SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Hi, I'm Alexa.

SPEAKER_05: 0:01

And I'm Cory.

SPEAKER_01: 0:03

And together we are to each other.

SPEAKER_05: 0:08

Alright. We are a touring musical duo.

SPEAKER_01: 0:11

And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all around the world and keeps us always on the go.

SPEAKER_05: 0:16

So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while running around working to do all your plates spending.

SPEAKER_01: 0:22

And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle and feed your inner travel bug. Hi everyone, welcome to the Romies Podcast.

SPEAKER_04: 0:37

Welcome. Welcome. That sounded kind of like Halloween creepy. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01: 0:43

Well, after Halloween, we did go visit Big Ben National Park.

SPEAKER_04: 0:47

We did indeed.

SPEAKER_01: 0:48

Because in our episode, episode series that we did with Jennifer Broom when she told us which national parks to visit at which time of the year, we took her suggestion and we visited Big Ben National Park in the winter.

SPEAKER_05: 1:00

Very wise suggestion by Jennifer Broom. So I would advise that you take her other suggestions as well. From the one time we did, it was really awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11

Yeah. Number two. Oh, yeah. We got lots of episodes for y'all to check out if you haven't uh done so yet. If you haven't been following us from day one.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27

An adventure we did have in the mountains of Texas.

unknown: 1:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_05: 1:32

Mountains. Real mountains. Yeah. Texas. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:36

So there's Big Ben National Park. We're going to be diving into the actual park coming up this month. You're going to hear all of the things.

SPEAKER_05: 1:44

But all of the things.

SPEAKER_01: 1:45

Today, we feel like it's important to help you plan your trip. And therefore, the planning, a lot of that involves where you're going to stay.

SPEAKER_04: 1:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

And then once you're there, you gotta eat something, right?

SPEAKER_05: 2:00

You could do the whole, you know, Jesus in the desert fasting 40 days, because it is a desert.

SPEAKER_01: 2:04

True. But we probably don't advise that because well, you know. Yeah. Pretty much.

SPEAKER_05: 2:09

Not without some intense planning and having a good plan.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14

All right. So we're going to tell you where you should actually eat. And you know, Big Bend is so massive, so that's why we are breaking this up into multiple episodes to kind of just make every episode not 10 hours long. Um, or one 10-hour long episode, that's what I mean. And so today we're going to talk about the lodging around the Big Bend area in the town of Terlingua. So previous episode we talked about Marathon.

SPEAKER_05: 2:39

Which was awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

Yes, you can stay there and get your fancy hotel.

SPEAKER_05: 2:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:43

And now you call it Terlingua to stay. You're probably going to be about 40-ish minutes from the entrance to the park. And you're going to have some very unique options. We found a lot of unique options, and we're going to dive into where we got to stay in Terlingua. And then we're going to also talk about where to eat. And we have a special interview to share with you guys as well from a local. So we're going to be sharing all of that with you this episode. And I think it'd be kind of fun to just mention we talk about this more in our interview, but some of the unique stays that you can have in Big Bend, you've got the gamut of what you want. If you want dark sky quiet, or if you want to be able to just like walk to food, or if you need ghost town charm.

SPEAKER_05: 3:34

I mean, it's all dark sky to begin with. True. Just depends on what kind of dark sky you want.

SPEAKER_01: 3:39

Well, yeah, that's true. So you've got everything from cabins to yurts to Teepees. To like the little triangle houses, like little A-frame houses.

SPEAKER_05: 3:51

But first Before we jump into all that.

SPEAKER_01: 3:54

We need to talk about food because Roy and I are foodies. And so, yeah. So we're going to dive into food first. Because, you know, that's the important thing. All right. One of the things I have to throw in is that it's better to throw in than throw up when you're talking about food. So Yeah, which I did not do.

SPEAKER_05: 4:13

Glad you said it like that.

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

I got to go on a hike, a guided hike, which you're going to hear about. But my tour guide kept talking about how after his hikes that he did every day, you know, then he's going to go into town and get some tacos. And so tacos were just like the thing he kept talking about. And after we kind of stayed there longer and and enjoyed more of the restaurants, we kept finding that a lot of the food had the whole Mexican flair.

SPEAKER_05: 4:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 4:43

And so be you're going to be able to do that. Right. You're going to find other options. But I would say, like, at the end of the day, the majority of places, I feel like the menus were like Mexican flavored, which was just perfectly all right with me being from New Mexico. I'm happy with that. But there are lots of options. Let's why don't we run down and list all of the all of the options? Well, I don't know if they're all of the options, but they're all of the options we know about.

SPEAKER_05: 5:11

All right.

SPEAKER_01: 5:12

Okay. DB's Rustic Iron Barbecue.

SPEAKER_05: 5:15

It seems like I should have said that one being a good one. Okay, you then you okay. You go right.

SPEAKER_01: 5:18

Okay, so you said that. Let's try that again. Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 5:20

DB's Rustic Iron Barbecue.

SPEAKER_01: 5:24

You got TiVo's place.

SPEAKER_05: 5:25

That's how you talk about a meat place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 5:27

Yeah, Vanga. I'm the beginning. Okay. El Gordo's food truck.

SPEAKER_05: 5:31

Chili Pepper or Chili Pepper Cafe.

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

High Sierra Bar and Grill.

SPEAKER_05: 5:35

Espresso Ipoco Mas. But there's also Big Ben Station. Yeah, that's right. You can get pre-packed lunches from a lot of these places to take into the park, which is a great idea because once you're in the park, you're in the park.

SPEAKER_01: 5:48

And you've got the super cute grocery store. You've got cottonwood that you can go and get your lunch. So that's an idea too.

SPEAKER_05: 5:54

You've got the Long Draw Pizza.

SPEAKER_01: 5:56

Yep, gotta go there. Starlight Theater.

SPEAKER_05: 5:59

We already said the tacaria. So uh No, we didn't. There's a separate place, Tacaria El Milagro.

SPEAKER_01: 6:06

La Kiva.

SPEAKER_05: 6:07

Milky Way Treats Ice Cream, which we did partake of.

SPEAKER_01: 6:10

And then there's the far-flung Bella Bean coffee shop. So you've got kind of a lot of options. You do. Yeah, you've got your little coffee shop, coffee stops, and things like that. So, Rory, why don't we kind of just spout out some of our favorite?

SPEAKER_05: 6:25

So I'll start with the barbecue because I had that barbecue.

SPEAKER_01: 6:28

So uh this guy won't be gonna have meat.

SPEAKER_05: 6:30

He won like some big competition, maybe it uh was on a TV show or something. And so he won this competition with his barbecue and then became famous. So I can recommend that you try DB's Rustic Iron Barbecue if you're in the mood for barbecue.

SPEAKER_01: 6:43

Right, it was pressworthy and and you approved it too.

SPEAKER_05: 6:47

Yep, it's good. Oh, and they got I got a big old basket of uh fried okra. Okay, that's good stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 6:54

All right, it was huge for breakfast. I loved the tostadas at Vanga. And what's fun about Vanga is that they had a lot of like smoothies or fruits, and like you could just hop in there and grab a to-go. Loads of food options at Vanga. Salads to-go and things like that.

SPEAKER_05: 7:11

And a cool hang if you want a place just to hang.

SPEAKER_01: 7:13

And Chili Pepper Cafe. So we did a quick uh to-go order there because you know we're always on the on the go. What I got there, they had a vegetable enchilada. And so there was like, so even though I'm still in the Mexican vibe, that was a really good place to like insert some veggies into the diet. So because it was hard to find.

SPEAKER_04: 7:36

Veggies in a desert.

SPEAKER_01: 7:37

Yeah, it was. It was hard, you know. So they had their veggie enchilada had like broccoli and cauliflower and something, you know, I haven't normally seen. So that was kind of fun that they had that option. So you can check out that place for a little bit more variety within your Mexican context there.

SPEAKER_05: 7:54

And our first, our first meal there, I think, was a Mexican meal, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01: 7:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 7:58

And one of the one of the reasons we ate there is because you gotta get there's some places there that if you want to eat, you gotta get there really early or make reservations because they're really popular. And and I thought this place was really good.

SPEAKER_01: 8:09

Yeah, we we couldn't get into the other places, and we'll talk about that in a quick second.

SPEAKER_05: 8:13

But it was a a what? A whatever moment where something happens and it turns out to be really good.

SPEAKER_01: 8:19

Um serendipitous.

SPEAKER_05: 8:20

Serendipitus serendipitus.

SPEAKER_01: 8:24

Tuckiera El Milagra.

SPEAKER_05: 8:25

Tust or serendipitus or serendipitus.

SPEAKER_01: 8:28

I'm saying my Spanish incorrectly, so you will just all say all those words wrong right now.

SPEAKER_05: 8:32

Yeah, so very serendipitous.

SPEAKER_01: 8:34

But I loved whatever I got. I think I got like cheese enchiladas or spinach enchiladas. Something. Anyway.

SPEAKER_05: 8:41

Yeah, I got something too.

SPEAKER_01: 8:42

And it was really good.

SPEAKER_05: 8:43

Yeah, everything was really good. Yeah, really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_01: 8:46

Tucked here.

SPEAKER_05: 8:47

Nice outdoor patio setting and all this, covered patio. It was really nice. And the weather, the oh, the temperature was fantastic, so that wasn't an issue.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

And then at the other Milagros, the espresso, we had fun little breakfast burritos.

SPEAKER_05: 8:59

Yeah, mine was excellent.

SPEAKER_01: 9:00

Yeah, so that was fun.

SPEAKER_05: 9:01

Really good. La Kiva has a Oh, I also had coffee there. Okay, coffee was good too. Okay. So, yeah, breakfast and coffee.

SPEAKER_01: 9:08

La Kiva has this big long history. A local there told us this whole long story about La Kiva. That's right. And it's got like this cave and folklore, big top. And there's all this drum around. So that's like a little historic place. Like, if you want to get the inside scoop, you gotta go and get the inside scoop.

SPEAKER_05: 9:26

Yeah, so if you go there, ask about the inside scoop.

SPEAKER_01: 9:29

The inside scoop, speaking of scoops.

SPEAKER_05: 9:31

Scoops, speaking of scoops.

SPEAKER_01: 9:33

All right, now here's the deal. We get there. Now, if you listen to our previous episode, Samuel advised us that, like in Marathon, a lot of the places you really want to need to go like Thursday through Sunday. Like if you want to grab the food. And we found that that was a little bit of the case in Trilingua as well, as like some of the places are not open during the weekdays.

SPEAKER_05: 9:57

Yeah. And for example, yes.

SPEAKER_01: 10:00

So the Milky Way tree. So like we had geared all up that we're gonna have Milky Way ice cream for our dinner. And we realized, oh no, they're only open like Saturday through Monday. So Saturday night, Sunday night, Monday night. So we ended up having to go to Cottonwood grocery so that we could buy our own ice cream. And I got the vegan ice cream, and Rory got um you got like a butter pecan kind of something. So we weren't sharing because I went the whole vegan route, and they had those options and they had all of these cool options. So if you're wanting like grocery store or like cook your own stuff, or if you want maybe some it might be cheaper than eating out or something like that, but their store is really cool. They have a lot of good options that a lot of like healthy options you wouldn't expect. That's what I'm saying. They're good. Yeah, so brands that we like and trust. So if you're picky, like yeah, like someone who has red hair on this episode. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 11:03

Not gonna mention that her name's Alexa, but right.

SPEAKER_01: 11:06

So you can go to the store. So that's what we did. We got ice cream from the store the first night because Milky Way was closed, but then we found out, oh, we're here when they're open, and so we ended up getting to eat there. And did you like it?

SPEAKER_05: 11:21

Because it's a dark sky area. So everyone, even when their lights are on, it they're it's done in such a way so that it's not creating too much light pollution. And so there's this really cool place called the Boat House next door. It's like a bar and performance venue kind of a thing, and they're kind of connected by a courtyard-ish.

SPEAKER_01: 11:38

Right. And so And they also share that space with the food truck dead hungry, and we ate from there too.

SPEAKER_05: 11:44

Well, and here's the thing: the the it's a brick and mortar building, the boat house is. But then it's a food truck camper kind of thing for the ice cream place and also for Dead Hungry. Dead Hungry.

SPEAKER_01: 11:57

Which we didn't put in our list, but it is a place to eat, and it gets high raves and reviews.

SPEAKER_05: 12:02

Yeah, so if you have a sweet tooth and you want something really sweet, the ice cream place is the way to go. I got their cookie crumble something or other.

SPEAKER_01: 12:10

Like a Sunday thing that you got. Yeah. And then they also had like take home pints.

SPEAKER_05: 12:15

It was full of cookie crumble and all that.

SPEAKER_01: 12:17

I mean, like and it's soft serve, and we like I just my ice cream preferences are more hard serve. And so they had like these pints to go. And so that's what we did. And they had a pumpkin one and coffee one.

SPEAKER_05: 12:30

I think in your general food preferences, you're a pretty hard serve. That's yeah, true.

SPEAKER_01: 12:35

Burn out bong ching. Thank you. That was a great.

unknown: 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:38

So yeah, and Dead Hungry, we got a vegan soup thing, and so that was like you ate there without me. No, I brought it home because you got sick.

SPEAKER_05: 12:46

Oh, that's right. Oh, that was really good soup.

SPEAKER_01: 12:49

Yeah, that's from Dead Hungry. Totally unexpected. That's why you didn't remember it because you were laying down.

SPEAKER_05: 12:54

Yeah, but the the soup was it was a completely unexpected. What was kind of vegetable soup? What was it?

SPEAKER_01: 12:59

Okay, we got like this coconut butter squash soup. Oh and I was like, I told the lady, like, I'm sorry, I am not a fan of coconut. She said, Well, I don't think it's too strong. So she let me taste it and it did not taste coconut y, which is why it was good. And but up bunk.

SPEAKER_05: 13:18

I like coconut and it was really whatever you do or don't. And it's good for you. So you should eat coconut. Yeah. Uh it was like a puree kind of a soup. I mean, the real thing. Didn't like I don't think there was any cans involved.

SPEAKER_01: 13:30

Yeah, right. Super good stuff.

SPEAKER_05: 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:32

So that was Dead Hungry Food Truck. I think another kind of highlight place that you need to go to is the Starlight Theater because it's in the historic part. Well, it's all historic, but it's part of like the ghost town uh shopping area.

SPEAKER_02: 13:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:51

What do you call it? Like we would call that a shopping center if we were gonna drive up.

SPEAKER_05: 13:54

There's a little strip, like a little strip, but it's so historic, it's not a strip mall like you'd think.

SPEAKER_01: 14:00

It used to be a theater. Yeah. Now what did they tell you though?

SPEAKER_05: 14:03

I think I think we're gonna learn a lot more about it in our the conversation that's gonna come up after this, right?

SPEAKER_01: 14:08

Okay, so we'll talk about it.

SPEAKER_05: 14:09

The history of it and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01: 14:10

Okay, so here's but here's your inside scoop on the starlight. You have to go at 4:30. They open at 5.

SPEAKER_05: 14:19

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01: 14:20

And you have to stand in line at 4:30 so that you can put your name in at 5 o'clock. And then what they do is they text you, so that's really good. You can put your name in. And so what we did is we put our name in, and then we went and had our ice cream, and then we came back and had our dinner at the Starlight Theater.

SPEAKER_05: 14:40

Made you really happy that you got to have your ice cream first.

SPEAKER_01: 14:44

Well, duh. So that's what we did. And that way, you know, we ticked all our boxes. And also, there is a very cool gift shop right next to the Starlight Theater. And so there's things that you can walk around and enjoy while you're waiting for.

SPEAKER_05: 15:00

Again, these buildings were like well over a hundred years old. Very, very cool to walk through and see and all that uh living history. So highly recommend all that. Uh, highly recommend the Starlight Theater, it's very cool. And there was live music, there's a huge stage on there. So there was live music while we were eating.

SPEAKER_01: 15:18

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 15:19

Didn't get ingestion or anything.

SPEAKER_01: 15:22

I think we'll kind of just close out this food section just pointing out that the Far Flung, which we're gonna dive into, I think, in our neck uh next episode when we talk about all the adventures we had. Far Flung is where you can book really fun adventures and they take you into the park so that you can enjoy these really fun adventures. But they have a coffee shop there where you can grab a breakfast or a lunch or coffee or whatever you need before you hit the road with them.

SPEAKER_05: 15:50

And so if you're running late, grabbed a coffee there. Yeah, if you're running late, you're like, I don't have time for breakfast. I have to get there on time. Just go and grab breakfast there.

SPEAKER_01: 15:58

Yeah, so really neat options, really fun places to explore. Yeah, and then the long draw pizza, just you know, good pizza there. So we've got to point that out to you.

SPEAKER_05: 16:08

Yeah, it's long draw, not long draw, like I implied, but it was nice the way I said it, I thought anyway. Long draw pizza.

SPEAKER_01: 16:16

I think that's really good.

SPEAKER_05: 16:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 16:18

Speaking of really good, our stay interlingua was really good. Our stays, we got to stay in two different places. Today we're gonna talk about one of those places, which was a yurt. Y'all, a yurt.

SPEAKER_05: 16:32

I've seen them for years.

SPEAKER_01: 16:34

Like cool desert vibe.

SPEAKER_05: 16:36

Well, not just desert vibe, but like cool uh off the grid sort of hippie uh what vibe? I'm not even sure what to call it. Mongolian vibe.

SPEAKER_02: 16:46

It was so cool.

SPEAKER_05: 16:47

I've seen it in magazines and on TV, you know, yurts. And I'm like, what would it be like to stay in one? Would I have a real toilet or would I be using like this thing with grass in it?

SPEAKER_01: 16:56

Do you have to be like a real, a real am I gonna have to go outside to shower or stand in the rain to get washed off?

SPEAKER_05: 17:03

Didn't know what to expect. Wow, we were blown away.

SPEAKER_01: 17:06

This was like four star, five star, five star?

SPEAKER_05: 17:09

Five star.

SPEAKER_01: 17:10

It was really, really lush and beautiful, and everything you need is inside the yurt. So you had full bath and full kitchen inside the yurt.

SPEAKER_05: 17:20

Yeah. How about that?

SPEAKER_01: 17:22

And so hello.

SPEAKER_05: 17:23

Actually, it wasn't full kitchenette.

SPEAKER_01: 17:25

Okay, sorry. Full bathroom and kitchen and full kitchenette. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 17:29

Big fridge though. Big fridge and freezer.

SPEAKER_01: 17:31

Yeah, I wasn't feeling like I was missing anything.

SPEAKER_05: 17:33

No, because we wanted to eat at the restaurants there in Tillingua. So it was great. I mean, there and you're right, across the street from all the restaurants and everything. It is so wonderfully centrally located.

SPEAKER_01: 17:45

It is. You're kind of at the base of where you would drive into the main town of Tilingua and where everything is off of this one main road. You just exit your yurt and get into and you're right there.

SPEAKER_05: 17:57

And and they can see video of our yurt, right? Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 18:01

On our site. I'm gonna post it.

SPEAKER_05: 18:04

She's gonna post it.

SPEAKER_01: 18:06

Right. So you can hear this episode and then follow us on social media.

SPEAKER_05: 18:09

And be like, oh, that's what they were talking about.

SPEAKER_01: 18:10

Oh, look, that's what they were talking about.

SPEAKER_05: 18:12

See, yeah, so you can see, yeah. And do you know why Escondido is in their name? Because they're hidden. You're driving down the road, you don't see them. Like you gotta turn off the road and go down a little hill, and they're just behind a little rise. You're I mean, you're literally across the street from everything interlingua, but they're private and secluded.

SPEAKER_01: 18:33

And then you step out and you have this really fun wide view.

SPEAKER_05: 18:37

And you know what you're gonna have to do.

SPEAKER_01: 18:38

And we loved it. We love staying there.

SPEAKER_05: 18:39

You're gonna have to post in this, like right after I say this, you're gonna have to put in the coyotes. The first night we get there and we're like, it was really they have like talking back and forth, and it was so fun. The great thing is they didn't do it all night, they only did it when the sun was going down, and then once it was totally black, didn't hear people?

SPEAKER_01: 19:06

One or two of them felt like they were human, so I don't know if a human was like inciting them to yell back.

SPEAKER_05: 19:12

When you hear it, it wasn't roaring.

SPEAKER_01: 19:14

I'm just saying that.

SPEAKER_05: 19:15

No, no, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_01: 19:16

Alright, so here's the coyotes.

SPEAKER_05: 19:33

See what I told you?

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

See?

SPEAKER_05: 19:35

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01: 19:36

Crazy. We're gonna cut it. This is not me. We did not bring the cats.

SPEAKER_05: 19:40

Oh, yeah, we talked about that. So now that you know the setting of the whole thing, we're going to jump into a wonderful conversation we had with Jenny, the yurt lady from Dolingua Escondido.

SPEAKER_01: 19:57

Yes, she she owns and runs the yurts. Terlingua escondido.

SPEAKER_05: 20:02

Bienvenidos. My Spanish is so bad. We are here with Jenny Turner. That's how it's official. We're here with Jenny. In Terlingua. I want to say terlingua, but they say more perlingua. In Terlingua, Texas. And would you guys also call this Big Bend area?

SPEAKER_00: 20:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_05: 20:21

Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 20:22

Yeah, the whole region is kind of referred to as Big Bend. Okay, the whole region. And Terlingua is is the closest town to the entrance.

SPEAKER_05: 20:30

Alright, so we just officially met Jenny this morning, but we stayed in her yurt, y'all.

SPEAKER_01: 20:35

And we are recording this in one of her yurtts.

SPEAKER_05: 20:39

One of her yurts.

SPEAKER_01: 20:40

And we're you're gonna hear all about that. So we're very, very excited to be in the yurt because it just has such a great feeling.

SPEAKER_05: 20:46

I've seen them for years. I've always wanted to stay in one and thought, what would that be like?

SPEAKER_01: 20:50

When we had the chance, we're like, we're gonna be like in the desert and in a yurt.

SPEAKER_05: 20:54

It's a perfect area. Air conditioned, heated, it's got a full yeah, a full bathroom and plumbing and the small continuous. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01: 21:03

It's like full-on, you know, five-star. But anyway, we're gonna talk first. We're gonna get back to that. Jenny, we want to hear about kind of your history with the town because you didn't just come here to invest in pro rental property, which I'm sure some people do. You have a really cool local history, so we'd love to hear about that.

SPEAKER_00: 21:24

Okay, yes. So I was a river guide in Colorado. And what? Yes, I I guided the Arkansas, the upper Colorado, the Grand Canyon. I was a river guide up and around Colorado.

SPEAKER_02: 21:34

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00: 21:35

I had a friend move here and she said, Oh, Jenny, you're gonna love it. You will love this. And I'm like, Texas, there's no mountains in Texas. What rivers in Texas? I had no desire to move to Texas, but she was so persuasive. I moved here for a month to do the spring break season. Colorado, not a lot going on in March. The month of March is really busy here, and so I said, Okay, I'll come for March. And I never left. I fell in love with it. She was right. This was home, and I stayed. And in the summer, my husband, who grew up on a ranch 12 miles north of Turlingua, he saw that I was still here in June. And in the 90s, people didn't spend the summers here. They came because it's so hot, it's so hot.

SPEAKER_01: 22:16

But I can totally see why what attracted you to the place. It's super fun.

SPEAKER_00: 22:20

Anyway, the bartender at the Starlight at the time had t-shirts made up saying summer survivor. So you you got you got your cred if you stayed the summer. Yeah. Well, I was still here in June. Okay. Scott asked me out, and the rest is history. I never left. We got married a year later, had a kid the following year, and that's why I'm here. But he grew up on a on Three Bar Ranch, which is a three bar ranch. Three Bar Ranch, which is down South County Road, down 12 miles of bad dirt road. He had to take the kids drive down that dirt road, pick up his friend Gabriel, drive to the bus stop, and then an hour to school because there was no high school back then. On the bus. So where did they go to school then? In Alpine. They had to go to Alpine to go to school. So he had to get up at 4 30 in the morning to get off the ranch to get to school. So he's hit that's a whole nother story. But so we we met, I was already here, I decided I was gonna stay, and um, then we had our baby, and we actually rented one of the ruins in the ghost town. So the ghost town was a a thriving mining enterprise in around the turn of the century. And during World War I, it provided Mercury for the war effort. By World War II, they had stopped using Mercury so much and it kind of died down. So it was a ghost town, a literal ghost town for 20, 30 years. And then in the 60s, kind of the counterculture, musicians, artists, um, you know, people trying to get off grid, they discovered that the place. So 60s and 70s, it kind of started building up. Well, in the 70s, uh, a couple of guys, well, several people came down and started doing river trips. And Far Flung Adventures is who I worked for. But he they started it in the 70s. And we did a Jeep tour with Farflung. Oh, okay. So the the new owners of Farflung are different than the the original owners. Right. So they're they still have an outfit in Taos, the old timers that started Far Flung that started the big river enterprise here. Are they still out there?

SPEAKER_03: 24:15

So now they're in New Mexico.

SPEAKER_00: 24:16

They're in Taos. And they they had they had two locations, Taos and down here, and they sold the one down here. But um, but anyway, so I was working for Far Flung. We got married, found out I was pregnant. So I started working in the office. But then so we talked to Bill Ivey and we rented one of the ruins. So the the mining houses are all the rock homes you see in the ghost town. Yes. Where all the miners lived in the rock houses. And a lot of people had started building, like refinishing, building the walls, putting roofs on them, and making them livable. We still had an outhouse, but we had we had we called the Taj Mahalov outhouses. It was ginormous, had a beautiful view of the Chisos. I mean, it was there was an outdoor bathtub, Bogan Villa. It was gorgeous. So that's where we lived when when we had our our daughter. So kind of in the 90s, it was still kind of a ghost town. People were starting to move in and starting to build up the buildings in town. Um, and you were talking about the Perry Mansion. The Perry Mansion was a ruin at that time. A lot of the buildings that are finished out now were ruins. The Holiday Hotel, where they have hotel rooms right now, that was where the river guides lived. Okay. It was called the Big Ben Holiday Hotel. That's where the river guides lived in little apartments back there behind the Starlight. Okay, okay. The Starlight Theater is named that because it didn't have a roof. When my husband was a a boy here, there was no roof on the Starlight. Come on. And he said they would have dances and parties and all the kids would hang out and gig frogs in the puddles after a rain because there was no roof. They actually put the roof on the year before I got here. So I I missed out on that excitement. Right, right.

SPEAKER_05: 25:52

Was it ever a th a movie theater?

SPEAKER_00: 25:55

Um it was during the mining.

SPEAKER_01: 25:57

During the mining and I want to interject as well. You mentioned the like holiday hotel. As we've driven around, I don't think I've seen a there hasn't been a chain hotel at all here.

SPEAKER_00: 26:11

No. No chain.

SPEAKER_01: 26:12

But not even like what we would think of as a hotel here, right? There are there hotels. There are three. There are three hotels technical hotels or motels or whatever. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 26:24

So the one right across the street, the high Sierra, they've changed the name of it. It was the El Dorado Hotel. I think they're calling it the Ghost Town Hotel now. It's the two-story behind the high Sierra Bar and Growth. Okay. So that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01: 26:35

We've seen that just as a restaurant, but it does have a hotel. There's a hotel behind it.

SPEAKER_00: 26:38

The two-story structure behind it is a hotel.

SPEAKER_01: 26:41

Yeah, it's got all the fun lights in it.

SPEAKER_00: 26:42

Um Big Ben Station is what they're calling it now, but it was it's at the intersection of 170 and 118, which they call the Y.

SPEAKER_04: 26:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 26:52

There that is a uh more of a motel, but then the Chisos Mining Company motel. Okay. Okay. But no chains, no fancy everything local.

SPEAKER_01: 27:02

And what's so fun, that's one thing that makes this town so unique and fun, is that you don't have that, right? And you have so many unique lodging experiences here. Right. Uh people this is a creative town. This is a town where you feel that you have freedom to do whatever, because I think from even from a legal standpoint, there's a lot of grace. Like we were just talking with um Jeff. And you know, he's like, we didn't have to have a permit for this, this, and this. We only had to have a permit for this thing. Right. And so, you know, and just from the conversations we've had with people, that it's like we have a lot more uh open yeah, a lot more freedom. That's a good word.

SPEAKER_00: 27:47

You could use it. I'll use freedom. And that's a reason why a lot of people are here.

SPEAKER_03: 27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:52

And that's uh what drew a lot of people like me and like the people that came and settled in the 70s when there really was nothing here. Uh that kind of sense of freedom, and it's a good and a bad thing. Because we can do whatever we want, but so can your neighbors.

SPEAKER_05: 28:05

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 28:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_05: 28:07

Are you really gonna do that?

SPEAKER_00: 28:08

So, I mean, and uh my but my philosophy always has been if you don't want something next to you, buy the property. Yeah, because you don't you can't control what the neighbor does because the only permitting here is the septic system. That's the same thing, Chris. We're lucky here because we have a really good neighbor who was a superintendent of Big Ben National Park at one time, and he's been buying up the land in this valley. Okay. So he uh several of the lots between us and the Chisos he bought to protect his views view shed, which protects our view shed. Yeah, but that's true, yeah. And and we've got so we got this land. So this property, we were living in the ghost town in the rock house with the big, beautiful outhouse. My daughter was reaching potty training age, and I didn't want her to fall in. So I'm I was like, we need a house, we need a house with the running with the indoor plumbing. Yes. So um Scott's family was really good friends with the white family who owns the Terlingua store. Carolina and Arturo were the matriarch and patriarch of the family. They're gone now. Their daughter Delia still runs it, but that's where the chili cook-off happens behind the store. The original chili cook-off is behind their store. Well, his family was very good friends with them, and we went and talked to Arturo and said, we want a piece of land way far off the road because we didn't want close neighbors, and he said, No, no, no, silly children, right? You don't know what you want. And he brought us here because it had water, electricity, and the ability to build us. I mean, we could have everything here that we needed to have indoor plumbing, where right way off the road, you can't always get that. You can't always get electricity, it's it's expensive to run too far away from the road. But it was already here. So he picked this spot for us, and we said, okay, I guess that'll work. And thank you, Arturo, for picking this spot for us because it's it's ideal. We we lived here, we raised our daughter, my husband's mom had a place to live. You know, we it's been the family home until about four years ago when uh she had to move away for medical issues. Because we were never gonna do anything in her backyard, because that would just not be cool.

SPEAKER_02: 30:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:15

So um, when she had to move away for medical issues, we said, well, you know, maybe this is our chance. Everybody, all of our local friends were supporting themselves, all the old river guides and the people that we've known forever were building one or two Airbnbs to for their retirement to support themselves, support their their lifestyle in retirement, which is very, very modest here. People don't need or require or want a lot. That's not why people move here. So I said, Well, you know what? Let's do that. And we we looked at all the different things, shipping containers, Adobe, how we did. Well, we went back up to Colorado and we stepped into a the Colorado Yurt Company where they build where they they build the set the kits and they ship them to you. Okay, and we walked into a yurt and I said, This is it. This is it's just the feeling of calm and comfort and I uh and the the dome and just everything about it.

SPEAKER_05: 31:08

Yeah, I loved it at night.

SPEAKER_00: 31:09

You can lay down the city.

SPEAKER_01: 31:11

Because we're in a dark sky area, and so it's it's just like perfect for that. It it really is.

SPEAKER_00: 31:18

And so when we stepped into the yurt, we were done looking, this is what we're gonna do. We came back. Yeah, we just knew. And a really good friend of ours, who was a a really good uh musician, and he played in a bluegrass, he played in all kinds of bands around here, but um he had been a yurt builder for the last 20 years. We were river guides together.

SPEAKER_03: 31:35

Did you know that before? No.

SPEAKER_00: 31:37

We came back, and another river guide friend said, You need to call Mark Lewis. He built, he's been the last 20 years, he's been in the Pacific Northwest building yurts. And so he came over and the the foundation is his design, and when they were building it, we were laughing. When the yurts are gone, there'll be helicopter pads, they're not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_05: 31:55

I saw it's all steel structure.

SPEAKER_00: 31:57

It's all steel, they went like eight, eighteen inches down. I mean, they're they're way in the ground, but it's not going anywhere. Anyway, he it was his design, he built the frame, and then a really good friend of ours at the time was working and and helped him put them up. And we we did our research because it gets really windy down here. But we these were built to withstand harsh weather on the Mongolian steppes, okay is the history of the year. So when we did a little research, they're designed to withstand 100 mile an hour or more winds. Yeah, so I said, you know what? We're this is what we need. And it's um they stay cool in the summer, warm in the winter. Uh, we did the snow and wind package, so we've got extra insulation and extra framing which you need it for the summer, even yep, yeah. Yeah, and we we're not sorry, in the summer when it's slow. This is our house. My three-year-old granddaughter calls it the Terlingua house. This is where we stay in the summer when we're not renting them. Oh, that's great. Yep. So that's great.

SPEAKER_05: 32:55

Yeah, we're shooting in one of her yurts. Yes, by the way.

SPEAKER_00: 32:58

Yeah, yes. And so Cinnabar yurt, the one that you stayed in, is named after the ore that they mine in the ghost town.

SPEAKER_05: 33:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:04

That they turned into mercury.

SPEAKER_05: 33:06

Yeah, which I hadn't heard about heard of until we came here. Until we did the Jeep Jeep tour. And Chris explained to us. Right, and then we knew what Cinnabar is. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 33:15

So now you know why it's called Cinnabar Yurt. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_05: 33:17

When we pulled up the first line, I had no idea. And then we took the tour, and I was like, oh, that makes sense. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_01: 33:21

Yeah, it makes sense. And it's not exciting thing because I'm the only one who doesn't know.

SPEAKER_03: 33:27

I'm glad you didn't know you were. I thought I thought Cinnabon? Cinnamon. No, cinnamon.

SPEAKER_01: 33:32

Cinnamon. And I just thought, you know, the the color of the yurt is a cinnamon color. So I just thought that, you know, and and then we're now we're in the sage cell. Sage yurt is more obvious. Yes. Is there is there a local tie-in with sage at all?

SPEAKER_00: 33:45

Just because we have a lot of sage going, and the the leaves on the sage are kind of this this color of green. Yeah. How's the yurt? Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

SPEAKER_05: 33:54

Now you were you were telling us about the Perry Mansion and that uh something about when they built it and them moving in or not moving in, or well, no.

SPEAKER_00: 34:02

Um so Perry was the owner of the Chisos mining company that um it that was in the ghost town.

SPEAKER_05: 34:09

Okay, so that they're the their mining company is the reason the ghost town exists.

SPEAKER_00: 34:13

That's the reason that all of the structures are there. So Mr. Perry, I don't remember his first name. Hopefully, Bill can tell me.

SPEAKER_03: 34:19

I'm sure it was always Mr. Perry.

SPEAKER_00: 34:21

Mr. Perry. No one knows his first name. He built the trading company, which was where the the miners could trade in their tokens. The same building? Yes, that trading company is where the miners would go buy their supplies, their food, their whatever sundries they needed. Right next to it, you you saw what looks like a water tank. That was where we've got pictures from the mining days with people with their burrows would come up with their wooden water barrels on the back of the burrow, fill your water up and take it back to your little rock house. The miners built the rock houses, but Perry built the um the trading company and the theater, and they're all the same building, and a school and a church. So all of the buildings in the ghost town were the church up on the hill. The church on the hill, yes, it's Santa Inez now, and they hold Episcopal church services there. There are three Episcopal churches that share a traveling priest. Today. Today's itinerant priest. Itinerant priest, yes. Terlingua, Marfa, and Alpine. There are three churches that the priest in the Big Ben region visits every third Sunday. And the priest at the time when my daughter was born and we lived in the rock ruin, Judy Burgess was her name. She came to our house and baptized my daughter on our rock porch under the Bogan Villa with the Chisos Mountain View. It was perfect. It's so neat. Wow. Wow. Yeah, really.

SPEAKER_01: 35:48

Such a neat memory and tie-in.

SPEAKER_00: 35:50

Back in the day, so we were married in the little church in Lahidas. There's a little church, and it's kind of overwhelmed now by condos. You have to kind of know where it is. Gotcha. At the time it was very obvious from the road, but then they built condos around it. But um, but it's Saints Mary and Joseph, and it's a little church that's been there since the Pancho Villa days. And I back then, and I believe still today, the Catholic priest from Presidio travels to that church to do services.

SPEAKER_05: 36:16

Wow, that would be cool just to see it.

SPEAKER_00: 36:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 36:19

I love history. And so the the the decade of that when all when he built all this, do you know?

SPEAKER_00: 36:23

It was right around the turn of the century, and it was a booming enterprise until probably the early 20s, late teens, early twenties. And then um it was it was booming during the war effort World War I.

SPEAKER_03: 36:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:34

Because they used the mercury in weapons.

SPEAKER_03: 36:36

And the bombs and stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:37

Yep. But by World War II they had found alternatives that were less toxic, less toxic and maybe easier to get to hold of and whatever.

SPEAKER_01: 36:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 36:45

But um But yeah, so Perry built his mansion, and then the story I've heard is that he built this mansion for his wife. So his wife would want to come down, but she came down here and she said, Absolutely not, I'm not living here. I don't know that she ever stayed there for any extended length of time. And um, so that's the story with the mansion. But when I moved here, it was a ruin, and Bill's come in and turned it into a beautiful I've we had a barbecue restaurant, we've catered weddings there, and I mean it's just a gorgeous setting. It's a beautiful place to stay now.

SPEAKER_05: 37:14

Yeah, yes, yeah, totally. So basically, Perry built his wife a beautiful home. She said, I'm not gonna live there, and he said, Okay, it's gonna be abandoned.

SPEAKER_00: 37:21

Yeah, pretty much. I don't know how much they actually lived there after they built it, but it's the Perry Mansion. Okay, all right, love it.

SPEAKER_01: 37:28

Well, we did get to stay there last night, and we stayed in the green room and had this gorgeous bathroom and all of that. So we've had amazing lodging experiences while we've been here and as we've been driving around just seeing so many unique things. And again, like I feel like a lot of that is inspired by the freedom to have creativity here. Oh, yes, you know. Um now, are you the only yurts out here? Because I'm not okay.

SPEAKER_00: 37:56

We're not so um actually, right when we were starting to talk about it, we we realized that the local chapter, which is right outside Big Bend National Park, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 38:04

I've seen the sign, but I had no idea what that was. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 38:07

They were building yurts, so they have maybe eight or ten. Okay. We've been running a hotel up in Fort Davis, and we wanted to downsize. So we said we're just building two. We brought one of our little cabins down and we said we're done. Because we don't we we're just looking for a retirement plan, not something to keep us busier. Right. Um but the but the local chapter, I think they have eight or ten yurts now, and it's right as you're going into the park, and there is a campground on the there's a back road behind the school, which is on the way to the park, and they have one yurt. So we we're not the only, but there's only two others that I know about.

SPEAKER_05: 38:43

Yeah, yeah. So I did see uh along those same lines of so many places that you can choose to stay at that are so different. They have the painted ladies, which is looks like old RVs.

SPEAKER_01: 38:54

The old airstreams, yeah, old airstreams that they painted to look like different and lots of villas, like we've seen the triangle one, the A-frames, yeah, and then teepees even across the road.

SPEAKER_00: 39:03

Yeah, yeah. The teepees came first. And and when we first started seeing the teepees go up, well, my husband's a historian, and the Indians that were here didn't live in teepees. The Indians that stayed here had either huts or they were mobile. The so we're right on the Comanche Trail. Okay. So they would they were living more on the plains, but they would raid into Mexico through La Hitas was the main the main crossing. Okay of the it's so one goes through Fort Stockton and one comes down through La Hidas. Um but but the they didn't live here in teepees. So when we first started seeing teepees, and when we first started talking about Yurch, we said the same thing. They didn't live in teepees here. But the the climate and the weather are so similar to where they were used that we're like, well, we can we can just let it slide.

unknown: 39:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:55

Well, we can let it slide. I would think but it is fun having the variety and and the creative. Creativity to build all the different things.

SPEAKER_05: 40:02

Yeah, I would think living here, a mud hut will be way cooler in the summer than a summer. Adobe and mud. Yeah, totally. So yeah, it's cool. I mean, it's really driving around, you see so many different things.

SPEAKER_01: 40:14

Yeah. It's just and lots of like RV camping and lots of like campers. There's lots of like, I guess they're just campgrounds. Do they call them campgrounds? People can bring their own, but it looks like they can just rent them too.

SPEAKER_00: 40:25

Yes, yes, yes. So a a lot of people have bought the airstreams and restored them. There are actually some really cool airstream rentals nearby and out on Turlingo Ranch. Um but also during the COVID shutdown, RVs and camping became popular because you weren't like right up, you were separated. Separated, yep. So the a lot of RB RV parks popped up during COVID and the campgrounds. And then the the rise of hip camp, which is kind of like Airbnb for campers, so there's a lot of hip camp sites.

SPEAKER_01: 40:56

We have mentioned that on our glamping episode. So we we have them in well, I'll add them to the show notes for this episode as well.

SPEAKER_00: 41:03

But yeah, but yes, yeah. So the RVs, RV, rental RVs, RV sites, camping, they they kind of became popular during the it looks like and the popularity.

SPEAKER_01: 41:16

Now we are here in November, and that seemed like a really great time to come. We did an episode with Jennifer Broom who said you need to go to Big Ben Park in the winter, and so that we were like, okay, well, let's do it. So it's super cool that we're getting to come now. Is this high season for you because the summer is so hot? Like, what's your busy time? And when's the best time to visit? That it's not the busy time, but it's still great to see.

SPEAKER_00: 41:41

So, probably the best weather, my favorite time is the fall. If we have a good monsoon season, everything's green, the rivers are running. So mid-July through mid-September is the monsoon season. Sometimes it'll go into October. If we have a good monsoon season, the high water goes into October, which it did this year because we had a great summer for rain. Oh, great. It kind of has been eight or ten years since we've had that. So it was it was a great summer. So the fall, the temperatures are cooler, it's greener, there's water. Uh the most popular time is spring break. So we're the busiest in March. March, most of the month of March and all the way through April and even into early May. Then the temperatures get hot and we'll have a few busy weekends through the summer, but not not a lot of business over the summer.

SPEAKER_05: 42:28

They have to be able to endure the heat to come in the summer.

SPEAKER_01: 42:32

Yes, yes. Our Jeep guide Chris told us it'd be like 120 in the summer.

SPEAKER_00: 42:36

It can be 120 in the summer.

SPEAKER_01: 42:38

You might as well be in Arizona as well. I mean, kind of the same situation.

SPEAKER_00: 42:41

And some people like to come in the summer because it's not as crowded. So we do have a certain population of people that come just in the summer because it's not as crowded, and as long as you get off the trail by 10 in the morning, you know, the sun's up early, you can get up and hike early, come back for a siesta. Right. Um be out in the heat.

SPEAKER_01: 42:59

Even a evening hike, like a late even, you know, or late afternoon hike as well.

SPEAKER_00: 43:04

Late way late afternoon, yeah, because the sun's setting so late. Um but yeah, early morning, late evening hikes, and uh, like I said, it's just hide indoors and the AC in between. Exactly. And that's where the siesta comes from. Yeah. There's a reason for that. That's too hot. That's when that's when you go inside in the AC and and rest or in the shade of a tree. Yeah, that's right. And conserve energy. So the only downside to the winter, most of the time the weather's mild. It can be it's perfect weather unless we have an ice storm. Which we uh we used to do guided tours into Big Bend with Elder Hostel, educational travel for adults over 50. Okay. Um so we did when our joints gave out and we weren't doing river trips, we all started doing the bus tours. So we're still guiding, but on a bus, not a boat.

SPEAKER_01: 43:48

We'll have to do an episode around that and find out what that is.

SPEAKER_00: 43:51

There was one year that we got in and it we were eating dinner at the starlight and it started sleeting, and we had reservations in the basin. If we didn't get to the basin, we weren't gonna have a place to stay with these 30 people all over 50. So we we hurried up and ate and we got into the basin right as it started sleeting, and they closed the road behind us. So the next morning we woke up to a closed basin, nobody in or out, but everything was covered in beautiful frost. It was a winter wonderland. So we while we were stranded, um, we the Cheeso Slide opened up and made everybody hot chocolate and we found some Canadians playing Euchre and we, you know, we we we um we all just gotta go up north to find Euchre. Yep, yep. Um and and then we did a little hike around the window, the the Basin Luke Trail, and the best pictures ever. So you know, it it's it can be it can be challenging, it can be dangerous even a little bit if you're not prepared. Right, but but it's it can also be beautiful.

SPEAKER_05: 44:51

Yeah, extreme harsh environments.

SPEAKER_00: 44:52

Extreme cold to hot. Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 44:55

It seems like as we've been able to meet people and and just be here for several days, it's instead of just like one night, you know, it's just nice to kind of like settle in and learn more about the culture and the people here and all that. We've kind of observed that you have such a great community here because you have such a harsh environment. And so you all you all have to kind of give grace to each other and and be willing to kind of help each other out and be willing to take watch out for your neighborhood. Even if your neighbor is kind of weird and creative. Oh, yeah. Even if they do mess up your view, you're still gonna love them and you're still gonna like hang in there with them and all of that.

SPEAKER_00: 45:34

Um, but it's even if we don't love them, we're there when they need us.

SPEAKER_01: 45:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:39

And that's loving them. Yes, yes. Even if you don't feel something nice and else towards them, you still have to be able to do that. You'll love them and not like them. But it it totally is a community that that rallies around anybody having hardship and and we're there for each other. Yes. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_05: 45:53

You said we may not like them, but we love them.

SPEAKER_00: 45:54

But yeah, they're they're family. Anybody who's lived here for any length of time, they become family because we've all endured the same hardship than we if they can earn a summer survivor t-shirt, that's right.

SPEAKER_01: 46:07

Like we're golden, they're in.

SPEAKER_00: 46:10

We have more reliable electricity and everybody has air conditioners, so summer it's people, more people are staying in this.

SPEAKER_01: 46:16

Yeah, I mean that's what I wanted to point out. Like here in the yurt, we had great AC and just like the temperature's perfect. And you know, you're talking about in the summer heat, you can come have a nap. You can come have a nap in this awesome yurt with cool air blowing on you. And all of the amenities, you know, we've got a full freezer and fridge, and you know, enough kitchen and bath. And I love the floor plan, it's laid out really well. It's kind of one room, but it's separated where the bathroom is separate and the kitchen is separate. You know, like you have these sections in this open area.

SPEAKER_00: 46:49

It's so great. I not very many yurts at when we were looking had all the amenities. A lot of yurt pla no, I think the local chapter does have the bathrooms inside, but a lot of the yurt places we were looking at have bathhouses. I was afraid where you have to walk to a shared bathhouse. And we contemplated that. And I said, no. I said I would not stay because it's where where we are now in our lives, we would not we didn't have air conditioning, we didn't have indoor plumbing, but we were in our 20s. Yeah. At this stage in our life, we wouldn't stay at a place that didn't have a bathroom inside. Totally. So um I so I looked and looked and looked, and I found floor plans that kind of worked, and and I tweaked it and I I drew it on a napkin. And um great a really good friend who's a local contractor who is uh is he did all the tile work, he built it all. I showed him the napkin drawing and he created it, he made it happen.

SPEAKER_03: 47:42

Oh, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 47:43

Yeah, Southwest Airlines started on a napkin too. So you're right in good company.

SPEAKER_00: 47:48

You just you sketch out and say, This is how I want it, and then and then the plumber came in and said, You need this much space for, you know, and we we together we all figured it out and made it work.

SPEAKER_05: 47:57

But well, and that's great.

SPEAKER_00: 47:58

And it feels so spacious in here.

SPEAKER_05: 48:00

Yeah, we've made specific housing decisions on over the summer traveling overseas, determined by I have to go outside to use the toilet and share the showers. And like you said, in my 20s, I'm not in my 20s anymore, FYI. In my 20s, we do stuff like that, but now I'm kind of over it. I don't know if you're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01: 48:19

I don't even know if you're done it or not. I don't even know if in my 20s I would have signed up for that, you know. Not that and like even if even if we did that now, yeah. I mean, even if we did that now, it would be fine, but it's like I would much rather this, right? Right, yes, yes, yes, yes. This is just yeah, and and it what I love is you're getting this whole desert experience, but you're like enjoying it. You know what I mean? Like, you can go rough it out there in the park, but you don't have to rough it in your house, also, right? You can kind of work. Yeah, which you will do. That way you have like, you know, both the best of both worlds. And that's I like to just have to not choose. Like, I don't, you know. So this way you get all the benefits.

SPEAKER_05: 49:05

Okay, so Jenny, tell tell us how people can find you to rent your yurt.

SPEAKER_00: 49:10

Okay. Uh, we're called turlingua escondido. When we were building them, we couldn't come up with the name. We're all these people around us have these really clever names, and we're trying to be clever. Well, our friend who was helping build the yurts, he's he just looked at Scott one day and he said, Can you see these from the road? And we said, Well, no, you can't. And he said, Well, it's escondido, which means hidden. Okay. So we are called Terlingua Escondido.

SPEAKER_05: 49:33

Then you can't see them till you drop over the hill and come down.

SPEAKER_00: 49:36

So we're on Airbnb, we have a website, we're on Facebook and Instagram, Terlingua Escondido.

SPEAKER_01: 49:41

Okay, great. That's all. We will put links to all of that in our show notes that you guys can go visit the show notes in the description and be able to click and book.

SPEAKER_05: 49:50

Because we know you will.

SPEAKER_01: 49:51

We you you yeah, you must. So, Jenny, thank you so much. This has been really so fun to learn a little bit about the history, your history, learn about the town, and just these wonderful year. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00: 50:07

Glad that you got to stay the year and that you liked it.

SPEAKER_05: 50:09

Me too. Jenny, thank you so much for the year. That was super fun. And it's so great to meet you, it's so easy to talk to. Yeah, Jenny's really fun.

SPEAKER_01: 50:20

So if you stay at the year and you get to meet her, yeah, connect with her.

SPEAKER_05: 50:24

Yeah, she's super fun, so try and connect with her if you stay in her year. Even if you don't. You don't want to miss our next episode. We will be talking about our adventures, our big adventures in Big Bend National Park.

SPEAKER_01: 50:40

All the good stuff. We're gonna just dive into the park itself. We hope we've inspired you this episode. So join us next time. Please subscribe, too, rate, and share our podcast with your friends. And please like and follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

SPEAKER_05: 51:04

We are at the A T. R O A M I E S and our website at www.com.com.

SPEAKER_01: 51:21

We'll be there until next time.