Playing the Viva Terlingua Festival, Part 1

Last month we had the honor of playing the very first Viva Terlingua Festival. The festival consisted of three portions - music, film and photography, and it was hosted in the neighboring towns of Terlingua and Lajitas.

Terlingua, technically, is a ghost town in West Texas. But when we got selected to play as part of the music portion, we decided to conquer our fear of ghosts and participate. It was our first festival playing all-original music since our SXSW showcase a few years ago, so it was an exciting opportunity. And besides, you really can't let ghosts push you around.

So, off we went to West Texas! For those of you who don't really have a sense of how large the state of Texas is, Terlingua/Lajitas is about an eight-hour drive from Austin. What do you do in a van for eight hours? Well, if you're Johnny, you drive. If you're Joe, you do this:

And if you're me (Suzy), you do this:

I'm a big believer in binge-watching TV shows and movies when presented with a long expanse of time with nothing to do. That way, I don't have to try and remember what happened in the last episode, a week ago, or maybe even last season. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast - don't ask me to remember what happened months ago on a TV show.

And despite having an unnatural affinity for true-crime shows, I've never watched Dexter (yes, I know Dexter is not a documentary), partially because J hates horror/gore/murder-type shows. So, this drive gave me the perfect opportunity to throw on some headphones, angle the laptop screen at me and me only, and indulge in a little Emmy-winning blood spatter.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the views along the way, though. Here are a few shots from the drive:

Road food. I didn't buy one of these, but good God a "Butter Loaf Cake" sounds delicious.
It says a bimbo made it, though, and I don't give my money to bimbos.

We were scheduled to play in the Lajitas venue, The Thirsty Goat, on Friday night, so we drove up Thursday. We got there Thursday evening and went first to The Thirsty Goat and watched a set by Butch Hancock:

Then we headed to the Terlingua venue, the Starlight Theater, to watch the headliner for that night of the festival, Joe King Carrasco:

Clay Henry, the original beer-drinking goat and one-time mayor of Lajitas.
I'm serious. In the 1980s, the citizens of Lajitas elected Clay Henry as their mayor.
Only in Texas, my friends.

Joe King rocked it, but after the long drive, we were tired, so after a set, we called it a night. Luckily, we had lovely accommodations. As participants in the festival, we got a discount on a room at the Lajitas Golf & Spa Resort. Normally, rooms there run several hundred dollars per night. We paid considerably less, and got this great, cowboy-themed room:

Not sure why you need two ceramic room number signs,
but I suppose it's better to have too many than not enough.

And with that, I'll call this first installment done. I'll continue the story of our West Texas adventure in my next post!