There is a remote wilderness nestled within the ancient tortured mountains of West Texas just north of the Rio Grande where tens of thousands of people travel to from all over Texas (and the world) in early February every year.

2009 CASI Terlingua International Chili Championship Photo Expedition

I will start by giving you a link to the photo albums in the Gallery for each day of my trip to Terlingua, Texas. (You can come back to it if needed)

I normally like to shoot photos while traveling to and from a destination, but this 1,000+ mile round trip from Amarillo began with a personal visit to an old friend who lives in Earth, TX. I won't bore you with all the details but i just didn't take any photos during that segment of the trip. The next day was a long haul to Alpine, TX and I had gotten a late start from Earth.

I was sure I would travel much of the same route back home so I took note of some of the sights I wanted to shoot on the way back if possible. I had to make good time in order to meet up with a Twitter contact in Alpine.

It had just gotten dark dark a few miles before I arrived in Alpine. I was entertaining myself singing some old favorites and apparently not watching my speedometer quite often enough when the car approaching suddenly lit up like a wedding reception DJ light show. I pulled over and patiently waited for the inevitable addition to my travel expenses.

Texas DPS officer J. Valenzuela turned out to be well rehearsed in "pulling people over in the dark" procedures and yet he was courteous. He said he had pulled me over for exceeding the speed limit which had just officially turned from 70mph to the night driving limit of 65mph. To my great relief, he issued me a warning. Just as we were finishing up (and I was restraining myself from giving him a big ol' hug) I pointed over his left shoulder and exclaimed, "Wow! Look at that!"

Officer Valenzuela whipped around with hand on weapon to confront a huge near-full and almost red Hunter's Moon just starting to peek over the saw toothed mountain horizon. He had already found out I am a photographer so he must not have been surprised when I darted to my car to get my camera. He waited patiently in his patrol car while I attempted to snap four photos using my car as a brace. That didn't work out at all. They were all so blurry from the vibrating top of my car that I didn't even upload them. Those were my only photos for the day.