So, it's June 2015 and we'd been home for maybe a month,
and that means... it's time to go somewhere! We've long talked about
seeing Texas' Big Bend National Park, but since it's not "on the way"
to anywhere else, we'd never made that trip. Until Now!
We left after church on Sunday, and on our way west, I fulfilled another dream,
and that was for chicken fried steak at Mary's Cafe in Strawn Texas.
This is after I cut our medium steak in half, to share with Linda.
Do I look like I'll miss that other half?
Next day we make it to Big Bend.
The outer reaches of Big Bend can be rather desert-like.
But other stretches are green, as you approach the mountains. Check out the
dark boulders stacked on top of each other, with the mountains in back.
And just to show I'm a good sport, here I go trying to
get a selfie of me with this Dr. Seuss plant, not realizing
I had switched "on" the camera's video function.
Oh well, anything for my audience!
The center of the Chisos mountains create a "ring" and inside this ring
is an elevated basin that provides it's own separate biosphere.
Because it's higher than the surrounding land, the temperature in the basin
stays 20 degrees cooler than the lowlands, and the mountains seem to trap
the moist air masses, causing much more rain inside the basin than outside!
Not like anywhere else in Texas!
It means the basin area is lush and green, in the middle of a desert!
Look closely. Those rock "fingers" over there are jutting up
out of the ground like stalagmites, only they're not in a cave!
Now that's a bird of prey!
Just after we left the National Park grounds we passed this
little neighborhood, and we couldn't figure out the pastel colors...
until we saw this sign. Then it all made sense.
In case you can't read the sign, here we are at Terlingua, Texas,
home of the annual chili cook-off!
And if they ain't cookin chili, they ain't doin' anything!
I bet this place is rockin' at least one weekend a year!
I think this yard art is shared by the entire town.
That school bus is home to a family of four,
and that other yellow bus is the mother-in-law house.
We opted to pass on the El Dorado hotel, and headed on.
A shady little roadside rest stop.
Now we're back along the border. More of those wacky balancing rocks,
then the Rio Grande, and those mountains are in Mexico.
From Big Bend, we head north, to Marfa Texas!
It's a lovely little town of about 2100 people,
but they've got something for everyone!
If you're into chasing UFOs...
Fashion seekers... yeah, it's Prada.
And Marfa is where they filmed the classic western, Giant
starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and the youngster, James Dean!
And while the cast was here, they stayed at the Hotel Paisano.
It's nearly a hundred years old now, but still the nicest place in town!
And you know us, if there's a story, we gotta be there!
The rooms (and all the hotel) are maintained just as they were back in the day!
The lobby and first floor shops are done in a southwestern style.
The patio provides an outdoor seating option for the hotel restaurant.
The swimming pool...
Just off the main lobby, there's a comfortable lounge complete with
fireplace (for colder weather) and over in that corner, a piano!
Overlooking the pool is a cozy reading room, with small step-out balconies.
After scoping out the hotel, we head back out, to explore Marfa
a little more. The hotel is just next to the courthouse on the town square,
and straight across the street from the Palace theater
A couple of blocks away, we find this car body, over a shallow pool of water.
Linda, doing her "Spencer" look. Say what??
Exploring makes us thirsty, so we stop at the Lost Horse Saloon.
Inside they sell T shirts and coffee cups with this cowboy's face on 'em.
But it's cool, because he's the actual owner of the joint, and he wears
that hat and mustache and eye patch to work here every day!
The barmaid at the Lost Horse recommends
Mando's for dinner, so we head over.
We heard Mando's Royal Burger made Texas Monthly's
Top Ten Bucket list burgers, so naturally, I man-up.
The waitress described it as a three level burger, like a Big Mac,
only with full size patties, and buns, and with Mando's homemade
chili sauce, then dressed up like church on Sunday!
It's getting dark now, so we head out of town to the observation deck,
which was built just for night light gazing. It seems like every night,
dozens of folks collect out here to try to catch a glimpse of an "illegal alien"!
Aah, that's better...
UFOs? Ancient astronauts? Spaceships?Maybe, maybe not. We just. don't. know.
 |
| We just don't know |
But after about an hour and a half, we decided to head home.
The hotel's patio by night: now those are cool lights in the sky!
Next morning we take our coffee and tea in the hotel lobby
We could get used to this...
...but it's time to start back. And ain't I glad I live in TEXAS!
Since our route takes us close to Comfort, Texas, we gotta
stop at this shop where Linda always finds some cool items,
and new stuff for her Fairy Garden!
This is one way a Master Gardener gets ideas...
Then, it's on to Fredericksburg, where we stop
at the old school Peach Tree Inn.
Next day we visit a seed farm, where they have a working butterfly garden!
We gotta get some of this stuff
At lunchtime, we hit Cranky Frank's for some tasty BBQ.
But it was weird, nobody there was the least bit cranky!?
As we leave Fredericksburg, we visit another Plant Ranch,
and enjoy more of Texas' natural beauty!
Such a fun trip! Now, where to next...?