SPEAKER_02: 0:00

Hi, I'm Alexa.

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And I'm Cory.

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And together we are The Romy.

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We are married to each other. Alright. We are a touring musical duo.

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

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

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And we hope to facilitate your busy lifestyle and feed your inner travel bug. Hi everyone, welcome to our latest episode. We are really, really excited to have a special guest with us today named Bill Ivy. Woohoo! If you guys listened to and caught our podcast episode with our interview with Jenny Turner, if y'all remember we got to stay in this super cool yurt and get some like some backstory behind Gerlingua. And Jenny shared with us that Bill Ivy is someone we really need to talk to.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

His name kept coming up in all the conversations.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05

Yeah, different. She wasn't the only one that mentioned this very cool gentleman. Also, we got to we we haven't shared where we got to stay with y'all yet, be like all of the places, because the other cool place we got to stay was at the Perry Mansion. And this is part of the Big Ben Holiday Hotel, which Bill Ivey is a part of and owner of, and all of that stuff. And so we're just really excited for you to get to meet him today and just learn more about Terlingua, the ghost town, our very cool stay at the Perry Mansion. And so that's kind of where we're gonna go today. So, Bill Ivey, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42

Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you, it's my pleasure to to to join you today. And the reason that uh Jenny wanted you to talk to me, because I'm the official old timer now. So there I I grew up in the Trilingua area.

SPEAKER_02: 1:57

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:58

Well, you grew up in the Trilingua area. Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Yeah, back when I grew up in Lajitas just down the road, the population was nine. Uh four of that was my favorite. Nine. Yep. So come a long way, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_00: 2:16

I guess it has.

SPEAKER_02: 2:18

You are the OG.

SPEAKER_00: 2:20

That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 2:22

No. No doubt. No. So not only were you kind of like the founding family of this town, but it's my understanding that you kind of like own the ghost town. Like, is that kind of how does that work that way? Or or is it the hotel, the starlight theater? What what are all your hands in? Because I know you do a lot.

SPEAKER_01: 2:45

Yeah. Yeah, I was back in the uh in the early 80s, and I saw that uh the ghost town was coming up for sale, and I didn't want to see it broken up into little pieces of property and and um and sold out in little postage stamps. It it the the historic uh aspect of it was just too important to So I took it on myself to preserve it, and I talked to uh well, I talked to some some some rich friends of mine. I didn't have any money, I was fresh out of college and some rich friends in Houston, and we were gonna form a partnership and talked to the guy and he said, You better make up your mind, we got another buyer and all this kind of stuff. And well, make a long story short, I finally saw that it it were probably gonna not gonna work out long distance between Houston and Trlingua. So I confided in my father, who I had a lot of respect for, um, with his land dealings and everything. And um I told him, I said, you know, this is the situation, there's another buyer, and I gotta do something. Would you be interested, or what do you think I ought to do, or you know, whatever? And he looked at me, he told me exactly what I knew he was gonna say. He said, Boy, have you lost your mind? I expected that. But the next thing I didn't expect, he said, I've been trying to buy that piece of property myself. He was the other buyer.

unknown: 4:13

What?

SPEAKER_01: 4:14

Yep. So we were bidding against it.

SPEAKER_02: 4:19

That sounds like Rory and I in our like communication sometimes. I didn't know you were doing that.

SPEAKER_01: 4:26

Wow. So we we called up the owner who was who was a crusty old codger himself, and uh called him up, and he just died laughing. And he says, I was wondering how long it was gonna take y'all to figure this one out. And so he came down the next day and we drove around, and I at these two old seasoned land people, I thought I was gonna learn something. I sat in the back seat of my dad's car and they talked about everything except her lingua. Then we pulled up in front of the store, and and uh my dad said, What'll what'll you take for it? And he says, This is what I'll take. He says, This is what I'll give you, and it was a deal. That was it. That was the end of it.

SPEAKER_02: 5:10

There you go.

SPEAKER_01: 5:11

And my dad took out a pencil and they wrote the details on the hood of his car, and we drove that car into Alpine and to the attorney and said, We got a land deal for you to draw up. He said, Well, bring it in. Well, no, here it is. That's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_02: 5:30

You might want to come out to the parking lot.

SPEAKER_01: 5:34

So it that's the way things happen in Trilingua, and it hadn't changed much since then. So when you say he wrote it on his hood, he literally wrote it on the hood. Yeah. No, he he wrote that those two guys wrote all the details out on the hood of my dad's car. Drove it into town. That's so he had to come out and look at the hood.

SPEAKER_02: 5:56

So the attorney had to come to the parking lot.

SPEAKER_01: 5:58

Yeah, he had to come out outside to take notes. Oh my gosh. When when me and my dad ended up buying the town, it literally was a ghost town. There wasn't but maybe four or five people squatting there. And so over this past forty some odd years that I've been working on it, we've taken one building at a time and trying to preserve it, number one, and then to restore what we could, but also we wanted to keep it looking like a ghost town because that's what everybody remembers, and that's that's that's the you know, that's the character that it has. So the big challenge, uh especially like with the mansion, which was my my dream project, and I love historic restorations. And uh that was my dream project was to restore it and keep in mind that everyone remembers it as a ruin. It didn't have a roof, it didn't have floors, windows, doors, nothing. It never had plumbing or electricity, and of course, air conditioning wasn't even invented, I don't guess, when they built it. And it was built as a fortress, and it has solid rock walls that are two foot thick. So putting all this stuff together and keeping it historic was was a fun challenge, actually. But my whole goal was to maintain the outward appearance of a ruin or of a very old building that was headed towards ruined, but transform the inside of it into something that was very, very comfortable. So it was a mansion. It was never quite as luxurious as it is right now, but uh I sure got to have a lot of fun playing with it, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_02: 7:48

Well, we had fun staying there.

SPEAKER_00: 7:50

Yeah, I mean that sounds like a heck of a challenge to keep the exterior, the history ghost town looking thing, but make the inside, you know, luxury like it is.

SPEAKER_01: 8:00

You know, I I'm able to do it there. Couldn't do it in Houston, couldn't do it in other places, but it works. It works.

SPEAKER_00: 8:07

Right. So so okay, I'm wrapping my head around this. You're telling me that this town I visited of Trilingua, that has these restaurants and these homes and these places, that that whole thing was a ghost town before you guys started rebuilding it, other than the few squatters. And then over the past 40 years, all these people have moved in and begun these things that are now the enterprises and the life of Trlingua.

SPEAKER_01: 8:32

Oh well, yeah, that's exactly right. And it's it's it's been a been a challenge because when I bought it, I was fresh out of college. I didn't have any money, I still don't have any money.

SPEAKER_00: 8:42

So you spend it all. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 8:48

But but we but really and truly we found ways, and there were times when people would say, Well, we want to to buy one of these ruins, and I said, Nothing's for sale. But if you want to fix one up and live in it, and if you'll fix it the way we tell you to fix it, then we'll get you'll have free rent for a certain certain number of years. So that's how it started. And and it worked. It worked. And and it there was a lot of pride in keeping everything the way it's it was supposed to be. So that's how it worked. And and like I say, it's been 40 for over 40 years that I've been working on this project. And and now I have all three of my boys working in the ghost town, and they're helping, and I hope that they can they can uh continue as well.

SPEAKER_00: 9:35

Yeah, hopefully they they grab that passion and run with it, just like you did. You and your dad.

SPEAKER_01: 9:41

Yeah, they have well they hadn't they're running with it and they hadn't run away yet.

SPEAKER_00: 9:46

So uh we'll see how far they're just running around, running around the area, not running out of the area. That's good. That's good. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 9:56

Yeah, one of the things that it was so just hit me, it's like this is a ghost town, but it's an alive town. And like you just really feel the contrast of both going on there. You the duality have done such a great job of preserving the history, and you do see the ghost town when you know it also feels very much alive.

SPEAKER_00: 10:20

Yeah, oh, totally. Someone had told us that the Starlight Theater, which is part of the areas you guys redid, the the the store that's connected to it in the Starlight Theater, they were telling us the Starlight Theater didn't even have a roof originally.

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

No, the Starlight had no roof. In fact, I I got in trouble putting a roof on it. It was still a popular place to have dances and parties and stuff. Uh Jerry Jeff Walker uh performed in there without a roof. And so it was, you know, real popular with all of our few local residents. And so when I went to put a roof on it, they didn't like the the fact that I was changing it. And that was one of the arguments that my father and I got into about putting the roof back on, and I said, Well, it was this way, and he said, No, it needs to go back this way. And and that's when I found out he explained to me that back in the 40s when the mine shut down, he bought Trilingua in the in the 1940s for the salvage because it was after World War II and you couldn't get building materials. So he tore it apart back in the in the 40s, and so he he knew what kind of roof it went on, so I I lost that argument. But that that that was this this was a real important lesson that I learned. We were doing some pretty bold things, and like I say, the the locals nobody wants anything to change. They they still don't. And I don't care where you are, you don't want things to change. So the fact of putting a roof on, which we had to, or there wouldn't be a starlight theater now. It would be completely just melted down, it's an Adobe building. So we did it to preserve it. And everybody griped at me about that. But after we got the roof put on, the three people that griped the loudest were the first three to apply for a job. So that was an important lesson that I learned. If you know it's right, just do it. Don't be worried about what everybody thinks. If you know for sure that it's the right thing to do, then do it. And it's it's been a wonderful asset for the entire community and for visitors as well. It's not uncommon for us to have a two-hour wait list to get into the Starlight Theater to eat.

SPEAKER_02: 12:47

Right. Was that way when we were there?

SPEAKER_01: 12:49

Yeah, so there those times are exciting too, because there's you you you have people from all over the world that want to come in and eat and experience uh the Starlight Theater and the live music and the food and all of that. So though those are those are exciting times too. So it it it's it's twofold. I mean, it really it's twofold. It makes me very proud that the community will, you know, consider it an important part of the community. But then it makes me really happy that we have you know folks uh on a wait list to uh to eat in the restaurant and and experience. I've always said you don't you don't come to our place to sleep in a bed or eat a plate of food. We want those things to be an experience and a good one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 13:40

For sure.

SPEAKER_01: 13:41

So we can attest to that. Well, that would and well, I appreciate that because that's I mean, to me, uh you you can sleep anywhere. You can sleep in the back of your car if you want to, but you know, that's an experience that you may not go home and be real happy about. But we we we don't sell rooms and food, we sell, we sell experience.

SPEAKER_00: 14:03

Yeah. Well, I think I think part of that is because of the depth of community. When I go somewhere, you know, I like to visit, but I want to also somewhere like Trilingua, you want to feel like you're part of the community for that little time you're there. And the whole time we were there, I didn't get a s a single sense of, oh, uh, another tourist coming through, another, I can't wait till they leave so we can get back to who we are. You know what I mean? Uh in the starlight, having dinner there. You're there, you're a part of it. They're talking to you just like they did their friend down that you heard them greet by name.

SPEAKER_02: 14:35

Uh that they see every night. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:37

So I that sense of community that you guys share when people like us visit, uh, that's a big deal. And I think that is part of that uh what you were talking about. It was great for us.

SPEAKER_01: 14:49

It it is part of that trilinguous spirit that was born back in when there was just a handful of us living there. Uh we were just happy to see somebody to talk to other than ourselves.

SPEAKER_00: 15:00

So yeah, it's like, oh, someone knew.

SPEAKER_01: 15:05

No, please come sit down. That's right. That hasn't changed. But it it is, it's a very friendly place. But uh there's there's a lot of folks that that think we have too many, too many visitors, and um we had a had a town hall meeting to discuss that because since I'm I'm president of the uh the the Visit Big Bend or the Brewster County Tourism Council, we're promoting people to come to the Big Bend and and obviously in all of the communities that it holds, and so they get they get mad at us. We've got too many tourists, we've got too many people coming here. And uh so what do you mean? Well we we don't want any more, you know, we don't want them to come. And I I looked around the room, I said, there's only two of us in here that weren't a tourist when we started to live here because we grew up here. Every one of you that is griping, you came here as a tourist. So why would you want to deny someone the same experience that you had? And Berlin is a cool place. Big Ben's awesome. Yeah, there's a lot more a lot more a lot more people in Texas now than there was five years ago. And guess what? It doesn't matter if we're promoted or not, they're gonna find us because it's absolutely cool out here. It's it's a new place.

SPEAKER_02: 16:33

It is.

SPEAKER_00: 16:34

Yep, yeah, that's true. Everybody there came from somewhere else with the exception of you and the a few people. Yeah, yeah, very few of us. Yeah, well, speaking of which, chili cook-off. How in the world being way down where you are, I mean, to get traction on that and it become what it's become.

SPEAKER_02: 16:52

We just we drove by and there's this pavilion for chili cook-off. And I'm like, they have this whole giant space of property for a chili cook-off.

SPEAKER_00: 17:02

It's a thing.

unknown: 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:04

So tell us all about the chili cook-off, please.

SPEAKER_01: 17:06

All right. Well, the you know, uh the Trilingua is the birthplace of uh chili cook-offs. The very first chili cook-off that was held was right there on the front porch of of my store. And uh it was really just a kind of a two-fold thing. There was an author that was promoting a book, there was a landman that was promoting his land deal, and then uh there was a writer out of uh from the Dallas Morning News, and a group of really fun, interesting folks got together and decided to do something to promote all of the things that they were involved with, and have a darn good excuse to drink a lot of beer and in a remote place that nobody cared about. So yeah, and build community, all of that together. That's right. And so they did this, the first one, just kind of as an excuse to have a party. And that was so much fun, they decided to do it again. And then that grew into the World Championship Chili Cook-Off. And back in the 70s, it was a world championship, and they had people coming from all over the world to compete right there in the old ghost town. So the ghost town would would would turn into well, a mecca for chili heads. And um in and it's in its heyday when it was in the ghost town. There were thousands of people that would show up for that weekend just to to to party, and yeah, whether you could even find any chili to eat, it didn't make any difference. It was just an excuse to have a good time. And it was it was it was a lot of fun. It got a little too big for the ghost town, and so it it moved, and so it's no longer held in the ghost town. But there were sports park personalities and TV programs and just everything would show up for those cook-offs. And it it's still happening every year, over fifty years. Um they split up, and now each year, the first weekend in November, um the the World Championship Chile cook-offs are held and still in Trilingua. We're neutral, we're right in the middle. One of them's to the to the west of us, one of them's to the east. They're both a lot of fun. And uh and they'll they'll bring in a couple of couple of things, a couple of three thousand people for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 19:37

I think just missed that because we were in kind of mid-November when we went.

SPEAKER_01: 19:42

Yeah. Yeah, they they moved it over to the Villa de la Mina, another mine, and it was there for a couple of years, but it wasn't big enough, and so they they bought some property and and did their own thing.

SPEAKER_02: 19:54

And uh what is Dia Dia de los Muertos as far as at the Cemetery and speaking of like events.

SPEAKER_00: 20:03

Yeah, really cool cemetery there.

SPEAKER_01: 20:05

It is. The cemetery is very unique in the way that it the the the the graves are are built and the structures, you know, they you know, a lot of people don't realize it's almost solid rock there. If you start digging in Terlingua, you're not going to get very far because of the rocks. So they when they went to bury somebody, they'd dig as far as they could, and then they'd build up a tomb on top of that hole to to make it make it deeper, basically. And then so it ended ends up with all these little altars and and and things. So it's very unique in the way that the graves are built there. We found out a few years back that it's it's one of the most photographed landmarks in the state of Texas. We didn't realize that. Wow. So there's I I never drive by that there's not someone walking around taking pictures and and what have you. And over 25 years ago, well, over 30 years ago, I had this crazy idea to um celebrate or recognize Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead. Uh, because no one in our area they really didn't even know about it, even though we're on the border of Mexico and it's it's a it's a big uh part of the Mexican culture. So I gathered up a bunch of jars and had some candles, and my my pregnant wife at the time, uh she and I went to the ghost town and uh said, I just want to light some candles on the graves and just just for fun. I mean, just to do it. I mean, there's no ceremony or anything. And we did, um, and she thought I was crazy, but anyway, she went along with it. And you know, and in in the middle of that, when those winter storms came up, because it's uh Delas Wertos is always on November the second every year, and we still celebrate it on the same day. Well, in the middle of it, we we had a cold front blow in, and so the wind was blowing, and it just the temperature dropped about 25 degrees just immediately, and it was miserable, and we were down towards the end of the jars, any jars and candles anyway. Well, I ran out of matches, and my wife said, Good, let's go. And uh so I reached down to pick up one of the jars that I'd put on the ground, and I had some in my arms, and something fell out of one of the jars and onto the ground, and I looked down, it was a book of matches. I said, Well, looky there. Had no idea that that was in there. And I picked it up, and this is the God's honest truth. On that book of matches, it said, Your host thanks you. Wow. At that moment, I said, I'm gonna do this every year, and I have for over 30 years.

SPEAKER_00: 23:18

That's pretty awesome, and your host is still thanking you.

SPEAKER_01: 23:22

They are still thanking me, and and it is a blessing to to just be a part of it, and it's grown. We probably had three or four hundred people show up this last year, and and we we put out the the the goal is to place candles on the graves, and and ninety percent of the graves or more are unmarked. Nobody knows who's buried there. But you you pay tribute and respect that that life. Remember. You remember them, and they get remembered because that's the last last death that anybody ever experiences is when they're forgotten. So this year there was over 400 candles put out. And so, and and it's really it it you can't even describe it. It's it's really special. I show up with tamales and candles, and and it's turned into a potluck, and there'll be musicians there, and you know, for a couple of three hours, it and nothing is planned. There's no nothing. I show up with tamales and candles, and that's it. And it takes on a whole life of its own every year, and it's been fantastic.

SPEAKER_00: 24:37

Wow. Well, and I think I think that's because of what you said. The people feel like the community is theirs, and if they want to do something, they'll do it, and it's only because they have that buy-in and that belief that these kind of things just happen spontaneously because it's their community, and they feel that ownership and kinship with each other. That's really cool. Really cool.

SPEAKER_01: 24:59

You're you're exactly right. When you let the community make the decisions, it it really does do something good to your to your neighborhood or to your community. So the first thing I did was I I uh I said, we will have no politics here. There's not going to be a mayor or anything. And so our our honorary mayor was the the goat over there at Lajitas that I I uh that I campaigned and got him uh elected as the mayor of Lajitas. And so when he died, I had him stuffed, and now he's in the starlight. So he's the only mayor we're gonna have, not me.

SPEAKER_00: 25:41

That's awesome. So and you don't want to butt heads with that mayor.

SPEAKER_01: 25:45

No. That's right. That's right. That's right. You can't outdrink him either. So he's a weird. But uh horse is a mare. No, I learned when I was in Lajitas, which was a big development, I learned that if you want to sense a community, you have to let the people make the decisions, not some government agency and get them involved with everything that's going on so that they're a part of it. You know, we had a wedding one time in the church, and so we're running around helping them and everything. And this this guy he was kind of infatuated with me owning a town, and he kept asking me questions. And I told him the same thing. I said, Well, he said, So you're the mayor, and I said, No, sir. We don't allow politics here. We just don't allow politics.

SPEAKER_02: 26:39

You have to go ask the goat.

SPEAKER_01: 26:41

And that's right. And so he later that evening when we were having dinner, I found out he was the mayor of London. So I was like London, England. London, England. So I was sitting there telling them the mayor of London, England, we don't allow politics. I just hoping he took some of that home with him.

SPEAKER_00: 27:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 27:03

We haven't asked you yet about the restoration of the church, the St. Agnes Church. Tell us a little bit about rebuilding that and restoring that.

SPEAKER_01: 27:12

Well, when my dad and I bought the ghost town, that was our first project. The entire front wall, yeah, the entire front wall of the church had fallen out. And and so the roof was going to be next. I mean, it was already sagging, and without any support, it was about to just just implode. And so we took that on as our first project, and all we did was just we made adobies right there on the side, and we we uh put the dobies up and and supported the roof. And pretty much that's all we could do, like I say, we were just trying to preserve it in the beginning. And then little by little, the church is very special to me, and I I really don't claim to own the a church. I want the community to think that it's theirs. And I pay the taxes on it, but it to me it belongs to the community. And it's it's not a specific church, it's open to everybody, to all all faiths, or yeah, everybody, even without a faith, just it's a good place to just go and sit and meditate. So it was really important to me to to preserve it, and then over the years it has been restored almost entirely with volunteer help. I would supply the materials, and uh, we've had youth groups come out, and instead of going skiing during spring break, they came to Trlingua and they helped to um you know plaster the inside of the church and paint, what have you. We had had a men's retreat group come out, and then the the local community will will um get involved anytime something happens. So over the years it has transformed into basically a ruin that was almost scary to walk into a very simple but beautiful uh structure. And I'm proud to say that we we have mass there once a month, and then the Episcopal Church comes down and also does uh services there. And it's been used for you know weddings. It's becoming a very popular wedding venue. We've had it, you know, some funerals in there too. And uh and it's also a a place for appropriate uh community events or projects, the the local community choir, that's where they practice their singing. When they were doing yoga lessons, they did it in the church. There's been a number of music videos that have been filmed in there. So in fact, Brooks and Dunn filmed My Maria in the church, which was one of the songs that really brought them into fame. It was filmed. Yeah, their music video was filmed inside the church there.

SPEAKER_00: 30:02

Get out.

SPEAKER_02: 30:03

Okay, well now we have to go watch that.

SPEAKER_00: 30:05

Go watch that. That's a big piece of history right there. Like, wow. Commercial history.

SPEAKER_01: 30:12

Yeah, it is. And back back then, uh, you know, music videos were pretty new, and I I they or at least they told me that the um recording artists had to pay for it. You know, the they didn't have producers and what have you to pay for it. The recording artists had to pay for it out of their pockets, so we gave them a heck of a deal. I mean, I'd never heard of them. I mean, I didn't have TV. Yeah. I didn't know who they were. But we helped them out. We we helped them out by giving them a really good deal on the filming. And when they left, they painted the inside of the church for this this filming peptabismol pink. Oh, the whole and and I walked in and I I was I was like, what? It they didn't tell me they were gonna do this. So um I called them and said, now listen, we've got to repaint the church now. It can't be peptabismol pink. And so they sent us a little more money to cover the paint and all that, which was good. But when you when you when you watch that video, it's absolutely beautiful. I don't know. It doesn't come across as peptobismol pink, but anyway, it's right, magic of lighting and all of that.

SPEAKER_00: 31:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you said you guys are yeah, welcome to shoot a video. None of us can watch it because we don't have TVs, but uh, thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_01: 31:44

Exactly. And and I didn't see it for years, actually. And it's like, oh that that pink worked.

SPEAKER_02: 31:51

Yes. So what kind of traveler do you think connects best with this kind of place?

SPEAKER_01: 31:58

Ah, that's a that's a good question. The best traveler doesn't have a lot of expectations, I have discovered. And you're a lot easier to please, whether you're traveling or working or or living or loving or whatever, if you lower your expectations, it's a lot easier to be happy. Because if your expectations are too high, then they're that's all you do is try to meet those expectations and you don't absorb what what's really happening around you. So the best traveler out here is adventurous, they're curious, and the best ones have a good sense of humor, and they're tolerant. It may be hot, but they're you know, like I say, it's hot in Texas. You know, that we have the reputation of of the weather being hot, and and it does get hot. It's hot in in the Big Bend, it gets hot in Trlingua. And you know, a hundred over a hundred degrees is it kind of expected during the summertime. And we have that reputation, and anytime somebody says something, I say, Well, where are you from? And oh, they're from Austin, they're from Houston, they're from Dallas. I said, Does it get hot there? It does. It gets hot in Texas. Yeah. Along with that hot weather, well, hot temperatures we have, we don't have the humidity. And then you can drive less than an hour and be up in the mountains, and it's going to be 20 degrees cooler than anywhere else in Texas. So absolutely amazing. We have we have the best of both worlds out here with lower expectations and a willingness to adventure and try new things and accept a lot of different things that they may not be used to.

SPEAKER_00: 33:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 33:53

That's great.

SPEAKER_00: 33:53

Yeah, I think for us it's it's when we travel, we have expectation, of course. You can't help that. But to be able to lay down your expectation when you get where you are, when you see this is no nothing like I thought it was, instead of complaining and thinking about it's not meeting my expectations, completely shift your expectations to what is there and what you see and flow with it. And that's how you be a happy traveler.

SPEAKER_02: 34:16

Yeah, just expect to come as a sponge. I think that's kind of what you're trying to do.

SPEAKER_01: 34:22

No, no, you said you you said it. I mean, that's so that's the way it is. So, you know, folks that come out and they're they're asking, where's the where's the Walmart? Well, it's in Fort Stockton. It'll take you about take about two and a half hours to get there. What?

SPEAKER_00: 34:41

So you sure that's where you want to go?

SPEAKER_01: 34:43

Yeah. So so that that's that's those expectations to where if you think you're gonna run to the to to Walmart or to HEB or something like that, then it doesn't that doesn't happen out here. Amazon, Amazon's made it a lot easier to live uh in a remote place like this, but uh but still it's it's we don't have all the conveniences that you might find in the city that you really don't even think about.

SPEAKER_00: 35:12

Yeah, including hospital doctor stuff. I mean, that's something people may not always consider, but you guys gotta drive a ways.

SPEAKER_01: 35:19

Yes, we do, and it's just this past year we we have a a satellite clinic in the area, just this past year. Before that, we had to drive to Alpine uh uh to see a doctor or or the hospital or something. And so uh which is, you know, it's 85 miles at the closest. And so you you develop that that sense when I was growing up as a kid, because part of that road was a dirt road when I was a kid. And every time I left the house, the the last words out of my mom's mouth was don't get hurt. It's a hundred miles to the doctor. And she's being serious, she was serious, and the end result of that, I didn't get hurt bad. I got hurt from my bad. I didn't get hurt bad. Even if it did hurt bad, you weren't hurt bad. Not enough to go to the doctor. Nope. We just take care of ourselves.

SPEAKER_00: 36:22

So and you know what? Other people in uh Waco, they may have thought where we're living right now, they might have thought it was a reason to go to the doctor, but but not there in Turlingua. No, not for a hundred miles.

SPEAKER_01: 36:33

No, you you you it's gotta be serious, and uh yeah, but not too serious, you can't make an hour and a half drive. See, that's the thing.

SPEAKER_00: 36:43

Yeah, yeah. Well, it builds a different constitution in you guys. That's impressive, too.

SPEAKER_01: 36:47

That's right. So you just you you you you learn to adapt to your environment. I don't care where you are. Um so yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02: 36:57

Uh when you feel the town is most alive, what kind of things w what are some of the moments where you feel like this ghost town is extra alive?

SPEAKER_01: 37:08

Well, we just had the uh community Christmas weekend in the ghost town. Okay. And so that's when you know, we see folks in the community that we don't normally see, and they come, and you know, we have Santa Claus and and all kinds of things going on and cookies, and the kids are decorating cookies, and Santa Claus is there. And so anytime that there's something like that, that that the community is involved, to me, that's that's the most gratifying, I guess.

SPEAKER_02: 37:41

Yeah, such a great sense of community. And we're just if you are listening in real time, like when we release this, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas because this is Christmas week. And so we just want to wish you guys a Merry Christmas if you happen to be listening when we release this. And if you're listening in May, well then happy early Christmas or next one and plan your visit to be at the Christmas community gathering there for winter. The year you listen to this. So, anyway, thank you so much, Bill. We really, really appreciated talking to you and wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

SPEAKER_01: 38:22

That's right. Absolutely. And Christmas is one of my very favorite times of the year. So Merry Christmas to y'all, feliz Navidad from the border, and and absolutely a prosperous new year. I'm ready for it.

SPEAKER_00: 38:38

Thank you, brother. Me too.

SPEAKER_02: 38:42

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SPEAKER_00: 38:48

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SPEAKER_02: 38:50

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SPEAKER_00: 38:53

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SPEAKER_02: 39:04

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SPEAKER_00: 39:07

That's right, that's T H E.

SPEAKER_02: 39:09

R O A M. I E S dot com. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening.