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

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!