El Paso to Alpine: 2020 Lonestar Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

On a previous thread, I described my first ever trip to El Paso. After I was there a few days, I left and took I-10 towards Alpine, Texas.
It's great desert drive with speed limits as high as 80 MPH. But plunked right in the middle of I-10 at one point is a Homeland Security checkpoint.
I had to stop and the officer asked me one question that I never get at home in North Texas: "Sir, are you an American citizen?". I replied "yes" and he waved me on through. Other times at checkpoints in Falfurrias and elsehwhere, they have run the drug dogs around the outside of my vehicle but not this time.

Fun fact I learned from the US Border Patrol Museum visit in El Paso: the USBP has full rights to use horses or vehicles to come on anyone's property, as long at that property is within 25 miles of the international border. They do not have the right to come into your residence, but it is OK for them to be on your land doing their official duties.

My destination was Alpine, Texas. This is a town of about 5,600 people and is the county seat of Brewster County, the largest geographical county in Texas. It is the home of SRSU (Sul Ross State University), and contains a number of hotels where one can stay, before venturing the 100 miles south into Big Bend National Park. BBNP is a must see for its grandeur. The south end of the park is the Rio Grande, and you can look across into Mexico.

I love BBNP, but have seen it several times. On this 5 day trip, I deleted BBNP, in order to see El Paso. On Friday and Saturday, 2/22-23/20, I attended the Lonestar Cowboy Poetry Gathering, hosted by SRSU. Its former name was "Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering" and at the 2019 Gathering they announced it would be the last one, since many of the organizers were getting older and/or having health problems. Well, that was sad news to a lot of people, so a fresh group of organizers hastily put the 2020 Gathering together.

Cowboy Poetry Gatherings feature performers who actually live the Western lifestyle, primarily with ranches, horses, and cattle. Plus they reflect the love of their rural lifestyle by performing cowboy poetry, storytelling, singing, and playing instruments. The largest 2 gatherings in the US are in Alpine, Texas and Elko, Nevada.

Each of the 2 mornings starts with an outdoor chuck wagon breakfast in Poet's Grove in Alpine. Usually chilly, $5 a person, and you meet a lot of nice folks. The daytime performances are in various venues at SRSU. Your only cost is $2 for a schedule, and $15 or $20 if you want to attend the evening musical performances.

I love going to these since most of the Texans I know fly keyboards for a living, or write software, or run retail stores, or some other kind of "city" jobs. They may BE in Texas, but those kinds of employment are common anywhere in America. When you go to a Gathering, you are going to meet those who live and embrace the best of rural western living and values. I would recommend y'all to take a vacation out to West Texas. The Poetry Gatherings are usually around the 3rd week of February each year. If you want to get more Texas in your Texas, this will do it for you.

Other attractions in the area are Marfa, Prada/Marfa, the Marfa Lights, Fort Davis, the McDonald Observatory, Balmorhea State Park, and of course the big daddy of the area - BBNP.

https://lonestarcowboypoetry.com/

The above link contains all you need to know for the 2021 Gathering.

When I was leaving Saturday afternoon, I was northbound from Marathon, on the way to Fort Stockton. It's a desolate desert stretch with very little traffic. All of a sudden, I saw 5 feral hogs grazing on the side of the road. I did a U-turn and approached them stealthily. I parked my car and got out with a 9MM pistol to try my luck. 3 seconds before I pulled the trigger, they finally got spooked and ran out of sight. Darn!! I should have taken the shot from farther away. But that's 20/20 hindsight. Would I have been legal? I thought since they are nuisances, you don't need a hunting license?

SIA

[E10]

You DO need a hunting license, and you can't shoot across a road or from a roadway. And they probably weren't feral hogs, but javelina, or collared peccary. "In Texas, javelina are classified as a game animal and may be legally harvested with a hunting license, during hunting season, in counties which have a season." (TPWD) Javelina season in Brewster County is year-round, with a limit of two (2) per season.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outd ... s/brewster
Maybe a good thing you didn't get a shot off.

Alpine, along with Marfa, Fort Davis, Marathon, and Balmorhea, is one of our favorite parts of Texas. Beautiful country, great people, and always interesting stuff going on. Excellent old hotels, recently renovated, in each city, and Barton Springs ain't got nuthin' on Balmorhea.

[equin]

The annual poetry even sounds cool. I visited Alpine and BBNP for the first time a few years ago. I never saw any javelina, but I did see some exotic-looking range animals with tall straight horns. I'm guessing they belonged to someone who offers exotic hunts on their ranch. I fell in love with that part of Texas. Very beautiful area. I definitely want to go back and check out Marfa, Marathon, Ft. Davis State Park, the natural pool at Balmorrhea and the BB State Park.

[treadlightly]

When I was an infant, we lived in Alpine. My Dad was a graduate student and had a teaching assistant's job at Sul Ross.

Just after high school graduation, my Dad and I and a friend and his Dad spent nearly two weeks on dirt bikes in Big Bend. Dad was a natural storyteller, and evening camps were a perfect setting. When he came back from World War II and the South Pacific he had a 90% nervous disability, what would be called PTSD these days.

He horse-traded into a BSA Golden Flash and spent a couple of years in the interior of Mexico, came back with experience of what cane farmers endure, and earned an economics degree from Vanderbilt. And then kept it a secret, never listing it in his resumé because he thought economists were a dreadful lot.

He didn't need it. By the time he finished curing his PTSD he had three undergraduate degrees, a master's, his PhD, and many miles on his BSA.

I'm humbled to come from such stock, particularly since one summer when I was still a tricycle pilot Dad saw a chance to get some extra money, working construction as an electrician at Dow Chemical in Freeport. How many PhD's do you suppose are comfortable in the ivory tower, can tie their own shoelaces, and can wire three-phase 440?

Anyway, Dad loved poetry and literature.

[surprise_i'm_armed]

E10:
I know javelina. The critters I saw were feral hogs.

My car was parked on the shoulder, and I was standing on the shoulder. Would that be considered "shooting from the roadway"?
Of course "roadway" would be the pavement, but does the definition of "roadway" extend to the unpaved shoulder?

Your post about needing a hunting license for feral hogs was informative. Thank you.

SIA