Quick Silver...

Experimented with it in middle school science class.

Also collected it...we were original recyclers - before the word was cool...harvested from old thermometers and thermostats.

That was back in the old days, when the world was still just black and white, before color was invented.

Back when drinking from a garden hose was the norm after riding your bike with no helmet or bouncing around on a dirt road in the back of a pickup truck.

It was before they knew just how bad all that stuff really was...so "played with mercury" - just another reason boomers now act the way they do.




Ya'll remember rolling it around in your palm, getting the silver droplets to merge into a bigger mass...liquid, yet metal...pure magic. 

You were holding your own little piece of the terminator in your hand.

And I'm not talking about the movie...



Which leads us to the ghost town of Terlingua, TX.

An old mining town...

for quick silver - mercury, liquid metal.

Not many miners survived past 40.


The mercury exposure killed 'em all.

Which is why Terlingua is now a ghost town located at the end of the world.

Now a home for free thinkers, artists and poets...and those that want to get away from it all.



And Terlingua is also the closest town to Big Bend National Park.  Next nearest store is 80 miles away.

Terlingua is not all ghost town, but the old mines and the old town are still the major attraction...

Them and breakfast on the veranda at la Posada Milagro.  Another attraction - arguably the best Eggs Benedict in the state of Texas!

We felt right at home in Terlingua, in fact we liked it...thinking of moving down to the area.

Judy has started to look at available real estate.  The house, native stone, circa 1880's is just on the banks of the Rio Grande, and 500 feet from Mexico.

The enclosed area below would be our own pool, hot spring fed with 105 degree water year round and right on the Rio Grande.

And the bank on the other side - Mexico.

The property comes with its own personal border crossing!  And it's shallow too, the bright rippled water behind the heads of the standing couple is only ankle deep.

It would be us, the drug Runners and the Illegals...one big happy Familia!

'cept look closely at the larger opening in the weeds...just to the right of center, on the Mexico side.

See anything?

How about a zoom in...








You decide what's sitting across his legs...

So guard? drug runner?

I dunno...the Mexico side appears to be guarded...maybe they are wanting to keep the Gringos out of Mexico???







Now actually, that old house on the Rio Grande is inside Big Bend National Park and not really for sale...unless you have lots of money

And the hot spring really is hot, and that guy really was just sitting there on the Mexico side, in the shade, and I think maybe with a gun on his lap.

Hmmmm...






In closing this post, sharing another sunset.

This from the front steps of the Fox in Terlingua looking back east, with the setting sun reflected from the Chisos mountain range in Big Bend.

Beautiful mountains...more about them in another post!

...and so far, we are still alive.





Let the adventure continue...