Blair Pittman's House

Not far from the park border, Jeff desired some ice cream and radioed to see if we could pull over so he could fill up his water.  Paul radioed that he’d follow our lead so I veered right, quickly found the pisser, and unloaded.

Jeff later enticed almost everyone to eat ice cream with him and we continued toward Big Bend deciding to take the scenic route into the park.  The mountains were quite beautiful and looked volcanic.  I certainly did not feel tired anymore.  We stopped at the park headquarters, GPS:  NAD27  291940.06  1031220.08 +-20, and got permits to camp in the back country.  The permits were free but starting in 2008 will be $10 per night. 

            Then we drove to the town of Terlingua to Blair Pittman’s house and ate dinner waiting for him to arrive.  He lives in a small cottage at the front of a very; small subdivision near Terlingua sinkhole.  When he did arrive, we were in for a treat.  We spent the rest of the evening listening to him tell stories on his porch.  He and his friend Glen ? entertained.  Glen often poked fun at Blair’s age.  Blair told some wild tales.  For instance, once he and his friends had a dynamite holding contest.  They would each in turn put a fuse into a stick of dynamite and then see who could hold it longest.  Everyone would cheer if the blast knocked them over. 

            He also told about a friend who decided to fuse 8 sticks all at once saying that this would be a real good one.  He lit it and the drawn out sound effect emitting from deep in Blair’s throat described the blast perfectly.  He said every nearby window shattered and that the roof of the bathroom the blaster’s wife sat beneath collapsed.  They were divorced soon afterwards. 

            After a couple hours of stories and several rounds of scotch for Glen, Doug, and Blair, the group began to disperse.  We had all enjoyed conversing with Blair and hearing his many wild tales.  I ate some Powerbars and eventually retired to my tent to write in my journal.  Alan and Manuel soon joined me and Alan showed me the schedule for the next day on his topos.  Later, I went to bed.