2013 Oct 23-Nov 9
We were going to be in Houston
for a week and New Orleans for a week. In addition to the enjoyment of food
and drink in these two, we had a couple of weekends available to find
something to do. We spent one of these with friends in Arkansas, given that it
would be easy to drop in on them in Batesville, Arkansas on the way from
Houston to New Orleans (!). We decided to use the other one to visit Marfa,
Texas, having seen that it had an art museum to which people would make “pilgrimages”
from New York, among other places.
Weekend 1 – Marfa
Marfa is more or less at the
western end of Texas, which makes it about 1000 Km from our arrival airport
in Houston. We headed west and stopped overnight at Boerne, to the north west
of San Antonio, then continued in the morning via Fort Stockton, arriving in
Marfa in the late afternoon, too late to think of visiting the Chinati Foundation,
which was out principal objective.
 
Marfa (“ Tough to get to, tougher to explain. But once you get here, you get
it”) is a small town (population 1968 according to the sign entering town)
with good restaurants, and more (and more interesting) hotels than one might
expect, as a result of its being home to the Chinati Foundation, established
in 1986 by Donald Judd, who had moved to Marfa in 1977 since New York couldn’t
accommodate the large scale works he wanted to display. In addition to the Foundation,
there are numerous other art exhibitions and galleries in the town.
 
Having decided to visit at
short notice, none of the hotels in town had rooms available so we dined and
then went to Alpine, about half an hour away to stay overnight. On arrival, bearing
in mind that in much of the USA, at least outside the cities, nothing happens
after 2000h, and it’s often difficult even to find a place to eat, we were
stunned to be asked whether we were going to the rodeo. We duly headed for the
Rodeo Arena and spent some time watching contestants there.
The following day we returned
to the Chinati Foundation, were we enjoyed the amazing exhibition, with works
by Donald Judd
himself, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin,
and others including more memorable (to us) art by Ingólfur Arnarsson and Claes
Oldenburg.
At the end of the afternoon we
made a circuit to visit Fort Davis, a classic “old west” town, and then back
via the deserted roads to the west.
The following day we headed
southwards to the Rio Grande, through vast open Texas country, on our way to
Big Bend National Park, lunching at the “High Sierra Bar”. The course of the
Rio Grande is wild and Big Bend is a beautiful desert environment; perhaps
because it was late October it was free of other visitors, allowing us to
appreciate the flora, fauna, and silence.
    
We returned to Houston via
Highway 90, stopping for dinner at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, where we were surprised
to be asked “Do you have a reservation?” following which we ate hamburgers in
the garden from the bar menu. After a
night in Del Rio we continued to Houston via Gruene in the Texas Hill Country,
which Alan remembered as a small village with an German immigrant history, in
the Texas countryside, but which is now essentially a suburb of New
Braunfels.
Weekend 2 – Batesville
Following a week in Houston we
flew to Little Rock, were we were met by our friends Troy and Pat, who took
us to their home in Batesville for a relaxing and very enjoyable weekend,
catching up on our lives, and (among other things) helping with the monthly
cleaning of the guns.
On the Saturday we made a
circuit through the beautiful Ozarks, stopping at Mountain View, where musicians
and music stores were evident on all
sides. We lunched at a local restaurant which, I am sure, was not yet aware
of the loss of Elvis, and where the burgers were excellent.
Returning to Batesville we
made a loop via Greer’s Ferry, with wonderful views of the forest, which at
the time was a sea of red, green, brown, and golden foliage.
   |
abrazos
Alan y Marce
Photos may be used for non-commercial purposes with credit to alanymarce@gmail.com
