West Texas Road Trip...

We decided to take a road trip to avoid the Lone Star Motorcycle Rally. Not that we have anything against motorcycles but the timing seemed right. So on Friday we headed west towards Terlingua and Big Bend National Park.

Our first stop - Fort Stockton. Made me REALLY appreciate G-ton. Managed to find a decent Mexican restaurant where Dave enjoyed a Corona-rita.

Next - Balmorhea State Park. The natural springs create a great swimming area and the water also attracts all kinds of birds and other wildlife. We really enjoyed our visit and give the park 2 BIG thumbs up.

On to Fort Davis. They have a great court house and the downtown area was nice as well. Also stopped at Stone Village Market. A great little store with all kinds of gourmet foods and the best apple fritter I've ever eaten. The chicken salad samich wasn't bad either.

Next up - Marfa. A cool artsy community in the middle of nowhere. The entire town seemed to have a sense of humor about their community.



Stopped in Alpine at the Murphy Street Raspa Company to meet up with a friend of Dave and Pris. Rachel and her daughter Shyanne. Then we drove to their ranch to to see the 19 horses Rachel took in as rescues. A really a cool experience.

On to Terlingua...
We stayed at Casa Terlingua, overlooking the Chisos Mountains. The view was spectacular with a great beer drinking front porch. We were also within walking distance of the Ghost Town and enjoyed some fantastic nightly entertainment at the Starlight.

Also - made it to La Kiva for open mike night, where Dave "blew" the house away with a stunning blues-harp performance. And on our last night in Terlingua we went to the High Sierra (in the Hotel El Dorado) for a performance by the Rocky Top Alien Breeding Experiment - featuring Jim, Anna and Pablo Menudo.

OK - it wasn't all about beer drinkin and hanging out. We also hiked and and saw lots of desert plants and breath-taking scenery - including an all day canoe trip down the Rio Grande. Here's just a few of over 200 pictures we took.

All in all it was a super-fantastic trip. We met some great folks and saw a very different side of the Lone Star State. At the end of the day we all agreed - there were more similarities than differences between Galveston and Terlingua.