Travels with Twinkles - Feb. 17 - 22, 2026
Tucson, AZ - El Paso - Marfa - Alpine, Texas and return
I leave Tucson on I-10 east in light rain which increases as I travel and I seem to be traveling with the storm front periogically going in and out of clouds and rain. As I progress into New Mexico high cross winds develop with blowing dust and tumbleweeds flying across the road. As I cross intoTexas it becomes a mild dust storm in areas with limited visibility, but as I enter the El Paso, Texas metropolitan area, the winds decrease, the skies clear and suddenly it’s a nice afternoon.
I have planned to stay overnight in El Paso and explore the historic area near the old Railroad museum. I find myself in the same downtown area that I had visited a couple of years ago, but this time I spread my range a bit to see new things. This is a mostly hispanic area with many old attractive buildings and stores. I find this area very interesting, historic and photogenic, but I understand how many anglos would not feel comfortable here.
After a couple of hours, I decide that I better figure out where to park the van for the night. I could probably park about anywhere and be okay, but it’s a little scary, I prefer something more protected like a Walmart, but most of them no longer allow overnight parking. I do find one Walmart using my travel app that still allows overnights and head there. My GPS can’t find the address, it’s a bit outdated, so I revert to my iPhone to get there and it takes me on a crazy complex route through much road construction to get there.
February 18 - I find my way from Walmart back onto I-10 in heavy traffic and it seems that you travel (forever) or about 40 miles to get through El Paso.
I make a quick stop in Fort Hancock, Texas which is a small Mexican border town that was once a military fort. The railroad passes through town with a huge water tank remaining from the days of steam Locomotives and several old buildings and a church. It has a some history.
Another quick stop in Sierra Blanca, New Mexico to see if anything has improved, it’s a historic old town which was once a booming place, but now is more like a ghost town. It’s pretty sad and it appears that the major employer is the Border Patrol.
Next was another quick drive through Van Horn, Texas which has an interesting main street, but I've seen it all before. The old Hotel is pretty special and it also has a history. I took a couple of photos and then back on the road.
My destination today is the interesting town of Marfa, Texas. Marfa is a weird counter culture kind of town with art galleries, a fine Hotel and Court House on the Main Street and the famous Marfa Lights outside of town. The lights are actually some kind of atmospheric illusion that lights up the evening sky periodically.
I wandered around town but not much seemed to be open, I expected more. I visited the Paisano Hotel which is an historic 1930 Trost architectural designed building, the Presidio County Court House and the Palace Theater on Highland Avenue.
Much of the town looks kind of trashy to me, nothing to brag about, a few artsy motels and restaurants which seem be closed during the day. I am probably missing something as I had read about all this party time activity in town, I didn’t find it. I did find a small Mexican cafe with good food although I suffered with some overnight diarrhea, maybe it’s not so good ?
I spent a not so wonderful night at the free Marfa Lights viewing area a few miles outside of town. Sorry to say, but I failed to see the lights and had some bad diarrhea issues disrupting my sleep.
February 19 - I awake early, make my lousy instant coffee with cereal and a banana, my stomach feels slightly improved. I am a little concerned about my delicate stomach and wonder if I will be OK for the days activity. It's a short 25 mile drive to Alpine, Texas traveling through an interesting canyon formed by impressive volcanic activity.
I will meet my daughter Miranda who is a conductor on the Amtrak train arriving at 10:30 AM. I arrive early, get some stomach calming drugs at the local grocery store and spend a couple of hours exploring the downtown area. This is my third time in this town and I find this town to be very artistic, several photo galleries, a book shop, a few bars and restaurants and a respected college
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| Miranda and I pose for a photo |
I am here to attend the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering this weekend which I had also attended two years previously. I really don’t quite understand my appreciation for this Cowboy stuff as I’m pretty much a bleeding heard liberal. I’m mainly a fan of the music, but not so much for the poetry or the cowboy attitude. See below for event schedule.
https://lonestarcowboypoetry.com/schedule/
At 10:50 AM the Amtrak train arrives, the doors open and there is Miranda with a huge gear bag. She is ending her work shift which started the previous night in San Antonio, Texas. She and a few other train crew members are put up in a nice nearby Hotel. She then has the next day and a half off duty until 7:30 PM on Saturday evening when she takes the 7:30 PM train out for another work shift back to her home base in San Antonio, Texas. I take her to the Hotel, leave for a couple of hours for her to get some rest and then pick her up a few hours later and head downtown. We end up walking around town then stoping for a beer and dinner at an historic old hotel near the train station.
I end up stealth camping on a dead end street near the railroad tracks, a place I have used before without incident.
February 20th - I pick Miranda up at in the morning at the Hotel and we go to the Sul Ross State University, where the Cowboy Poetry Gathering takes place to get our name passes for entry to all the scheduled events. There is a mix of free events and pay events and since I’m not familiar with many of the performers, we're going to the all free events today, except for the big evening show.
We attend the 10 AM show "A taste of the gathering" which was a good initial introduction to the event.
The shows all take place on the University campus in close proximity. One of shows is adjacent to the Museum of the Great Bend which is really worth seeing and has won a best small town museum award.
I have reserved seats for the evening show in the larger Holland Auditorium which are pretty great, front row seats on the far right side of the stage but hampered somewhat by a camera and busy photographer. It appeared to be a full house, but the front row remained half empty, a mystery to me ? The main act was great !
February 21st - I pick Miranda up early at 7 AM today as I have tickets for the Cowboy Breakfast located at on outside grove on the college campus. It’s scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy and coffee cooked over a wood camp fire, real cowboy stuff ! It was cold, I was freezing and by the time you sat down your breakfast was half cold, it didn’t matter, it was the atmosphere that made it interesting.
We attend the free shows during the day and a couple of them were truly great. They didn’t really say it was not allowed, but virtually no one was taking photos of the performers except for a young professional who was everywhere. I normally would be taking lots of photos and videos from afar but it was obviously considered taboo in this crowd, so I took only a few.
We attended a free session at 10 AM, with Andy Wilkerson and Andy Hedges which was my favorite show of the event. Andy Wilkerson and his daughter, who is the new director of the Museum of the Great Bend, singing with him. They are joined by Andy Hedges and his young daughter playing violin. Andy Wilkerson has become one of the old guard of the Cowboy festival and Andy Hedges has become the new rising star. Andy Wilkerson does not come from a cowboy background which is somewhat usual in this event, and he told a story about a young friend who he played with as a teenager who had a great guitar. Years latter when they had a reunion, Andy asked about the guitar and the friend said he still had it but never played anymore and that he would like Andy to have it. A short time later Andy learned that the friend had died. Andy then reached over for the guitar and played a medley of 1960’s songs from his youth. It was sort of a passing of the guard moment and a tear jerker of a performance.
I’m not such a fan of the poetry, but this one performer, Joel Nelson, did a cowboy flavored comedy routine that was really great, amazingly good. These performance sessions are usually three to five people, male or female performing round robin for usually 3-4 go arounds. This session was unusually good. At 4 PM, I took Miranda back to the hotel to prepare for her next train tour of duty at about 7 PM back to San Antonio, Texas.
It was obvious to me that this gathering had less performers that the previous gathering that I attended two years ago. They claim that this is due to a shortage of hotel rooms at the Holland Hotel which is closed for renovations. They are also holding another Cowboy Gathering at a second location in Bastrof, Texas on this same weekend. That seems very odd to me, maybe not enough Cowboy musicians and Poets to go around ?
I return to the Holland Auditorium in the evening for the finale Cowboy Poetry Gathering show where again I have a great seat in row 3, seat 22 which is far left of the stage with no one in front of me. This show featured Andy Wilkinson and Bren Hill who tell stories and play together with a few other guests. I thought it would involve many more of the event players, but it didn’t, kind of weird ?
February 22nd - I’m up early at 6 AM, then head to MacDonalds for a quick breakfast combo at 7 AM. As I fuel up at a nearby gas station I see a state trooper and two border patrol vehicles with several agents. I wonder how much money is now being wasted on these border patrol employees who seem to have little to do here.
I then drive back to Marfa where I stop to try to get a few photos in downtown in better light, it’s all about the light. I then continue on making a stop at a weird roadside mural display.
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| A sad road sign along the highway |
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ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS |
I stop at Sierra Blanca, Texas for another quick photo session, basically sad photos of decaying buildings in a town that was once a vibrant community.
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This was once a vibrant railroad line |
It’s then back to El Paso, Texas where I head to the Sequendo Barrio area known for its large concentration of artistic murals. I cruise around and around this area finding so many murals, having a great time. I then park and walk around a few colorful downtown streets and come upon an elderly woman sitting on the step near a church. I have this urge to give her decide to give her a $10 bill, the look she gave me made my day. it’s then back driving around and come upon a group of murals under a highway overpass, take several photos and then see the back of an adjacent old motel that is covered in murals. I then suddenly hear an old man yelling with a younger man chasing and throwing punches at another man as he runs away. I decide to get out of this area quickly as possible before I become a crime witness. The fleeing man takes off down the street and it appears to be over. I drive away and then go around the block, park and then walk back to have a look at the motel and a few other interesting old area buildings. I end up with so many photos, can only add a small percentage here.
OK, that’s enough excitement for me, time to find an overnight spot for the night. I drive to a Walmart that I thought was the one I had stayed at earlier, but it turned out to be different one. My travel app said that overnight stays were allowed so I thought all was OK, but that changed at about 10 PM when a security person came knocking on my door telling me I would have to leave. My backup site is a Cracker Barrel restaurant about 12 miles away, but all was good there and in the morning I went in for breakfast.
The final days plan is to drive straight back to home from here, but I end up stopping for photos in Lordsburg, New Mexico. It’s another sizable town with some okay residential areas, but with a virtually dead main street area. It’s kind of surprising as the freight railroad traffic is heavy and Amtrak even makes a stop in town. It once had many motels, hotels and restaurants, but most are now closed. I wandered around Main Street feeling like I was doing a documentary of a dying town. I also explored the old Mexican area across the railroad tracks with several old adobe buildings and the once impressive El Charro Mexican Restaurant and cocktail lounge.
The rest of the ride was uneventful over the rough and bumpy route I-10 back to Tucson. I now have a few days to prepare for another adventure taking a Princess Cruise Line cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan, Mexico for a week voyage.
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