Good to have you back!

Alpine, Texas, 110 miles north of the Park, was today's destination. It is an altogether pleasant drive. The trip is through desert, past a couple of bentonite mines, Kokernot Mesa, Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area and a moment's stop at the Border Patrol road-block 10 miles out of Alpine. After verbally assuring the young BP officer that we were indeed US citizens and learning from him that he was from Port Clinton, Ohio, and had attended Ohio State, we proceeded to Brewster County's Seat.

As an aside, to save you going to Wikipedia, bentonite is an absorbent aluminium phyllosilicate, essentially impure clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite. The absorbent clay was given the name bentonite by Wilbur C. Knight in 1898, after the Cretaceous Benton Shale near Rock River, Wyoming. There are different types of bentonite, each named after the respective dominant element, such as potassium (K), sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), and aluminium (Al). Experts debate a number of nomenclatorial problems with the classification of bentonite clays. Bentonite usually forms from weathering of volcanic ash, most often in the presence of water. However, the term bentonite, as well as a similar clay called tonstein, has been used to describe clay beds of uncertain origin. For industrial purposes, two main classes of bentonite exist: sodium and calcium bentonite. It is used for drilling mud, as an absorbent, as a water barrier, in cosmetics and for medicinal compositions.


We arrived, as we had notified her by phone, to take Celestine Amatulli out for lunch at her favorite place, La Casita, a very popular Mexican restaurant, not one of many in a chain, of course. 'Chele' as she is known by family and friends, is the daughter, now in her 80s, of the town constable, Feliz Valenzuela, who was gunned down by a Sotol smuggler in Terlingua, Texas, in 1938. We had recorded her oral history and copies of numerous family documents and photos two years ago and she's been one of our best Texas friends since. The pollo y queso quesadillas (chicken and cheese quesadillas) were excellent and the perfect lunch.

After lunch, our next stop was at the Ace Hardware to purchase a 'Swiffer' and its wet/dry components to serve to keep the apartment relatively Texas-dust free. We bought a tortilla press as well so that we can continue to get better at making our own corn tortillas. Jane wanted the Swiffer stuff; I was interested in the 'Tortilladoro.'

Porter's Safeway is across the street from the Hardware. An hour or so and two carts later, we had enough victuals to stock the pantry and fill the fridg and its freezer compartment to last a couple of weeks.

About half-way through the checkout, a man's voice from behind me, at the next checkout lane, said, "You are back, I see." I turned to see who the voice was and said to a total stranger, "Yes, back at the Park; it's the best way that we know to spend a winter in Ohio." He smiled and said, "Good to have you back."

In the truck on the two-hour drive back from the grocery run, Jane said she thought she had seen the fellow in the Visitor Center, but his was an anonymous face so far as I was concerned.

Both Jane and I have been asked just why we have returned year after year to this remote Park in southwest Texas desert, to give thirty-two hours each week for three months, for no more compensation than a place to park our trailer or, this year, an apartment unused, except by mice, spiders and scorpions for months before we arrive.

I think I just said why.