Big Bend - The Story of Our Trip

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="11c800640egdysm.jpg"> <div> <I>Photos by Cindy</I><I> ...</I><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><B>    </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>|     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photos by Cindy"><B>home</B></A></FONT></div> <div> back to<B>  </B><A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Albums"><B>Photo Albums</B></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=170 BGCOLOR="#0000BF" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <B>Big Bend - The Story of Our Trip</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alamo Village">Alamo Village</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pecos River Judge Roy Bean">Pecos River & Judge Roy Bean</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marathon, Fort Davis McDonald Observato">Marathon, Fort Davis & McDonald Observatory</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marfa The Arcón Inn">Marfa - The Arcón Inn</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chinati Foundation">Chinati Foundation</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Bend Day 1">Big Bend - Day 1</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Bend Day 2">Big Bend - Day 2</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Bend Day 3">Big Bend - Day 3</A></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="59081610.jpg" border=0 width="129" height="97" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <B>Big Bend - The Story of Our Trip</B></div> <div> <B>December, 2001</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>***</B></I><I><B><U>Click on the pictures for more!!!</U></B></I><I><B>***</B></I></div> <div> <B>        </B><--<B> or use navigation links in left margin.</B></div> <bR> <div> We had a great time on our trip! Mike got to see parts of Texas he'd never seen before, and this was a trip down memory lane for me. I made this trip with my Mom, Dad and siblings when I was about 12 (more years ago than I care to admit!). A lot had changed since then, except, of course, the rugged beauty of Big Bend.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Alamo Village"><I><B><IMG SRC="595e2aa0.jpg" border=0 width="226" height="170" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></A><I><B>On Wednesday, December 12</B></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >, we left the ranch and drove to Brackettville. We stopped at Fort Clark, now called Fort Clark Springs, looked around and had breakfast at a cafe inside a building that was once a barracks. We discovered that the museum was closed, so we decided we'd stop there on our way back through. We then drove north and visited Alamo Village where the movie "The Alamo" with John Wayne was filmed. Being the middle of December, there wasn't much going on there. When I was a kid, we went during the summer and there were horses to ride, a stagecoach tour, and gun fights. They still do gun fights during the summer tourist season, but they don't have horses there anymore. We looked around, went through the museum, bought some souvenirs, and took a bunch of pictures.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pecos River Judge Roy Bean"><IMG SRC="57ce0a80.jpg" border=0 width="224" height="168" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A>We headed west from there and stopped and had a picnic lunch at a road side park overlooking the bridge that crosses the Pecos River. This bridge is the tallest in Texas and the view was stunning. From there we went to Langtry, stopped to see Judge Roy Bean's Jersey Lilli Saloon, and went through the nice new visitors' center they have there. We drove on to Marathon to the Gage Hotel where we had dinner in the restaurant and cocktails at the White Buffalo Bar (and they really do have a white buffalo head mounted on the wall!). We spent the night in the section of the hotel called Los Portales (the porches). This was the only lodging facility on the entire trip that had a phone in the room! <U>None</U> had TVs!</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marathon, Fort Davis McDonald Observato"><I><B><IMG SRC="580d7920.jpg" border=0 width="215" height="146" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></A><I><B>On Thursday, December 13</B></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >, we left the hotel and drove north of Marathon to the location where we will be drilling some wells. We then drove through Alpine and on to Fort Davis where we stopped briefly, watched a film about the history of the fort, bought books and got some information. It was blowing a gale and freezing cold that day, so we decided to forego the walking tour of the grounds. We went on to McDonald Observatory and took a quick look around. There was snow on the ground, and was even more cold and windy than it was at Fort Davis, so we decided not to make the hike up to the observatory. We plan to make the trip again when the weather is nicer and hopefully Sean and Patrick will be able to go with us.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marfa The Arcón Inn"><IMG SRC="582c4930.jpg" border=0 width="196" height="147" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A>Drove on to Marfa and checked into the Arcón Bed and Breakfast owned by Mona Blocker Garcia. We stayed in the "casita" (guesthouse) behind the main house. It was very nice! That evening we went and saw the "Marfa Lights" and got some videos of them! Yes, they really exist!!! Came back to the B&B and had dinner. Mrs. Garcia is a professional chef and everything was fantastic! We were her only guests that night so we got the royal treatment. I definitely recommend this place to anyone passing through this part of the country! She also has the biggest cat I've ever seen! His name is Poncho and weighs 42 pounds!!!</div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chinati Foundation"><I><B><IMG SRC="58414b40.jpg" border=0 width="276" height="180" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></A><I><B>On Friday, December 14</B></I></FONT>, we had breakfast at the B&B, packed up and went to the Chinati Foundation Art(?) Exhibit located in Marfa on an old army post. I have yet to figure out what makes what we saw <U>art</U>! The entire "collection" consisted of something termed <I><B>minimalist</B></I> art, and certainly had minimal interest to us. One "piece" consisted of circles of rocks sitting on an old concrete tennis court. I don't know who would be considered to have the biggest problem ... someone who would declare this to be "art" or someone who walks up to it and very knowingly says, "This looks like a piece by Richard Long!" -- and be right. That actually happened. The man went on to explain that this "artist" usually does something called "environmental interventions" ... such as putting something unusual in a natural setting and taking photographs of it. I guess this means if you only throw trash on the ground, you're a litterbug, but if you stop and take a picture of it, you're an artist!!!</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Bend Day 1"><IMG SRC="59136e90.jpg" border=0 width="310" height="233" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></A>Another part of the exhibit consisted of two huge warehouses, each filled with about 100 large aluminum boxes (click on Rock picture above to see). The point of this was lost on us, if there ever was one. Then there was one building that just had single strands of colored twine installed floor to ceiling in the middle of the room, and also glued along the walls! There were other small buildings with strange paintings (most that looked like they had been done with stencils), and the inside of one old barracks was made to look like an abandoned Russian school house. That one was actually somewhat interesting. Then there was another entire warehouse in downtown Marfa that was filled with smashed car hoods and fenders all welded together, with another big room with what I guess was supposed to be a huge sofa, with a TV playing in one corner. All in all, the entire exhibit (with maybe the exception of the school house) gets my vote for the "Biggest Waste of Space Award." And we left after only seeing <B><U>half</U></B> of it!!! I'm not sure where the rest of it was or what it consisted of, but we didn't care. At the very most, it could be said that this exhibit was mildly interesting, but, in my humble opinion, this was not ART! (<A HREF="id95.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Email and response">"Hate-email" I received and my response</A> regarding my opinion of this "exhibit.")</div> <bR> <div> We left Marfa around noon and made the drive south toward Big Bend and saw some REAL art compliments of Mother Nature. (I'm not kidding ... there is a profile of Lincoln in the Chinati Mountains -- see photo above.) We went through Presidio, Terilingua, Study Butte, and then on into the Park to The Basin area. We checked into the Chisos Mountain Lodge and had dinner at the Lodge Restaurant.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Bend Day 2"><I><B><IMG SRC="58cf1b50.jpg" border=0 width="241" height="181" ALT="Mule Ears" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></A><I><B>On Saturday, December 15</B></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >, we drove from the Lodge to St. Elena and stopped at the little store there and got some things for lunch. We stopped at "Mule Ears Overlook" and had a snack. Then drove to Study Butte and discovered that our Jeep tour that we had scheduled for that afternoon would be in an open air vehicle and we decided to pass on that. It was a cold and ugly day anyway and wouldn't have been good for any type of photography. We drove back into the Park and went over to Rio Grande Village. We checked on the facilities there and also the route to the little town across the border. It looked interesting and we decided to do that next time. We also saw several interesting dirt road trips we could take ... Hot Springs, Lost Mines Trail, and several others. We went back to the Lodge and had dinner at the restaurant.</FONT></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Big Bend Day 3"><I><B><IMG SRC="58eb6890.jpg" border=0 width="182" height="137" ALIGN="RIGHT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></A><I><B>On Sunday, December 16</B></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >, we got up early, had breakfast at the Lodge Restaurant, took some photos of "The Window," checked out, and headed north out of the park toward Marathon. We got some cool photos along the way. We headed back east on Highway 90, stopped in Brackettville and went through the museum at Fort Clark. We had lunch at the cafe and got back to the ranch that evening.</FONT></div> </td> </tr></table>   </body>