Thread of West Texas/Southern New Mexico & Arizona/CaliMex Border Adventures

Spouse and I both put in time in East Texas; I've traveled around the bordering regions of Las Vegas/Four Corners and also did a Galveston to Big Bend adventure over a decade ago.

Heading from Houston to Tecate in early April. Plan to do an overnight in Uvalde, then have booked three nights in Alpine (aka "the new Marfa"), TX.

Made reservations for the Daytime, Twilight, and Star Party programs at McDonald Observatory (caek, any protips for our visit? Any astronomer buddies we can ply with beer for VIP tours? We are both science [albeit computer/microbiology] dorks).

After West Texas comes a couple of days in the Tuscon area (Abbott???). Definitely going to see the Sonora Desert Museum and the Titan Missile Museum.

ILXors are a well-traveled bunch. Protips, please, for our journeys in this region.

Don't make me call gabbnebb.

I went to Tucson. Loved it.

firstly, when exactly are you there? i am actually observing myself from april 6-10 or something, and i'll be in marfa until the weekend.

in alpine:

- baseball at kokernot field (coolest team logo in the West Texas/Southern New Mexico & Arizona/CaliMex Border region

- eat at la casita, great restaurant

- i've never stayed there overnight, so i don't really know the nightlife seen

seen = scene

other towns in the west texas/davis mtns area: fort davis is cute and has a RATTLESNAKE MUSEUM. valentine is basically the saddest town on earth, i don't recommend it, but you'll probably go through it on the way toward the I-10. in which case, be sure to keep an eye out for this thing

presidio is a long drive (60ish miles south of marfa), but it's on the border with mexico. if you have some spanish and you're feeling fruity then ojinaga is right over the border. i would ask around in marfa about the current situation there before you go over there. the editor of their local paper was murdered a couple of weeks ago.

but also right down there are the chinati hot springs, which are just about the best place on earth.

marfa is pretty much walkable.

there is art.

there is (really good!) food: http://msaxonphoto.com/marfa1.html

there are 3.5 nice bars!

there is my favourite book shop in the world.

i can't wait to be back there!

if we're in town at the same time then i'll be happy to show you around/introduce you to some cool people. or if we're not, then http://www.marfalist.org/phpbb/index.php is the current events clearing house.

the other major tourist destinations in the local area (in the west texas sense of the word "local") are:

- http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/balmorhea incredible new deal era public works outdoor pool

- carlsbad caverns, which are just over the NM border north of I-10

We will be there April 1-2-3, at McDonald on 4/2. Barely missing you! But have to cross the border and get our asses to La Ventana (southern Baja) on April 7, with a couple of days in Tuscon because I am obsessed with cacti and nuclear bombs so must visit them :(

I will go everywhere you tell me and annoyingly liveblog here, however :)

http://arizona.sierraclub.org/trail_guide/hike15.htm

curses! i actually arrive at the mcdonald on april 5, probably mid-afternoon. can you stick around?

new in alpine: big bend brewing co. they have license awkwardness, so i don't think they can sell in bars/retail yet, but i think they are accepting visitors.

lies. their licensing difficulties are over. you can buy it in bars.

Lemme see if I can jiggle the schedule. Definitely need to be in Yuma on the 7th so we can cross at Tecate early on the 8th. So we could maybe be in Marfa/Alpine on the 6th for West Texas ILX FAP? Then leave for Yuma on the 7th and postpone Tuscon for when we have to jump the border after 6 months to renew tourist visas. Let's make it work!

And by FAP I mean "show us the secrets of the universe with your secret McDonald telescopes" obv.

http://elcosmico.com/

you should spend a night in Marfa here - friends spent their engagement weekend in one of the RVs and came back talking about how great it was

Would love to spend the night in a trailer/RV/teepee, but we are traveling with two cats, which makes accommodations a bit more restrictive!

yeah that would be rad! i'd love to show you guys around.

if you really like/are stuck with the schedule you already have then i will ask around today to see if someone else can give you a VIP tour on the 2nd.

just spoke to the guy who will be observing on the 2nd, who is a friend of mine actually, and he'd be happy to show you around the telescope, let you hang out on the catwalk in the deep, deep dark, and talk to you a bit more after the star party that night.

like i say, if you can move things around, would love to show you around during my time. and he's going to have two students with him, so he might be a bit busy for the first couple of hours of the night. but this is an option!

no need to decide right now.

el cosmico is cool. keep an eye on marfalist to see if they have events on. there are often free shows/parties etc. there. marfalist is good (getting better) for alpine stuff too.

I rejiggered!!! Will arrive in Alpine on the 4th, do the official McDonald programs on the 5th, and will drink ALL THE BEERS with a caek on the 6th I hope? The mr. (former NYC resident who may have some pro tips) is über excited about meeting an actual DR. OF SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE! (me too of course)

great!

if you can do the mcdonald stuff on the 6th then that would be even better (i'm essentially free on the 5th), but i guess you're a little pushed for time, so ...

i'll show you the scope on the 5th, and then we can get lunch/go for a beer or two on the afternoon of the 6th? unfortunately i have to be at the telescope on the night of the 6th (and no beers allowed in the dome [*])

[*] this right here is agin the rules

http://i.minus.com/ibkUzwwfXddABJ.jpg

Looks like a Dos Equis, yes? I'm a Negra Modela woman myself. So excited to meet you and learn about your research! I will web mail you with cell phone numbers and such.

Meanwhile, more West TX-AZ-NM talk welcome here.

yeah!

Saguaro Nat. Park Tucson

http://www.examiner.com/article/plan-a-day-trip-from-tucson-to-tour-frank-lloyd-wright-s-creations

quincie did you get my email about this?

I did not, 'cause my ILX webmail goes to a long-abandoned account! I'll shoot you my gmail address right now :)

What did you especially like there? What do you recommend?

Haven't been yet! Will liveblog with a caek.

got it!

x-post-- Oops, duh.

Nah, not duh. It seems like we've been in East Texas (Houston) for forever. High time to get a move-on.

p.s. the only restaurant between marfa/ft davis/mcd and el paso is chuy's in van horn, which is john madden approved and pretty good.

i already mentioned this, but la casita in alpine = a+ local greasy spoon lunch place

p.p.s. unfortunately you're going to miss the start of the baseball season (their stadium is beautiful), but keep an eye out for an alpine cowboys baseball cap, they are sweet

Trinity Site over in White Sands is open to the public on the weekend of April 6th, in case that interests you.

actually only on April 6th, looks like

oh man, 60 minutes in marfa. did anyone just see that?

"The Capital of Quirkiness"

fucking hell...

OTOH, I'm going to be out in that area (on my way back from Austin Psych Fest) in a couple weeks.

marfa is great, and the "look at these assholes" attitude of a show that asked the white people they interviewed "what do the latinos think about the art?" can basically be dismissed

Hello from Marfa

It's spooky running into that fake Prada store on US-90 at night.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8391/8680284850_1afaba5526.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8406/8679181089_646191837c.jpg

Have fun! Let me know if you need any tips.

Marfa is great, and so is Alpine (the new Marfa)! Incredible chicken fried steak at Reata and great hot dogs at the Cow Dog truck. Great places to have a drink by the railroad tracks on Holland.

Alpine rules! I ate lunch at the Cow Dog truck today. I heart the little record store in town w/the Screamadelica door.

oh boy

http://bigbendnow.com/2013/05/move-over-prada-marfa-playboy-plans-outdoor-sculpture/

oh my god how have i never seen this thread

so homesick <333333333333333333333333333333333333

are you from west texas hoos?

no, central texas, but my last two years there on my weird service industry schedule i took so many idle drives through west tx and nm. you don't get sky here--anywhere really--like you do out there.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/07/america-in-the-1970s-the-southwest/100558/

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/documerica072313/s_d16_15039521.jpg

Elvis T to thread! Good find, caek.

One mislabelling - "Traffic on the Hollywood Freeway near Ventura Beach, California, May 1972." Not near any beach, much less one in Ventura. I'm not even sure there is a beach named Ventura Beach.

Great find indeed! We took a lot of road trips back then (brother went to Tucson, sister to Ft. Collins) and it's instant flashback...

Marfa and Alpine are calling me, been calling me for about eight years. Haven't been to Marfa since the 70's and last time in Alpine was the 80's. Wanted to take the train from Del Rio there alone or with friends but that never seems to happen.

Love highway 90, it is like a southern Route 66.

I went to Marfa (and alpine and ft. davis and mcdonald observatory and balmorea and big bend and terlingua) last week. I'll post a slideshow hopefully this weekend.

oh rad did you go to the pool at balmorhea? is it open at the moment?

Dream trip, Dan!

I've never been with anyone who is really amped about doing that trip, hitting all those places. My girlfriends really seem to want too but it's been years and we've never been able to get it together, plan for it seriously. Almost did it alone in the spring of 2011.

got some financial help as an engagement gift to make it happen.

The pool was open and was great. We went on thur afternoon. Later in the week we were talking to hipster art-school Judd tour guide who had also been there and she said to avoid weekends due to crowds. Thur was full but not packed.

Mcdonald Star Party may have been the best part of the trip!

The weather the entire time was beautiful, while New York was in the grips of a brutal heat wave. So take that naysayers who thought we were crazy going to Texas in mid July.

i'm back at the end of next month. stoked.

ha i probably know your judd guide

Jealous

sorry for the cross=post, but as mentioned on the "ask dan selzer" thread:

http://www.danplusnicole.com/travel/

"I kind of feel that we totally didn't cover it well enough and this is just a pleasant post with some ok pictures. We didn't want to get too catty about things, but we cover some of the options. Check it out and I'll expand on it later here, with more specific thoughts/advice."

cool post! you basically hit everything. so glad you had fun at the mcdonald!

i've been caught out by the opening hours lots of times. it takes planning! that link i posted upthread to opening hours seems to be dead now, but this is the new one: http://eatoutwesttexas.com/hours.

do you want to post that link to the blog? I can add it myself, but I'm curious how commenting works on squarespace! If you don't do I'll just do it.

i was in new york in july. urgh. not making that mistake again. already planning to spend much of next summer there. hoping to give a series of talks at the book store, maybe some stuff on the radio. if anyone is going to be there next summer (or at new year) then let me know.

xp posted!

also dan i live in nyc now so we should get a beer and talk west texas some time!

thanks and thanks. I saw Laurel at a bday party recently and she mentioned you being here.

i am here. nye in marfa was rad.

A winner is you! Post photos if you can.

took no marfa pics this time! but some mountain pics

http://distilleryimage7.s3.amazonaws.com/2d82145874da11e38ccb1274fdecaae3_8.jpg
http://distilleryimage11.s3.amazonaws.com/306d011a763211e3b73b0e966963122f_8.jpg
http://distilleryimage6.s3.amazonaws.com/46daef80762711e3b6c912d0454589fa_8.jpg

wow, that last one is gorgeous!

Oh wow that is soooooo beautiful! Which telescope are you using? I hope the HJS aka "my" telescope :)

Cool blog on super-ancient Western American history: http://westerndigs.org

yes that is the hjs, xp!

Forgot to come back and mention what a fantastic time we had in Marfa and environs back in October. Thank you, caek and dan, for the good advices. It was the most relaxed I've ever felt on vacation. AMD made a nice post about it, and she included a few of my pix too.
http://fear_ants.blogspot.com/2013/12/see-mystery-lights.html

"LAME gallery" is my favourite graffiti of all time

we laughed pretty good at that

The pizza place right beside there got high praise from folks, but always seemed to be closed. Next time.

it's good, but i haven't seen it open for maybe 18 months

Prada Marfa vandalized again: http://bigbendnow.com/2014/03/guerilla-artist-stirs-it-up-with-prada-marfa-vandalism/

yeah the dude was arrested in omaha or something last week i think

ok waco

http://marfapublicradio.org/blog/editor-of-glasstire-talks-about-breaking-news-in-the-art-world/

I'm driving out to Austin Psych Fest next week and am figuring out where I need to fill in the map. Last time I went out through Marfa and back through Lubbock and Santa Fe. Right now I'm possessed with a couple things: visiting Salvation Mountain before it's consumed by the fates (Leonard Knight died in Feb), getting lunch at Camacho's in El Centro, a mocha shake from Bentley's Coffee on Speedway Blvd. in Tucson, breakfast at the Bisbee Breakfast Co., and on the way back I'd like to get to at least one supposed Roswell UFO crash site.

Anything else is up in the air. What's going on out there over the next two weeks?

carlsbad caverns? (although the bats aren't in full effect yet)

Haven't been to the caves since the 70s. Def. thinking of stopping there.

if you've never been to hotel congress in tucson, its a cheap & charming place that makes for a good halfway spot between austin and LA (are you coming from LA?)

i just got a room there 2 weeks ago

The Murray Hotel in Silver City, NM is a cool place and an absolute bargain: http://www.murray-hotel.com

At risk of sounding like a damn tourist, Silver City itself was actually a great place to hole up in for a bit.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7409/14144261652_ab33abc209_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7322/13960539007_d1b6700017_z.jpg

Ever wanted to know what the SE corner of New Mexico looks like? Inadvertently found a geocache - I left a band flyer.

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2903/14124023496_75591a5928_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7322/14149608545_9c5634e56a_z.jpg

good one

Hi

HI!!! How is it, other than Hot As Fuck?

It is a dry heat!