Terlingua International Chili Cookoff

[Arcticdude]

We stayed at the Maverick RV Ranch in Lajitas. It's just far enough away, that you don't have to see any of the cookoff, if you don't want to. There's only two places in Terlingua to stay and both are gravel parking lots with hookups. The dust will invade everything in the coach at either place. Maverick Ranch is paved and has concrete pads, so things will stay much cleaner. I never found the drive (~7-8 miles) to be an issue. The police presence is high, so be careful driving any where in the area. This is especially true starting Wednesday and ends Sunday during the cookoff.

The "Behind the Store" is the original cookoff, going on 48 years now. The other, CASI (chili appreciation society international) is down the road a little ways- closer to Lajitas. The original has the flavor of a small town festival that's grown a bunch, while CASI gets closer to a Sturgis feel. To give you an idea of the difference, there was one Sheriff's vehicle at the original on Saturday night and one came and only stayed about 15 minutes on Saturday night. CASI has numerous Sheriff's vehicles there from Friday thru early Sunday morning. Of course, it may be that the Sheriff's Dept likes the view!

Anyway, it's worth going to at least once. There are entrance fees to each cookoff. Big Bend is enjoyable to spend time in and is worth the trip. You can also walk into Mexico, if you desire. (The locals will try to get the dollars as much as they can.) Funny how there are signs all around stating that illegal border crossing is subject to a $5000 fine, yet the Mexicans come and go, doing so quite visibly with minimal intrusion by the border patrol.