Next week I will travel to Sanderson Texas for the annual Falkfest art festival.  I think this may be the 12th year that we have gathered in this small west texas town to pay tribute to the late, possibly great artist, Walter Falk.  His one painting that I own was purchased at a discount because we were in a cantina in ole Mexico when I bought it. He said all things are cheaper in Mexico.  I am hopeful that it has increased in value since his untimely death.  Dorothy doesnt care much for the picture and it keeps getting put in different corners of our living room.  It has yet to appear in my bathroom but only time will tell.

Attendees of the festival come from all walks of life and from wide rangeing parts of the globe.  A couple from Sweden have attended for the last 5 years or so.  Many bartenders and waitresses from the Austin area are always there because one of the sponsors is a microbrewery from Austin.  They furnish the beer.  A number of residents of Sanderson always attend because there is free beer.

There is the annual cave party, where we gather to drink beer, eat oysters on the half shell and generally just hang around.  I have often wondered what some archeologist of the future is going to think about all the oyster shells in a cave in deep west Texas.  Our food usually ranges from bean dip, oysters rockefeller, summer sausage, chips, dips and beer.  When everyone is fully tanked, well what else to do but go skinny dipping in the Rio Grande.  I refrain from that part of the festivities because of my age.  Along about age 65 I got cold.  An old fat man standing naked on the banks of the Rio Grande, shivering, is something somebody would take a picture of and it would go viral in seconds. I couldnt stand the ridicule.  There are many other people who have very little self respect and relish the swim.  I tend the camp fire.  A camp fire is essential when standing out in the open, in February, is west Texas.

Sanderson is a town with only sporatic dining facilities.  Small cafes open and stay only until the person has spent their life savings and then they close.  The same building in town has been about 10 restaurants over the years and it is hit or miss if it will be open on any day that one is in town.  I will spend the next few days carefully planning a menu for my friend and I so that we will not have to depend on the local cafe or the local gas station for sustinence.  I will take my small gourmet tabletop burner, a skillet, maybe a pot for warming some porknbeans and set up a small kitchen in the parking lot of the tourist court that we are staying at.. Named “Desert Air” motel.  One of the rooms has pink tile in the bathroom.  And I do mean pink.  The shower is even pink.  A clean place but certainly dated.  One year the smoke alarm started cheeping around 3 am and beeped every thirty seconds until I got up and knocked it off the ceiling with the butt of my rifle.

I will report on my adventure week after next.  Possibly with some pictures.  I will take my camera this year as want to get a picture of the fellow who wears different colored tennis shoes.  His shoe wardrobe runs from pink to lime green to shoes with dollar bill signs printed all over the shoe.  Drunks are always fun to take a picture of.  Especially the ones who have passed out in the river bed amongst the cacti.

Chuy, the river rat