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!!
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