Day 7: Alpine, TX

Taking into consideration that we were STUCK in a small Texas town for almost a week, getting back into the swing of things hasn't been that bad. Besides never having any privacy, and always having to pack, unpack, repack and move on, it seems as though things are starting to straighten out. I promise you, I'm not trying to make this blg dramatic. This is really how it happens. Leaving Fort Davis was a little sad, especially since we started to meet some locals. When we went down for our hotel breakfst in Alpine, there was an old cowboy talking with my mom over some coffee. Naturally, we sat down with them, and he started telling us about himself. His name is Ted Gray and he is 87 years old. This guy has been places. We're talkin over 150 countries, and although you can barely tell it from his face, he's had quite the life. Mr. Gray has been a cowboy since the beginning. I mean the real kind cowboy, the one that ropes steers, camps next to a chuckwagon, and uses a horse as his main trasportation.
Since He is old and we are young, he had some advice for us, 'cause you know that every old person likes to give advice. I've heard alot of stuff from the aged, and not all of it is that great, but Mr. Gray's advice really was useful. "Work hard, be honest, and associate yourself with good people who are going somewhere." I've heard "work hard" more times than I can count, but it was obvious he meant it. He went on to tell us that he had come to West Texas when he was 15 and only made $30 a month. By the time we left the table, we realized that we had just had coffee with a multi-millionaire. Hard work...food for thought.

I don't know why certain things happen, but I do know that if we hadn't gotten stuck at Fort Davis, we would not have met Mr. Gray.

We got the van back, left Big Tex with it's owner, and headed for New Mexico.

Day 6: Fort Davis and outlying areas

So guess what! We are STILL in Fort Davis!
We found out that something else in the van needed replacing, and the new plan is that it will be ready by eleven tomorrow morning.
We are all starting to love the roughed-up truck, and I'm not sure what it is about us and naming vehicles, but we named it Big Tex. Big Tex has just driven all over the area between Fort Davis, Marfa and Alpine. These towns make a little triangle and are about twenty minutes apart from one another.
I guess I've got a lot to cover about what we did to occupy ourselves for three days.

• We went to a "Star Party" at McDonald Observatory. This was so cool. We got to see Saturn and four of its five moons (my favorite thing), as well as the moon up close and a star that is actually two stars, which are actually double stars themselves. I'm not sure why they don't just say "This star is actually four stars". It would be a lot easier.
• We did a little swimming.
• We went to Alpine and ate at a cafe called the Reata.
• We learned about the area at the Museum of the Big Bend.
• Then we drove to Marfa, and to our surprise, there was a very nice restaurant called Cochineal. OK, I know it looks like we did nothing but eat back to back, but we really did do some other stuff in between: went into a bookshop, walked around in a couple historic hotel lobbies, and drove, drove, drove. Oh! We also found out that the 1950s' movie Giant was filmed in Marfa. I guess that's their only claim to fame besides the Marfa Mysetery Lights. They are supposed to be UFOs but...ya know....
• We also hiked a mountain.
• After finding a great little health food store in Fort Davis, we started talking with the cashier, and realized that everyone in the area is friendly.

When we found out that we had to stay yet another night, we decided to go back to one of the hotels we walked through in Alpine. And that's where we are now.

Day 4: Fort Davis, TX

After another long day of driving, we decided to make camp in Fort Davis, Texas. Just before we arrived, our air conditioner went out and left us with a really hot, thirty-minute drive the rest of the way into town. Luckily, there was a AAA- and NAPA-rated mechanic right in town, which is pretty crazy since Fort Davis is only about as big as a large ranch. The guy said we would have to pick the car up the next afternoon. So that left us a whole day without our van that we lovingly refer to as "the Trusty Steed". As a "for-the-day" replacement, the nice mechanic lent us his Chevy Silverado, which looks like it has run over its share of javelinas. It is one of those trucks you can trust, complete with dinged-up bumpers, a Copenhagen can tucked up into the visor, and dust all over the dash. As soon as we revved it up, the most twangy country song started to play, and the "service engine soon" light came on. This is very ironic since the owner could probably just take care of the engine in an hour. The truck has 350,000 miles on it, which is almost twice as many as the Steed.



While all this was going on, we had to check out of one hotel room and into another on the same day. So the situation was this: We were driving around in a honkytonk truck, we also had all of our luggage in it because we were in the process of changing rooms, we were supposed to go to the McDonald Observatory later, and had been raining off and on. So to say the least...We were in trouble.

Every time we got in and out of the truck, we had to take the bags out of the bed and shove them all into the cab. We did this ten times. We made it back to the hotel, checked in and tried to unlock the door. But as luck would have it, we had to switch keys, and to make matters worse, the rain started up again while we were waiting. We finally got inside. Mom drove back to the mechanic, hoping to exchange the truck for the Trusty Steed, and it turns out we are staying till Thursday instead of leaving on Tuesday because a part has to come in.

Over all, it's been a pretty rough day. But the first few are always the worst.

Day 2: Austin, TX

Austin is one of those places I never thought would be very exciting, and to be honest, we didn't do much. But that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to do. Especially if you like to shop. There are tons of great stores you would only hear about in Mississippi. I'd never been to an R.E.I. store, but I had to get some substantial walking shoes because I guess I can't just traipse around in flip-flops all summer. Especially if the summer consists mainly of walking and hiking. So I got some Keens. These things are the Rolls-Royce of hiking shoes. Seriously. They are waterproof, they have great arch support, they have some fancy kind of antibacterial material, they come in all sorts of fun colors, and as if that wasn't enough, they are machine washable!

After the R.E.I. extravaganza, we went to Whole Foods. Wahooooo! Actually this place rocks! Yeah, I know, you're probably wondering what is so great about a health food store. And if you're asking yourself this question, then you have obviously never been before. If you are looking for some hardcore hippies or the dreadhead type, then this is the place to go. But the really great thing about Whole Foods is actually not the hippies (believe it or not). This store has an incredibly laid-back feel. If you want to try something from the bulk aisle, no big deal, just ask someone who works there. Or just do like we do, and wait till no one is watching and get it yourself. I can't say enough about this store. I know it's probably a little weird, but I'll just say it anyway: I would come here just to watch people and walk around. Is that creepy? 'Cause I don't really care.


Of course, every location is different. For example, the store in New Orleans is almost a whole house-size smaller than the one in Austin. But it still has that same urban co-op feel we love. And did I mention it smells like an Indian tea shop? The Austin store has an entire section devoted to tea. So I guess I'll leave you with that. When was the last time YOU had organic fermented black tea from China?