Passing out shortly. But first.. update.
So today was the trip down south for the Aunts. We hit Terlingua for breakfast at Ms. Tracy's Cafe, and I took lots of more shots of the cemetary in the morning light. Went to the trading post, and the little gallery, now named La Sirena. Five of my necklaces are now in that gallery, and she wants more of my other stuff. So tomorrow I'll be working on that.
We were going to hit the state park instead of national- but the road was really in bad shape so we headed back and went to the national park.
As we were heading up into the Chisos Basin.. the car started acting funny. And then it died. Totally died. No power at all.
We got onto a pullout after restarting it, and a guy heading down said he'd notify the rangers for us. Rangers came, and we got a follow down to make sure we'd make it ok. Made it to the main road.. and splat. Dead van, and no more restarting it. So we pushed it off the road and out of the way, and the pair of rangers gave us lifts to HQ and called a tow for us.
Note: This meant three of us crammed into the prisoner seat of a double cab pickup.. hehe.. plexiglass and cage between us and driver, no AC.. DAMN it was hot as hell, and while we hadn't been too sweaty before, we sure got that way fast.
Well, thing is of course, wreckers can only cart 2 adult passengers. There were 5 of us. So we had to figure out what the hell to do. Basically mom and one aunt would head home with wrecker, then mom'd drive back down.. but depending on how long things took.. could've been 10-11pm by the time she got there. And park HQ closes at 5pm.
So we called the outdoors adventure places, and hired a shuttle to get us back to Terlingua, where we could have dinner and hang out in more safety/company. $97, which isn't bad considering the round trip to pick us up and deposit us was about 80 miles.
We had dinner at the Starlight Theater & Cafe... holy shit the food is good there. Some is less expensive, sandwiches and stuff, but we said 'screw it' and had steaks, salmon, etc. They don't use any mass-made dressings for their salads. They have 4 house-made ones, and that's it. They have salads involving artichoke and palm hearts, tons of steaks and fish dishes.. and the desserts are awesome too.
After dinner, we started talking with an angry local- she was PISSED because of the two busloads of kids- or rather, because of the bus companies. They'd parked the buses right in front of the restraunt and shops- which keep doors open for cooling down- and left the engines running. Despite the fact they were gonna be there for hours. Found out they left those buses running when the kids were hiking in the park, etc. The fumes were getting into all the buildings, until she and the store owners basically managed to get the drivers to move them (they couldn't get them to shut the things down).
I started drawing while we were discussing politics, fuckedup wastefulness, etc- my aunts and her talking mostly.. and two of the boys from that school group saw me drawing and came to see what I was working on. They reeeally liked the drawing.. so I gave in to the longing puppy eyes and gave that drawing to one, and promised to make one for the second.
Whooops. (In a good way.)
They showed their art off proudly to the other kids (note, these were kids probably all under 13.. I think ranging from like 9-11 or maaaybe 12) .. and I became the center of about 20 or more kids, ALL WANTING PICS. They were embarrassingly in love with what I was doing, and effusive with their praise. And the crowd just kept growing, and more kids wanted pics... and their buses were leaving soonish so I was rushing trying to give as many as I could pics....
They wanted to know how I did it, did I ever mess up, how did I do it.. what was I drawing now- it was funny, I really had so many hovering over me it was like a bee swarm, and the kids waiting for art were yelling things like "Let her breathe guys!!" "Give her room!" "Don't distract her!! I want mine!"
Anyways, I think I got five to seven done or done enough for them. I was really sad I couldn't get enough for all of them- and towards the end, they started shoving dollar bills at me to pay. I thought about refusing it, but they were so proud to be BUYING ART that I just accepted the money ^^;
Afterwards, the woman we'd been talking to gave me a bone-crushing hug, and said that what I had done was so wonderful, and that I'd given her hope for the next generation- or rather they'd made her feel better, by being so intense about something that wasn't electronic or name-brand cool.
Man though.. talk about deadlines.. trying to make 20 kids happy in 15 minutes before they were dragged off to their hotels. Towards the end I was just doing outlines of the shapes, and telling them that they could color it in if they wanted or leave it as is if they liked. One teacher was very cool, two girls from her bus were very sad when they had to go without any art, and she shoo'd the driver saying "We'll be there in a second.. pretend we're already on the way and not here!"
Anyways.. mom got there around 9-ish, thank goodness, and we got back here around 11pm.
Mom and Aunt Fran had an interesting time too.. the wrecker driver was an 80-something year old man, who told them all about the area and the history of houses and mountains and locals. He's been here since WW2, and not only refuses to retire from auto towing.. he is entering the race from Fort Stockton to Marathon that's coming up. Driving in the 110mph division. O_o
The stars were gorgeous on the way home- and there were many small critters... including an owl :)
Anyways. I'm waiting for my turn to shower, and then I am passing out. SO TIRED!
We were going to hit the state park instead of national- but the road was really in bad shape so we headed back and went to the national park.
As we were heading up into the Chisos Basin.. the car started acting funny. And then it died. Totally died. No power at all.
We got onto a pullout after restarting it, and a guy heading down said he'd notify the rangers for us. Rangers came, and we got a follow down to make sure we'd make it ok. Made it to the main road.. and splat. Dead van, and no more restarting it. So we pushed it off the road and out of the way, and the pair of rangers gave us lifts to HQ and called a tow for us.
Note: This meant three of us crammed into the prisoner seat of a double cab pickup.. hehe.. plexiglass and cage between us and driver, no AC.. DAMN it was hot as hell, and while we hadn't been too sweaty before, we sure got that way fast.
Well, thing is of course, wreckers can only cart 2 adult passengers. There were 5 of us. So we had to figure out what the hell to do. Basically mom and one aunt would head home with wrecker, then mom'd drive back down.. but depending on how long things took.. could've been 10-11pm by the time she got there. And park HQ closes at 5pm.
So we called the outdoors adventure places, and hired a shuttle to get us back to Terlingua, where we could have dinner and hang out in more safety/company. $97, which isn't bad considering the round trip to pick us up and deposit us was about 80 miles.
We had dinner at the Starlight Theater & Cafe... holy shit the food is good there. Some is less expensive, sandwiches and stuff, but we said 'screw it' and had steaks, salmon, etc. They don't use any mass-made dressings for their salads. They have 4 house-made ones, and that's it. They have salads involving artichoke and palm hearts, tons of steaks and fish dishes.. and the desserts are awesome too.
After dinner, we started talking with an angry local- she was PISSED because of the two busloads of kids- or rather, because of the bus companies. They'd parked the buses right in front of the restraunt and shops- which keep doors open for cooling down- and left the engines running. Despite the fact they were gonna be there for hours. Found out they left those buses running when the kids were hiking in the park, etc. The fumes were getting into all the buildings, until she and the store owners basically managed to get the drivers to move them (they couldn't get them to shut the things down).
I started drawing while we were discussing politics, fuckedup wastefulness, etc- my aunts and her talking mostly.. and two of the boys from that school group saw me drawing and came to see what I was working on. They reeeally liked the drawing.. so I gave in to the longing puppy eyes and gave that drawing to one, and promised to make one for the second.
Whooops. (In a good way.)
They showed their art off proudly to the other kids (note, these were kids probably all under 13.. I think ranging from like 9-11 or maaaybe 12) .. and I became the center of about 20 or more kids, ALL WANTING PICS. They were embarrassingly in love with what I was doing, and effusive with their praise. And the crowd just kept growing, and more kids wanted pics... and their buses were leaving soonish so I was rushing trying to give as many as I could pics....
They wanted to know how I did it, did I ever mess up, how did I do it.. what was I drawing now- it was funny, I really had so many hovering over me it was like a bee swarm, and the kids waiting for art were yelling things like "Let her breathe guys!!" "Give her room!" "Don't distract her!! I want mine!"
Anyways, I think I got five to seven done or done enough for them. I was really sad I couldn't get enough for all of them- and towards the end, they started shoving dollar bills at me to pay. I thought about refusing it, but they were so proud to be BUYING ART that I just accepted the money ^^;
Afterwards, the woman we'd been talking to gave me a bone-crushing hug, and said that what I had done was so wonderful, and that I'd given her hope for the next generation- or rather they'd made her feel better, by being so intense about something that wasn't electronic or name-brand cool.
Man though.. talk about deadlines.. trying to make 20 kids happy in 15 minutes before they were dragged off to their hotels. Towards the end I was just doing outlines of the shapes, and telling them that they could color it in if they wanted or leave it as is if they liked. One teacher was very cool, two girls from her bus were very sad when they had to go without any art, and she shoo'd the driver saying "We'll be there in a second.. pretend we're already on the way and not here!"
Anyways.. mom got there around 9-ish, thank goodness, and we got back here around 11pm.
Mom and Aunt Fran had an interesting time too.. the wrecker driver was an 80-something year old man, who told them all about the area and the history of houses and mountains and locals. He's been here since WW2, and not only refuses to retire from auto towing.. he is entering the race from Fort Stockton to Marathon that's coming up. Driving in the 110mph division. O_o
The stars were gorgeous on the way home- and there were many small critters... including an owl :)
Anyways. I'm waiting for my turn to shower, and then I am passing out. SO TIRED!