Alpine, TX - San Antonio, TX - Tucson, AZ

February 19 - 22, 2024: 

I can't get out of Alpine without taking a couple more photos.

 

Big Bend Saddlery's scenic mural and windmill

Alpine welcome sign

My first stop was Marathon, Texas which was very interesting with many old adobe houses, some rather artistic, some with large windmills in backyards and others partially falling apart.  The one upscale part of town is adjacent to the historic Gage Hotel, another building designed by HenryTrost.  It’s a destination kind of place with a beautiful outside pool, a beautiful courtyard and luxury accomadations.  Adjacent to it is a brew pub, a few nice cafes, a coffee shop and around the corner is the Spanish Market.

https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/texas/experiences/news/what-to-see-and-do-in-marathon-texas

Built in 1926-27 for a wealthy cattle baron

Very nice

I could spend some time here

Historic landmark sign

Very unique residence in town

Many wind mills and storage tanks remain

Next stop is Sanderson, Texas which was especially depressing as half the town appeared to be vacant, a semi ghost town of sorts, but in its day, it was a very prosperous, vibrant town. It suffered a wild flash flood in 1965 that killed about 30 people and wiped out portions of the town.  In the center of town a huge building absolutely filled with Mexican pottery, ornaments, signs and a huge hardware section, like a mini Home Depot.  

I found much to photograph, but it's mostly sad stuff, but the link below tells of its past glory, perhaps it will return some day.

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-sanderson/

The brightest area in town

Hometown pride not going well here

The old gas station

Discount prices from years ago

Great sign but very faded

Good news is that a dam is now in place  to prevent this 

The visitor center appears closed these days

Next is Langtry, Texas; it is a very historic town due to the famous Judge Roy Bean who doled out justice in this part of the west for decades. His original Jersey Lilly Saloon / Pool Hall / Courthouse (Justice of the Peace - The law west of the Pecos) remains and is located at the curent information center, museum and a botanical garden.  This information center is a must stop !  Across the road is a scenic road that winds to a viewpoint overlooking the Rio Grande River and the rugged cliffs of Mexico on the other side.

https://www.americansouthwest.net/texas/langtry/index.html

The melting adobe of an original settler

View looking across into Mexico

The judge had a crush on Lillie Langtry

I love Beans reply to her water fountain offer

It's amazing that this still remains

Photo back in the day

Quite an amazing story

Driving on route 90 I pass through dozens of road cuts where several layers of Limestone are exposed where the rock just gleams in the sunlight and is beautiful.  In some places, there were sections with rock layers that were thrust into vertical layers known as the Ouachita rock belt that are very unusual.

This area of Texas was once covered by ocean resulting in these limestone rock layers 

Ouachita Rock layer

Roadside sign offers an explanation

I then come upon the very scenic high bridge over the Pecos River where I pulled into the adjacent rest area and explored the views. The river view from the bridge is great, but I then spotted a way to get down under the bridge for even a better view.  This took me to the old road built prior to route 90 with beautiful stone curbing and a far superior view.

Big rigs over the Pecos River

Impressive bridge

View from old closed highway under bridge

Next was Comstock, Texas which has a cafe and a few old buildings along route 90 and a small residential area with virtually nothing interesting to see except for a few old houses, now vacant and overgrown with trees and vines.  It has a wild west history, like every town in this area, including a train robbery. 

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/comstock-texas/

I was hoping to stay overnight at Comstock but saw nothing of interest, so I returned to the Pecos River Bridge highway rest area for night.  The overnight at the Bridge rest stop was a little spooky as no one else was there and it was pitch dark.  Also the truck traffic noise over the bridge was fairly loud.

I leave the the Bridge Tuesday mourning and go directly to the nearby Seminole Canyon State Park visitors center.  I had hoped to do their guided petroglyph hike, but I’m a day early, they only do the guided hike from Wednesday to Saturday and you’re not allowed to hike there on your own.  The museum at the visitors center was excellent however and I was then able to do a 2-3 mile hike on the Canyon Rim Trail hike with great views and interesting rocks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole_Canyon_State_Park_and_Historic_Site

This site is one of the most significant rock art sites in the country 

The man like figures are really unique

These rock panels are pretty extensive

The Spanish were all over this area

The coming of the railroad opened this area to western expansion

The history of the Seminole Indian scouts is both incredible and sad 

The Canyons here are filled with sea fossils

View from the museum to the river gorge

Trail views along the canyon rim

Fossils along the trail are numerous

Next stop was Del Rio, Texas where I walked around the downtown area talking photos of buildings, signs and murals.  Many of the buildings from the early 1900’s  remain but are now vacant, but still interesting.  Del Rio is a border town with a high percentage of Hispanic residents and culture.  I then drive to the Barrio San Felipe area around the Brown Plaza that is quite historic with many interesting hispanic buildings and murals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Rio,_Texas

He was playing the cowboy card to the hilt

Sadly looks to be closed

Great sign

Colorful mural

Court House

Beautiful church

Historic Spanish area was full of great murals

This mural really has a message for many of our current politicians

Afterwards, it’s time to find a laundromat as I’m running out of clothes.  I luck out with one with fairly new machines, is very clean, everything works, has plenty of carts and is empty and no customers.  I have the whole place to myself which is very strange ?  It’s then to Walmart to overnight.

On Wednesday morning, I leave Del Rio then continue on route 90 east stopping at the towns of Brackettville, Uvalde, Sabinal, D'Hanis, Hondo and Castroville.   

Bracketville, Texas: 

Just off the highway, I pulled into Bracketville to take a look around, there were several old stone buildings in the central downtown area that seemed strange.  There was a Court House with a fairly full parking lot, lots of police vehicles, not very welcoming to me. It had a large military fort during the Indian wars with many Seminole-African Buffalo soldiers.  It seems that much of the military action in the west was performed by the buffalo soldiers who in this area were members of the Seminole Indian tribe removed from Florida, so weird !   

I had a bad vibe, took a few photos and left.   The country outside of town, was fairly unattractive rough looking scrub range land.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brackettville,_Texas

Many old stone buildings deteriorating along the main road ?

Built to last

The Court House that seems very busy

Uvalde, Texas:

I stopped in the downtown area, parked and walked around as usual taking photos and almost immediately noted lots of large murals of very cute attractive children.  I initially thought it was weird, but then connected it with the horrible school shootings of a few months ago that made national headlines.  The murals are done so well and really make a point, I can see people walking around this downtown with tears in their eyes!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvalde,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvalde_school_shooting

Closeup view of the Opera House facade

The Grand Opera House is beautiful

Would not have expected that here

The Court House

Memorial tributes in the central park area

Sabinal, Texas:

It was a very brief stop, sorry to say, I found little of note here.

https://www.backroadstexas.net/sabinal/

Welcome mural

Just another unknown interesting building

Probably some German heritage here

Interesting Railroad waiting Sation

D'Hanis, Texas:

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tx-dhanis/

I didn't explore much except the area adjacent to the railroad tracks where I found several attractions as shown below.  Further investigation finds an amazing  French historical connection. Henri Castro settled this area with a large land grant and brought an amazing number of people from France to settle this area.   Must read the details above in the link ! 

Buck Hoen Saloon cowboy church

Interesting market with an outside beer garden

Looks to be closed at present

Liked the Rainbow Bread signs

Hondo, Texas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hondo,_Texas

Hondo, Texas is famous for its sign: This is God's country' don't drive through it like Hell.  I admit, I sort of did that, I took a few photos, nothing of note. 

 

Hondo sign

Nice downtown theater

Nice sign, but a rather industrial building

Castroville, Texas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castroville,_Texas

I found Castroville very interesting mainly due to its history.  It was established in 1844 by Henri Castro, who also established nearby D'Hanis, Texas.  He started four colonies in Texas and brought thousands of European settlers to this area.  He seems to have been a very opportunistic developer ?

The history

Historic Museum

Beautiful Court House

In mid afternoon, I arrive at my daughter Miranda house in San Antonio, Texas.  Miranda is at work today as an Amtrak train conductor but will be home around 10 PM.  Miranda's partner, Beth is there and the plan is to pick up their son Tristen from school and take him to his violin practice at the local college.  It was very interesting to watch the college students conducting these practice sessions.  It was a bit strange as the student teachers were all whispering instructions throughout this session, I could barely hear them.  I was impressed with Tristen, he’s a really smart child who hopefully will stick with the violin. Miranda gets home at about 10:30 PM and it's near midnight by the time we all go off to sleep.

Tristen on Violin

San Antonio to be continued in the next blog.

Alpine Texas and the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering

February 16 -17, 2024: 

The Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held on the campus of the Sul Ross State University of Texas on the outskirts of Alpine, Texas.

Alpine Texas has an interesting attractive downtown, many good murals, although nightlife, shopping and dining is limited.  There is the beautiful old Trost designed Hotel Holland on the Main Street (Holland Ave), which is also route 90l.  The train station is across from the hotel which is serviced by Amtrak.  As it's a college town it seems to have an artistic, liberal vibe to it, not expected in Texas. Heading east out of the downtown area, is the university campus and is the main motel, hotel, gas station and small business district. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine,_Texas

 

One of my all time favorite murals

Also quite nice 

Now you know; Who put the pine in Alpine

Texas Rangers

The Cowboy Poetry Gathering was very well organized except for one thing, a lack of signs for the multiple rooms where performances were held around the campus.  This was not a problem for the locals who have been going to this for years.  

I had signed up for the Friday morning Chuckwagon Breakfast held from 7:30 - 8:30 in Kokernot park adjacent to the University, but it took me a while to find it, no signs were posted !  It had a real cowboy attitude, hot coffee over a burning fire, scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy.

Cowboy Breakfast

The fire felt good on a chilly morning

 I then found my way to the festival mercantile center inside the University Center building where you check in to get your name badge, program schedule and goodie bag.  I initially was at a loss of where to go from there, but eventually found that there was a venue map and that the program schedule did show who was playing when and where.

Beautiful Monument on the campus

The Marshall Auditorium where the main performances were held

  The unwritten policy at the festival seemed to be no iphone or camera videos or flash photos allowed.  This was disappointing to me as it's one of my favorite things to do, but I understand how annoying it is when everyone is doing it.   Anyhow as a result I took very few photos and only one short video of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

My first show was performed by Hal Cannon titled, “Making the ordinary heroic: The story of John Lomax” which was very good.  John Lomax had searched for, recorded and saved the music of many early musicians who continue to inspire us to this day.  I never thought someone giving a talk on this subject in Texas would say that the early anglo cowboys didn’t really invent cowboy singing, but instead learned it from the hispanic and black cowboys.

From the balcony at the Marshall Auditorium

I then attended the “A taste of the gathering” show at 10:45 - 1:45 AM in the Marshall Auditorium which helped to introduce me to several performers I was not aware of.  After lunch I attended the “A Pair To Draw To” show at the Marshall Auditorium with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Andy Hedges which was great.  Ramblin" Jack was sort of the celebrity performer at the show and was treated with considerable reverence.

I then found my way to the “Museum of the Big Bend” to look around the excellent museum and attended a “Diamond Hitches” show.  There were several performances in rooms adjacent to the museum and art gallery.  I also sat in on a show; Stampede for a few minutes.

Lots of Spanish history in this area

Poncho Villa and the general seems to be having a good time here

There was a room filled with old maps

A nice story with a bad ending

A show titled; Stampede, noted cowboy poet Wade Mitchell on left

At about 5 PM, travel to the Alpine Civic Center for the Cowboy Supper, Guinness pot roast with vegetables, cheddar mashed potatoes, green goddess salad, roasted asparagus, roux biscuits, apple crisp desert, water and iced tea.  It was yummy !  I sat with a man who told me his father had attended Sil Ross University who was on the football team with Dan Blocker who played Hoss in the classic TV show, Bonanza.   

I didn’t see as many Cowboy performers as I felt I should have, mainly because of how spread out the venues where on campus.  Also the size of the rooms made it awkward once seated to leave in the middle to go to another show.  Also I did not really know who I wanted to see, most of the performers were new to me.

I had a motel room reserved for Friday night to get a break from the cramped van interior and to enjoy a big bed and a hot shower.

Saturday, day 2 of the Gathering started cold and cloudy with a wet rain drizzle and as a result I skipped the outside Cowboy Breakfast at the park. The temperature stayed about the same all day, 40-50 degrees and about 5 PM the sun broke through just before sunset.

I attended an excellent show at 10 AM at the Museum of the Big Bend” - Songs and Poems worth remembering” that was especially good, one of my favorites !  I was quite impressed by Rod Taylor

Next was a show at 11AM in the Fine Arts Center called “Wrecks” that was also very good.  In cowboys talk a "wreck" is a horse accident usually a bad rodeo ride that result in injury.

During the day I went to several shows with the highlight being the Ian Tyson tribute show “Fifty Years Ago: Songs of Ian Tyson” at the Marshall Auditorium performed by Corb Lund and Brent Hill.  These are two of the upcoming stars on the cowboy poetry circuit. 

The grand finale of the event was at 7:30 PM with a special concert orchestrated by Andy Hedges based on his latest album, “Roll On Cowboys” that included many of the people taking part in the poetry gathering.  Andy Hedges is definitely the new rising star on this Cowboy Poetry circuit.  There is definitely a changing of the guard taking place which is badly needed for this genre to attract the younger crowd.  This show is amazingly going to New York City soon to be performed at Carnegie Hall.

Saturday night was a really cold night in the van (That was the night I should have had the motel room) with the temperature dropping into the mid 20’s.  I was really hunkered into the sleeping bag with every blanket on me.

Sunday was full sun and warming temperatures, that felt really good.  I was sort of wondering why this Cowboy Poetry Festival didn’t continue on Sunday, but I had heard one person say on Saturday that he had a prayer meeting on Sunday.  That may be it, Sunday is a go to church day in this part of the country.  I went fro a good breakfast on Sunday morning at Judy's Bread and Breakfast Cafe and then roamed around town taking more photos.

A Texas music inspired mural

Alpine is a railroad town and entry corridor to Big Bend National Park

Great murals all over Alpine

Another favorite

The Holland Hotel in downtown Alpine

Very cool car mural in downtown

Another great one

Across the railroad tracks is the interesting Bottle House

I contacted my daughter Miranda in the morning to learn her work schedule, as she is now working as a conductor on Amtrak and is working a two days on, two days off schedule.  My plan was to extend this Alpine trip to visit her in San Antonio, Texas which is another 300 miles to the southeast.  I learned that she will be leaving on Monday for two days, returning on Wednesday evening.  As a result, I decided to stretch out my travel accordingly to get to San Antonio on Wednesday afternoon.

On Sunday afternoon I take a ride back on Rt 118 north through Fort Davis to the Davis Mountains State Park for a short hike on the Montezuma Quail Trail to the the Indian Lodge Trail.  It was a very steep, rocky trail that was treacherous in the beginning but then slacked off.  The views were great from the trail.  There are several large campgrounds here, a lodge and a skyline drive that takes you to a peak top scenic view.

Very loose rocky trail

But the views are great

View from the scenic viewpoint

Hoodoo rocks along the road to the park

I do another night on a side street in Alpine, Texas, I'll be leaving in the morning heading on route 90 east towards San Antonio, Texas.