When Bigfoot enthusiasts have lunch in East Texas, they still talk about football. But they also swap stories of sightings, compare notes on vocalizations and strange stenches and discuss primate anatomy. In fact, sometimes they're so busy eating up the conversation, their food goes untouched. Friday at Licea's Mexican Restaurant in Jefferson, Daryl Colyer's lunch got cold while he talked about Sasquatch. His wife, Dalinda, watched with fond amusement. "He gets so animated when he tells his stories," she said. Colyer is a field investigator with Dallas-based Texas Bigfoot Research Center. The center's fifth annual Texas Bigfoot Conference began Friday with a catered dinner and video presentation. The organizers and many of the speakers met up at Licea's before things got under way. The three-day conference has steadily grown since its inception, and this year Colyer said organizers are hoping for 450 attendees, up from 340 last year. The event has started to attract state and national media attention, with recent coverage by the Associated Press, CNN, Texas Monthly and Texas Highways, to name a few. "It's been good," said Craig Woolheater, TBRC director.

"We've gotten a lot of good activity to our Web site, and I think we'll get a lot of people here (at the conference) because of it." Jefferson, perched on the banks of Big Cypress Bayou and home to the legend of the Boggy Creek Monster, seems the ideal location. The city has welcomed the researchers with open arms. Today, Woolheater will be awarded a proclamation declaring the third weekend in October "Texas Bigfoot Weekend" in Jefferson. He'll also be given the key to the city. "We love Bigfoot!" said Juanita Chitwood, the city's director of tourism development. Her husband, Charlie, wore a pair of hairy rubber prosthetics over his sneakers Friday.

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