Too damn hot

And we don't mean the chili.
​Nothing like fear of heat stroke to ruin your day. 
We KNEW the trail looked unpromising… 5 miles round trip with no shade and 90 degree heat. But a group we passed said the petroglyphs were worth it.  So we continued on. And saw a second rattler on the trail. The petroglyphs were cool but it was a long hot hike back to the car. Cactus flowers only went so far to divert us.

We were done hiking for the day. The rest of our sightseeing was from the car. Amazing landscape and interesting history of the riverfront town of Castolon. The Mule's Ears fit perfectly.

Now we are in Terlingua Ghost Town in an old motel that’s been refurbished. When we pulled up at 5, there was already a line for dinner at the Starlight Theater Restaurant and Saloon. At 7:15, we had a 90 minute wait.
 
As noted yesterday, this is the home of the Terlingua International Chili Championship (TICC), the granddaddy of all chili competitions, and also headquarters for chili cookoffs worldwide. CASI (Chili Appreciation Society International:  https://www.casichili.net; motto: “Chili, Charity and Fun”), the sanctioning body for chili competitions, is down the road. Ed’s chili is an adaptation of a TICC award-winning recipe and it is much better than what we had for dinner. Maybe he can stay and join their board.