the swimmin' hole

Day off today....woke up at 4:45AM and couldn't go back to sleep - thus began a very long day off. Killed the early dark morning hours by dancing around on the internet. Cooked up bacon and eggs outside just as the sun rose. Chilled out with Ara and his friends all day. Started at 11 AM with snacks at The Oasis. Next we headed out to Terlingua creek and the famous swimming hole that I have finally seen for the first time - to collect rocks for Ara. The spot was breathtaking. Came back to Ara's for soup, his home baked (not solar, yet) bread....and bananas baked in his fire pit ashes, wrapped with foil and stuffed with marshmallows and chocolate chips. That was really good.

But I must say that the absolute highlight of the day for me was on the trip out to the swimming hole. We stopped by a rancher (Dick Cain) who was hanging out with about 7 longhorns by the road. No Benita, but he is the guy that owns her. My new friend Voni (the queen of red BMW's) captured this photo of Dick and I talking about his longhorn cattle. I described Benita to him and he knew exactly who I was talking about. Says she is almost 20 years old now and is wintering on the west side of Agua Fria mountain. Dick got a kick out of my stories of befriending Benita and some of her friends...and a real big kick out of the fact that I had named her. Going to track him down again tomorrow to show him some photos of her and perhaps try to find her to say hello.

Ended the day with Chuck and family at Kathy Korrao's Kosmic Kampfire with Holly, Tod, and Mustang Sally. They just came down from Odessa and brought a load of Christmas goodies for the less fortunate out here. Our buddy Ronald stopped by late just I as I was pooping out. 4:45AM was a long time ago....