I’m Visiting Bret in El Paso.
I convinced Tricia to come on a trip where we meeting a bunch of guys from college and watching a UT Football Game
Also coming: Lee, Bob, Lance, Bill F., Don, Josh, Gregor, Joe, Bret’s parents.
Everyone should bet on the over: UT v UTEP.
We started off the morning walking down to the Stop Start coffee shop two blocks from Padre’s and next to the radio station we were at the night before.
After procuring some replacement sunglasses for TG, we headed south on 67 toward Presidio. The skies were a full light gray overcast. There was lots of green from a wet August.
We arrived a bit too early for lunch, so after driving through the main streets of town, we took El Camino Del Rio along the southern edge of Big Bend Ranch State Park.
The clouds got even darker over the impressive mountains. We would intermittently parallel the Rio Grande, which was running turgid from the recent rains.
After a few low water crossings, we came upon Terlingua and it’s ghost town. We walked about the old murcury mining town ruins, then looked for some food. The three or four establishments that announced food were all closed.
In Study Butte we lucked upon the Rio Bravo Mexican Restaurant. Our hunger certainly helped the tastiness, but we enjoyed the meal thoroughly.
The place had five tables, the waitress was also our cook, and her four year old was our hostess.
From there we headed north again for Alpine which was over an hour away. We made it into two hours by stopping for a nap.
In Alpine, I was hoping to visit the Edelweiss Brewery and Grill, but we found it closed for two days “for cleaning”. Later I learned that it has recently changed ownership.
I also apparently missed the biggest selection of beer in West Texas at one of the local places, and instead ended up at the Lobo Bar & Grill, which did have pool tables and $1 Lone Star.
After a few games of pool we headed back to Marfa without dinner.
We found David finishing a day of hard work. We chatted with him and Rachael (from the Yard Dog). Rachael tipped us off to a free movie showing outdoors at the Thunderbird Hotel. So we spent several hours in the chilly evening watching Being There (1979, Peter Sellers).
After that we went east to the Marfa Lights Viewing Center. We did not see anything abnormal but did see some amazing stars.
We stayed for a short while then headed back and slept till 9am the next morning. A long day.
After arriving in El Paso and meeting Bret for lunch, we headed southeast for Marfa. We passed many border guards, had some good views of desert rain, and got rained on ourselves.
We met up with David at Padre’s just as he was finishing a day’s work. He directed us to the grocery store for some provisions, and Jett’s Grill in Paisano Hotel for dinner.
After a bit of rest, we’ll be joining him at the radio station. Having arisen at six a.m., we will be ready for a hard sleep if we make it till two.
You may be able to listen to me on the Marfa Public Radio, 11pm -1am Tuesday night.
After a Labor Day Weekend in Galveston, shaking a fist in warning at the distant Hurricane Gustav, I will be heading to Marfa and area, and then to El Paso.
I’ll be getting into Marfa on Tuesday, perhaps sitting in with David at the Marfa Public Radio station, 11p – 1a. I don’t currently have any West Texas plans for a few days, so if you have any pointers, let me know!
In El Paso, a dozen college friends are descending on the town for the University of Texas football game against the UTEP Miners, as well as our friend Bret’s birthday.
Bret covers the Miners for the El Paso Times. So, while he may have to spend a couple of hours that weekend being professional, we don’t!
A chronological list of my holiday weekend, with duplicates removed. It was over a week ago, but I’ve finally put it all down in writing. I have included the ratings for the beers and the games (taken from RateBeer.com and BoardGameGeek.com). The beers are ranked by percentile. The games are rated out of 10, and ranked in order.
