MARFA, TEXAS Part 3.

Marfa is the home of the Chinati Foundation started in 1979 (by Donald Judd) with initial assistance by the Dia Art Foundation of New York City. It is on 340 acres that used to be Fort D. A. Russell. It is very minimalist ....a contemporary art museum established to preserve and present permanent large scale installations. The emphasis being on art and surrounding landscapes...showing how they are inextricably linked.
It's not my cup of tea art-wise...but interesting just the same.
The town has dozens of upscale, quality art galleries. So...I'd say that Marfa is more "cosmo" in ambiance than nearby Alpine.
People from all over the world...especially New York come to Marfa to visit or live.
1. This old laundromat has been turned into the Marfa Vacation Rentals. Each apartment has a different colored door. They are 2 bedroom and 1 bath with a kitchen and are located in a great central part of town. The pictures I saw online of the inside are really nice.
2. Nice Bike!
3. Street scene.
4. Get it and go!
5. Liberty Hall. They have music and theatre presentations here. It likes kind of like an old fire station...or something.
6. Hardware store...gimmee that wagon wheel for my backyard!
7. Someone needs to save this old house!
8. Old jail entrance.
9. Old jail...it now houses the county extension offices.
10. A fence made from ocotillo cactus limbs....very cool...very thorny.
11. I love old adobe buildings.
12. Another old adobe.

MARFA, TEXAS Part 2.

1. G. & G. lounging in front of Marfa's excellent bookstore. I'm going to start a collection of these 2 boys lounging together all over...so far I have them in Cozumel and in front of the Ft. Davis Old Fort Country store. They do it well don't you think?
These other pictures are of the Hotel Paisano in Marfa. Jamey and I went there last summer and stayed one night in a lovely room with a huge balcony that overlooked the courtyard. It was built in 1930 and for the first 40 years was primarily used by ranchers who bought and sold cattle with each other in the hotel lobby. In 1955 the cast and crew of the movie "GIANT" (starring Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean) stayed there. It closed in 1970 and reopened in 2004 with 33 lovely rooms and suites.
2. Hotel entrance.
3. Hotel lobby.
4. Hotel sitting room fireplace.
5. G. & G. checking out the GIANT memorabilia room.

MARFA, TEXAS Part 1.

George, Gene, Jamey and I went to Marfa today. It was a pretty drive and took about 2 hours. The cottonwood trees were brilliant yellow around Balmorhea. On the way, George took us to this place just outside of Ft. Davis. He just calls it "the rock pile". It's a bunch of granite rocks. We saw these freaky black grasshoppers with red wings...they made funny noises...they were pretty entertaining.
1. The place had nice picnic tables under shady oak trees.
2. Nice view huh? The rock pile is a few miles down the road on the way from Ft. Davis to Valentine.
3. Picnic anyone?
4. Some of the rocks are pressing right up against the trees...as if they tumbled down the hill...which they probably did.
5. Rocks.
6. Gene with a big one.
7. More rocks.
8. This is a great sign. "BY THEIR COURAGE-THE WEST WAS MADE!" I googled the stagecoach driver's names and found nothing on Mr. Waldy or August Frensell. But John M. Dean (1852-1909) was a lawyer who drove a stagecoach for 3 months (from Ft. Davis to Van Horn Wells) because he couldn't afford to open a practice yet. He later became a Presidio County attorney and land speculator. He was also a district attorney and later a state senator. We don't know if this rock pile was a stagecoach stop or just a landmark so they knew where they were going or where the hell they were.
9. Jamey checking things out.

TROPICAL CATS.

1 A.M.....CRASH!!

My ceramic hand painted cat that Jamey bought us in Ajijic Mexico!!!
I almost cried.
And Gene's "bronzed" baby shoes!
Are the ghosts restless?

GUADALUPE NATIONAL PARK. Part 3.

1. It's a stick...looks like an animal skin....or a snake.
2. The Pratt Lodge kitchen. I don't know why I didn't get pictures of the fireplace and bedroom.
3. Gene exiting the Pratt Lodge. It's a rock house that was built in 1930 and used as a vacation place for the Pratt Family. They lived in Houston and he was an oil man. They lived there full time later in 1945 for a few years. Mr. Pratt donated about 5,000 acres to the park about 1960.
4. Entrance to the lodge. This was where we had a nice picnic. You can hike farther into the canyon...but we didn't.
5. Pratt Lodge.
6. This is a picnic table outside the lodge. It's a whole piece of rock.
7. Check out the roof.
8. More trudging along.

GUADALUPE NATIONAL PARK. Part 2.

1. Crossing the stream...what the hell am I looking at?
2. A pretty tree...we got to the park after postponing the trip for the past 2 weekends. The colors were still great. There were alot of people there but everyone was spread out o.k. so it didn't seem so crowded. To see the colorful trees you have to hike into McKittrick Canyon...it's the only way to see 'em.
3. This is what the trail looked like. We hiked 4.8 miles....round trip. No paved areas, nothing but rocks and roots so you had to always watch the ground and then stop to look at the views. No restrooms...and no water. It was hard but the last quarter mile was REALLY rough....at least for me...I was pretty pooped by then. I even saw and heard some "in shape" younger folks complaining. We had to cross 2 streams on stepping stones and that was kinda fun.
4., 5., 6., 7. More pretty trees.
8. A ridge against a very blue sky.
9. Gene at the beginning of our trek. The weather was fine...not too hot.
10. & 11. Mary and Gene ready to trek and trekking.

GUADALUPE NATIONAL PARK. Part 1.

This land is beautiful...yet not fit for man nor beast. Extremely barren. Cool to visit but why would folks GO there 100 years ago...or choose to LIVE there?
We left Pecos at 8 a.m. and got home at 4 p.m.
It took 2 hours to drive there.
1. El Capitan...the highest point in Texas. 8,085 feet. This mountain is part of the park but not near where we went.