Spring Break Road Trip, Day 5

Today was the day to head back to Denton. One of the wonderful perks about staying with friends is that they let you sleep in! But, eventually, we had to get up and get moving. I had noted several potential sight-seeing stops along the way back to Denton, but most of those got tabled due to our our late departure and the fact we were both ready to be home.

Our friends wanted to know where we wanted to eat before we left town and it wasn't hard to pick a place! We try to eat at the Hernandez Bakery every time we visit Abilene! (Not to be confused with the almost identically named Alfonso Hernandez Bakery) They have phenomenal burritos! (I got the chicharron and the guisada this time ... nomnomnom)


After hugs and well-wishes until next time, we headed northeast out of town. With a population of slightly over 2,000, you wouldn't think that Albany, TX would have an accredited art museum with a permanent collection featuring artists such as Renoir, Klee, Miro, and Picasso. The Old Jail Art Center is truly an amazing little museum to visit.


And, yes, the "jail" part is literal! Although there have been expansions, the original building was constructed in 1877 as the Shackelford Country Jail. It was reopened as a museum in 1980. I liked that some of the early features of the jail still exist! One of the current exhibitions was an installation by the artist Natasha Bowdoin.


I kept wanting to get closer and closer to her work! She takes layers and layers of finely cut and colored paper to create these incredibly organic and intricate designs.


We walked around and took a look at some of the other collections, including Asian and pre-Columbian art. The museum is completely free, but accepts donations. If you are ever traveling down I-20, I suggest a detour!


We also took a brief walk through the Shackelford Country Courthouse which was built in 1884. I adore old Texas Courthouses! I think the next travel book I need to buy is "The Courthouses of Texas: a Guide."


We left Albany and headed east on highway 180. (Although not before stopping at the Cupcake Queens food truck and getting a tasty treat to go) The countryside was starting to turn green after all of the recent rain. Beautiful!


I wanted to make one last detour, stopping in Strawn to visit the Ancient Art Soap Company. I love handcrafted soaps and I had just run out of my supply at home. Not only did I come away with lovely new soaps, I also purchased bath salts as well!


After Strawn, we headed back home to Denton and our cats (who were very pleased to have us back). Looking back at the last five days, I was very happy with our Spring Break Road Trip. I would certainly go back and re-visit our route, even spending extra time in some of the towns we passed through. I would especially love to visit McDonald Observatory again, just not at Spring Break!

I can't wait for another opportunity to travel around this awesome state. There is still so much more to see!

Spring Break Road Trip, Day 4

I wanted to make good time on the road this day. Our final destination was Abilene so we could spend the evening with old friends. I had one fun detour planned for Ft. Stockton, but this was to be mostly a day of driving, stopping only for gas and caffeine!


Before we left, we headed to one of the older neighborhoods of Alpine and were able to get a few photos of the beautiful Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. The church has been there since 1902, and the current building was built in 1942. The grotto was dedicated in 1949 as a "sign of their devotion and a hopeful prayer for the conversion of Russia."


Across the street from the church was a city park where I was able to get a picture with these charming fellows!


We then headed north out of town, following highway 67 to Fort Stockton. I wanted to take a quick stop to get a picture of the famous Paisano Pete, the "largest roadrunner in the world." (Or at least he was when he was constructed in 1980!)


The city also had a very nice visitor's center, which was an unexpected surprise. There were a series of metal cutouts depicting important moments in Fort Stockton's history.


As trains also featured heavily in Fort Stockton's history (as with many places in West Texas), there was also a train car from the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. (I can't hear that without wanting to sing the song from the Harvey Girls!)



We had only grabbed a bagel to eat at breakfast, so we decided to try the Sagebrush Cafe. It had the perfect mom & pop diner feel. I drank tons of cheap black coffee and had a very satisfying migas plate. About mid-way through our meal, an "old-timer," clearly a regular, wandered in and spent about five minutes on his cell phone yelling "can you hear me?" I was tempted to turn around and call out, "Yes! I can hear you!"


We left Fort Stockton and headed north, planning to hit Interstate 20 right outside of Odessa. The landscape had slowly been changing back to more familiar mesquite trees, scrub, and rolling hills. You could also tell that we were in oil country as there were a ton of pumpjacks everywhere!


Of course, it wasn't all oil. As we headed east and passed through Sweetwater, the horizon was full of huge wind turbine farms stretching out from both sides of the Interstate.


We arrived in Abilene in the late afternoon. We had a little time to kill before heading to our friends' home, so we explored a bit. Abilene has a ton of great public art, especially sculptures, all throughout the downtown area. I had seen some Dr. Seuss statues before, but from a distance, and decided that this would be a good time to get a closer look. These were my two favorites!


Here were some other interesting statues that I liked as well:


It's always lovely spending time with friends that you've known for a long time! Our friends invited us to try the The Mill, a new venue that had opened up recently.


While the renovated building can also be rented out for special events, we were fortunate to be into town for the special Thursday "Steak Night." We sat outside at a small table flanked by rows of grapevines. As the sun slowly set, strands of white lights gave the entire area a very magical feel.


We ate, drank, laughed, and listened to a young man singing and playing acoustic guitar until it grew dark. It was the perfect evening to wrap up our Spring Break Trip!!

Spring Break Road Trip, Day 3

Our route for day three took us west out of San Angelo on highway 87. We then jotted south to drive through Iraan for an amazing photo opportunity, turned west to skirt the edges of Fort Stockton, then south to through Marathon before we finally took highway 90 into Alpine.

I am very lucky to have a husband who likes to do the distance driving (as long as I do the in-town). It means that I can take lots of pictures on the road! As we headed out of San Angelo, I could really start to see a difference in the terrain. It was overcast, but the beauty of open wilderness was still breathtaking.


Why detour all the way to Iraan? (Pronounced Ira-Ann, named after the town's founders: Ira and Ann Yates) The answer:


You have to just let it sink in for a moment, don't you?!

The Alley Oop Museum and Fantasy Land Park is a must-see detour if you are in the area! Iraan was once home to V.T. Hamlin, the creator of the 1930s comic strip, "Alley Oop." The park has been around since 1965 and definitely has a nostalgic feel to it.


Unfortunately, we got there before the museum opened. However, the gates to the park were open and so we just wandered around taking pictures.


Don't we make quite the cave-couple?


Back on the road, we finally got a bit of sunshine and blue sky. Amazing!! I felt like I was in a scenic postcard:!


We stopped briefly in Marathon right around noon. I had read in one of my travel books that there was a fabulous place to eat fried pies in Marathon, but the restaurant wasn't open when we got there. (I've since seen some postings that the place is closed for good. Sadness!) However, it was nice to stretch our legs for a moment and look around. Marathon is home to the Gage Hotel, a beautiful building built back in 1927.


From Marathon, we headed straight to Alpine and our lodgings for the night: the incredibly lovely Maverick Inn! I chose the Maverick Inn because it had a cute old-fashioned Southwestern motel vibe. (I also loved their motto: "A Roadhouse for Wanderers")


As nerds, we also appreciated our room number!


We asked the clerk for a good place for lunch and she recommended La Casita, which another friend had also mentioned. The restaurant was truly in a "little house" in a residential neighborhood, and we ate some great Mexican food. Afterwards, we headed out of town to visit Marfa. Again, we had a beautiful drive!


Downtown Marfa had some very gorgeous old buildings, most notably the Hotel Paisano and the Presidio County Courthouse. First open to the public in 1930, the Hotel Paisano is probably best known for hosting Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and the cast and crew of the film Giant back in the mid-50s. The bottom floor of the hotel had a small gift shop and gallery which we perused.


I love Texas courthouses! This one was built in 1886. If you stood in the center of the building, you could look up three stories.


We decided to take the elevator up to the top, then walk down the stairs. This seemed like a good idea, but the elevator made us a little nervous! Once up on the third floor, my husband refused to get anywhere near the railing (heights are not his thing)!


I was surprised at how few businesses or stores we saw open in Marfa. Perhaps we were never quite in the right location, but the downtown seemed deserted. I did get some photos of historic-looking buildings, some of which seemed just this side of run-down.

We also visited the Marfa Book Company, which had a tiny gallery attached. The focus was primarily on art books, which didn't come as a surprise as Marfa has a big artist community. We decided to head back to Alpine, and on the way out we saw this vehicle and trailer!


Midway between Marfa and Alpine is the viewing area for the famous Marfa Lights! No one knows what causes the "ghost lights," but there are many theories!! I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to come back at sunset because of other plans, so we stopped for a few pictures.


Downtown Alpine was really cute! There were a lot of tiny shops and great murals all over town. Unfortunately, we didn't get to visit nearly as many as I would have liked because all of the stores started to close.


We decided to have dinner at the very lovely Reata Steakhouse. I had an amazing fried poblano chile relleno that sat upon a bed of corn chowder. Mmmm!!


After dinner, we headed north out of town to attend the McDonald Observatory's night-time Star Party. My husband had visited the observatory many, many years ago, but during a day field-trip. I was very excited about seeing the stars! The Observatory sits in the Davis Mountain, which get up to a respectable 8,000+ feet above sea level. As we approached Ft. Davis, the view at sunset was stunning!


My husband was not impressed with the twisty-turny roads we had to climb the closer we got to the Observatory ... especially as he was driving into the setting sun. However, we finally arrived at our destination. There were a LOT of people. Spring Break is always a particularly busy time. In addition, the Star Party from the previous night had been canceled due to clouds/weather, so there were a bunch of additional people who had come back to get another chance to see the stars. There was talk of record attendance. Yikes!


As the sun sank lower and lower into the horizon, we all moved to sit in a huge outdoor seating area to watch and wait for full darkness.


I have never seen the nighttime sky like I saw it that night. It was beautiful and breathtaking. You forget how many of the stars we never see ... or see only faintly ... because of all of the artificial light around us. We also got to look through one of the really big telescopes at the planet Venus. I would go back to West Texas just for another chance to experience truly seeing the stars. (Especially if it's not at Spring Break!)

Eventually, we headed back to Alpine to try and get some sleep before the next day. We had another long drive ahead of us!