Travel is Awesome!

We took another road trip!  Packed and ready to travel; this time in hubby’s truck—which means, I’m a passenger.  Hands were busy knitting.  

I want to introduce you to my constant companions—no matter if I’m going far or near, these are always with me.

This is my spindle spinning bag!  Always ready to pull out and loaded with silk sliver—

Piggy is always at my side—and I mean always!  He has traveled far and wide—he has been to China, Mexico, Venezuela, Several states, Germany, England, France—you name it, he’s probably been there!

You can tell he doesn’t bathe too often—such a dirty face!

Notice his handwoven bands—he fell in love with a couple of weavers who made him these lovely bands. 

His backpack is ready for travel any time!  Oh the 'tales' he could tell you about his adventures!

Our travels this time took us to the far west of Texas--over 5.5 hours to reach our first stop--Marathon--We stayed at the historic Gage Hotel, which is said to be haunted—room 10 especially!  We were in room 8--heard no ghosts but lots of trains pass through the night!

Marathon is the gateway to Big Bend National Park; also served as an important military fort during the Mexican Revolution.

We are visiting our friend who works at Brick Vault Brewery and BBQ--she is a brewer. Sadly, the BBQ was all sold out when we arrived!  Beer was okay, although I’m not much of a beer drinker.  And our friend wasn't working this evening--we'll catch up with her later in our travels.

We stayed two nights in Marathon--one day we visited Alpine--the best way to plan your visit in the city is to drop into the visitor center--we collected many brochures of literature and we were off and running--well, in the truck!  Alpine is the home of Sul Ross University and we spent part of our time wandering the campus, visiting  the baseball field, said to be the Yankee Stadium of Texas;  we had lunch at Judy's bread and breakfast, visited the bookstore and several other small businesses.  Alpine has numerous murals

painted on the walls of buildings so we took the tour of seeing what we could see; we also took a window shield tour of the town--back to Marathon in time for our dinner at Gage Restaurant.  Our second day was spent touring the Gage gardens, visiting French Grocer and a few other galleries (window shopping as those were not open till weekend)

Next morning we were off to Big Bend National Park!

What a drive!  we stayed in Terlingua one night before heading out the next day, along the River Road, stopped in Lajatas for breakfast and looked across Rio Grande river to see Mexico.  The mayor of Lajatas is Henry Clay, a goat that is in the running for Mayor!

The view along the river road is awe inspiring!  We have never taken the road across Big Bend State Park--it was an interesting drive with views of mountains, canyons and access to the Rio Grande.

Our next stop was Marfa!  We're here to see the Marfa Lights--alas, it is cloudy most of the time and there was rain the afternoon we arrived. No star gazing but we did see the Marfa Lights!

To Be continued................................