person gets impressed.  I mean really impressed.  Not about some guy driving a 500,000 dollar Bugatti or some NBA guy riding go carts in the living room of his 213,000 square foot crib or maybe some idiot trying to eat a 12 lbs cheeseburger in 13 minutes.  The kind of impressed that comes from knowing you are small in this world and those enormous problems you think you face are most certainly a fading piece of history that is gone in the blink of an eye.  Santa Elena Canyon makes the sunset more beautiful, the wine taste better, meat more tender, and color more vivid. Some things are always perfect.   The Rio Grande rarely flows like this.....Rain at the end of summer in the high desert.....go figure.  Mother nature....You naughty minx.

Now Jasper, that is a road!

No question about it.  FM 170 from Terlingua to Fort Leaton is the prettiest stretch of road in Texas.  Sure there are some good ones...337 from Vanderpool to Leaky for example, is right up there but none match the awe inspiring power of the "river road".  That is even more true when the Rio Grande is running over 6,000 cfs.   Having canoed the river at 4800 I can tell you that is one hell of a ride.  A big plus is getting to the entrance to Big Bend Ranch State park.  Tiny at 290,000 acres compared to the National park, it just sits there waiting.  I drove the 27 miles into Sauceda Station on washed out rutted dirt today only find out that I was the ONLY one in the park.  I would have to say that Felicia's job at the gift shop would have to rank high as one of the most boring anywhere.  The old Mexican ranch house at Sauceda is one of my favorite places to stay in Texas.  Old hand painted tiles on the floors and in the bathrooms combine with 3 foot thick adobe walls and tons of windows to make the place completely cool during the hot times.  I can just see the dinners around the massive oak dinning table when the place was a ranch many years ago.

Bushwacking does not have to be uncivilized however.  Nothing like a great chardonnay by an old cattle pen in the middle of day.  Yes, no emergency work today.  In the tradition of the great explorers like Magellene, Columbus, and Anthony Bourdain, I have managed to "wax philosophy" while laughing at death from snakes, the sun, wild indians, and a low supply of crackers for my cheese.  I have returned to my duties appreciative of the perfect silence and desolation of this place.  Again I say....Viva Terlingua.

The odds are good, but the goods are odd

I heard that this morning at the tiny grocery store as I was loading this elderly ladies cat food, dog food, bird seed, cattle oats, and potting soil into the back of her car.  No, I don't work at the grocery.  I was just trying to be neighborly since I am a Terlinguan for a few weeks.  Lynna was 81 and on Sunday no men work at the store so it's through the kindness of strangers that she get her loading done.  Lynna did invite me for a beer at  her house.  I politely asked her how long she had lived in Terlingua and she told me 34 years and counting.  Her ranch is only 29 miles up a dirt road just east of town.  Lynna lives there alone since her man died some years ago.  She told me being single in Terlingua as a woman was a good deal but......"the odds are good, but the goods are odd".  So ladies, there you have it.  Terlingua may become the new singles Mecca for 2014 for the ladies.  

This is my new ride for a few weeks as I settle in to some great open country and dark star filled nights.  I have driven out to Susi's a couple of times but have not found her open even though the sign  is telling me her hours.  You just have to wonder what happened to Susi?  More tails of Terlingua to follow.  

Go West Young Man....go West

Well, it seems the adventure continues.  It's time to head West.  West to Big Bend and the booming town of Terlingua.  My journey is now going to be routed through one of my favorite places on earth. I am going to be a Terlingua Medic for a few weeks starting on Monday.  It's been a long time since I have been in the trenches and I am excited and nervous.  Give me a week before you come out and get hurt...Kidding.  I'm ready.  Doing a little Paramedic work is complete boredom followed by a few minutes of shear terror.  Dabbling in some border EMS sounds like it's going to be exciting.  So, come out and visit and say hello if you are in the hood.  I'm living at the fire station in the middle of town.  Call first....I may be cooking or eating donuts.  Viva Terlingua

Ashes to Ashes Burning Man 2014

It has taken me this long to come to grips with the fact that the burn is over.  This year was one of the best ever.  The weather was great except for a couple of days and it even rained.  Thank goodness I was already settled in and not trapped on the road for 26 hours.  I will be putting up some photos as I go along just in case anyone is wondering what is going on out there...  I found some beautiful places going and coming along the way.  The search is on for new wardrobe choices and a completely new Camp Feel Good.  So much to say about it I am at a lose for words.  And yes, that is me in a tutu.  Borrowed of course but you just don't miss tutu Tuesday.