Little dogs from all over the Texas desert, and as far away as Mexico, come to run in the big race. The race course is behind the general store, just past the old jeep.
Before the race, it is quite the fashion show with racers showing off their favorite colors and frilly outfits in a pre-race pageant that would make Churchill Downs pale by comparison.
The race has grown so popular over the years that other small dogs have banded together and sued for the right to race in the Desert Challenge. Because Terlingua is filled with artistic, free thinking kinda of folks, the race was expanded to include a second category of "other" small dog.
Here is your first glimpse of the race course. That's the judges tent at the end with the red and white stripes.
What were you expecting, these are Chihuahuas after all. Speaking of which, here is a photo of the winning Chihuahua, Reilly. Yes, that's a lightening bolt painted on the side of his coat, just like his favorite doggie action hero Bolt.
Reilly was defending his title from last year which makes him a two time champion. Reilly's dad has a real estate rental business - Big Bend Vacation Rentals. So, if you don't have an RV and want to come out to Terlingua, Texas and see the 11th Annual Terlingua Desert Chihuahuan Challenge, Reilly's dad will hook you up with a rental.
Because we spent the morning hiking, we missed the main race. However, we got there just in time for the small dog race. After parading and prancing from the porch to the race course, the dogs enter the gate. The top lid is dropped and the front panel drops and away they go.
Ooops, false start. Someone jumped the gun by sneaking out the little breathing hole in front of the gate.
Everyone is back in the starting gate. The bell rings and they are off. Really off.
Bubbles jumped to an early lead, followed by Killer, Spike, Rassle Dassle and the rest of the pack. However, Bubbles lead was too great to over come and she took home the blue ribbon. Next came the raffle drawing. As we awaited the announcement of the winners, we ran into our waitress from the Chili Pepper Cafe. We must have brought her luck - she won a raffle item! Do you know what she won - a gift certificate to the Chili Pepper Cafe. Even in Terlingua, life can be so ironic at times.
After the race, everyone moseyed over to the porch for another cold beer. (The one we took to the race course didn't last long in that heat.) Fascinating discussions ensued regarding the current political climate, the value of rocks and the current real estate market. The whole time people were strumming on their guitars, ukuleles and banging their spoons. We decided to take a walk around the Ghost Town before the discussion turned to actual aliens. The movie Paul (about the RVing alien) did come up though.
The Terlingua Cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places. There are over 400 graves, the oldest from 1903. While the area is known for its mercury mining, not a single person died from mercury poisoning. Many died in 1918 from influenza! The cemetery is still used today by current residents.
The old guy that owned the Chisos Mining Company, Mr. Perry, built himself a mansion on top of a big hill. The upper floors had narrow windows so that it could be protected from Pancho Villa and his revolutionaries.
After walking around the Ghost Town, it was hard to imagine that over 2,000 people lived and worked here. There was a butcher shop, ice cream parlor and movie theater. Today, a number of these old structures are occupied by free spirits living off the grid.
We have one more day of tooling around this area and then we pack up and head for El Paso, so there's one more porch visit in our future.
We are definitely coming back here next time we are in Texas.
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