New Year's Day in Terlingua

Mr. Wizard's been under the weather this week. I told him to get a flu shot, but he's stubborn that way. But now, after this winter's bout with the flu, I think he may be reconsidering his decision; I bet he gets one this year. (This is another one of those times that I'd love to tell him, "I told you so," but my 2009 resolution is to be much nicer, so I'll give him a break, for now.)

We didn't go out for New Year's Eve; poor guy was sneezing and blowing and moaning and groaning. Actually, I'm exaggerating a bit, but just a bit. He really felt lousy.

We've spent at least five New Year celebrations in Terlingua, some before we moved here. It's always so much fun at the Starlight Theatre, one of my very favorite restaurants in the whole world!), and if it gets too crowded and claustophobic for us (you know how these big social events can get), we just wander down to the Boathouse, our usual ghost town hangout.

This year was different, and much much quieter. For one thing, Mr. W wasn't feeling well. And the other thing was that our friend Mindy wasn't here. This marks our first New Year's Eve in Terlingua without her, but she's had a very busy and strange year herself. I'm sure she'll be here next December 31st, when 2009 brings a full moon, and a blue one at that! We love full moons, and a blue one is just an extra-special treat.

But, yesterday, New Year's Day, Mr. W and I made the 12-mile trek into the ghost town to enjoy the day's activities. And what a day! A beautiful day, the temperature was in the low 70s--what a great first day of the year!

The photo up at the top was taken from The Porch, looking toward the Chisos Mountains in the National Park, one of our favorite views in the whole world. We watched the sunset backwards, facing east to watch the mountains turn colors--it's an amazing spectacle, one that should definitely make your 'bucket list' if you've never experienced it.

When we drove in, we were amazed that the ghost town was FULL of vehicles and people for the annual (black-eyed) Pea Off at The Porch. Lots and lots of people! Not only was there a record number of tourists present, the music of the Pinche Gringos kept them all there, dancing, singing and toe-tapping, the whole afternoon until well after the Pea Off ended.

We spent most of our time at friend Bryn's amazing studio/gallery, the Leapin' Lizard.

In the above photo, you can see Bessie the dog in front of Bryn's gallery. She is the owner of humans Bryn and John, two of our dearest friends. Of course, Bessie is one of our good friends, too! If the Leapin' Lizard looks a little familiar, it's because it used to be Diva Terlingua Gallery in another life ...


Along with some of the other ghost town business owners, Bryn hosted an open house on New Year's Day. We planned to visit the other places, too, but the food (oh my! what wonderful jalapeno poppers!) and company were so good at the Leapin' Lizard, we parked ourselves there and visited while chowing down. Oh yeh, and the beer was nice'n cold, too!
Here's Phil (or Felipe as he's sometimes called), one of Terlingua's frequent visitors, and Douglas, who lives way out on his Salvage Yard Ranch.

And here's Earl, our favorite beertender in the whole world, with Pablo, one of the nicest guys ever (and one of the funniest and brightest, too), and Felipe again, not looking very interested. I think he was tired of all the picture-taking, or maybe he'd just eaten one too many jalapeno poppers.

After we left Bryn's, we stopped by the Boathouse where we were humiliated after losing two straight games of pool to some visitors. So far this year, my pool shark record is 0-2, making me more of a pool flounder than a shark. Ah well, the year she is young.

Happy 2009!