When traveling from Monahans, TX to Coyanosa, TX on highway 1776, you drive upon a rocky outcropping that suddenly drops off into a wide sweeping plain. At the bottom of the outcropping is a dry gulch. That dry gulch is the Pecos River!
As far as the eye can see, the horizon is a blue line of mountains.
I've pulled off at the top of the outcropping and pondered, "If I crossed several hundred miles of this God forsaken landscape on foot or horseback when I came upon this view? What would be behind me that I would push further into this great unknown?"
It's hot!
It's hostile! Not only the snakes, bears, cats and javelina, but the cactus, thorns, stickers and needles. Not to mention the lack of water and rocks that cut like glass.
The devil we're told, in hell was chained,
And a thousand years, he there remained.
He never complained, nor did he groan.
But was determined to start a hell of his own.
Where he could torment the souls of men
Without being chained in a prison pen.
So he asked the Lord if he had on hand,
Anything left when he made the land.
The Lord said, "Yes, there was plenty on hand,
But I left it down by the Rio Grande.
The fact is, ol' boy, the stuff is so poor
I don't think it can be used as a hell anymore!"
So the devil went down to look at the truck,
And said if it came as a deal he was stuck.
So the deal was closed and the deed was given
And the Lord went back to his home in Heaven!
Last edited by MartinStrummer; 03/21/23.
