Friday, January 28, 2011

A View of Marfa TX ...

At the bottom of the page I'll post pictures of the area and will begin with four views of/from Marfa.  As you can see this little town is smack dab in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert.  (When I mentioned this to our eldest son, Jeff, he said 'you mean there are a lot of little dogs running around out there?'  What a smarty!)

Anyway, Marfa is the county seat of Presidio County and I am posting four views from the cupola on top of the courthouse.  They actually allow the public to climb the stairs to the top ... it is breathtaking (literally and figuratively ... LOL!).  Wonderful old building.  The Methodist church we are attending can be seen in the picture marked 'north'.  (On the way out Wendell discovered that there was an elevator that would have taken us to the third floor and we would have only had to climb one [long] flight of stairs!  Oh well ...) 

Yesterday we went to Alpine and walked the downtown.  Lots of neat galleries and shops!  We stopped at the Re-Read Bookstore attached to the public library and got MORE books.  We're reading a lot in the evening!  Then we visited the Museum of the Big Bend.  A very good small museum.  They presently have a special exhibit of Texas maps.  Ate a late lunch at a portable barbeque someone recommended to us.  (Wonderful pulled pork!)  As we were eating at a picnic table outside, an Amtrak train went by; lots of border patrol around and the owner of the bbq said that lots of illegals hop trains!  Where in the world would you hide on the Amtrak!!??

Last night we downloaded some geocaches so today after lunch we're going treasure hunting!  More later ... enjoy the pix ... I'll add more below as I find something interesting.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Arrived in Marfa ...

 [The casita where we're staying in Marfa, TX.]


Wendell & I got to Marfa on Wednesday, one day ahead of schedule.  It is a small, typical-looking southwest Texas town.  About 2,100 residents.  Lots of art galleries.  There are several towns in each direction that we want to visit.  Plus the Big Bend National Park on the border is a must-see for us.  There is a large border patrol station in this town.  Lots of small humble adobe homes; also some large beautiful adobes!  Lots of churches. We have the use of two bikes so we'll be out and tour the town completely before we have to leave.

Our little adobe one-bedroom casita is very comfortable!  Interior plaster and adobe brick walls, stained concrete floors, newly remodeled, has a wonderful kitchen!  I would love to have the big gas range in my own home!  I will be spoiled before I leave here!  We'll probably eat out a lot in the evenings but I sure enjoyed making chili here last night.

Today we're going to the C of C to get a local map and see what brochures they have for Marfa and the surrounding area.  It is supposed to be in the mid-60s today.  I'll post some pictures of the area on this page.  Until later ...

Saturday, January 15, 2011

About packed ...

To say that getting ready to go to TX for a few weeks is a bigger chore than I thought is an understatement!  It's been a couple years since we went away for more than a couple weeks at a time, so I had to re-teach myself what to take and what to do around here before we leave.  I have notes pointing me to other notes!  But we're almost ready..  I did multiple loads of laundry today and dug out some summer clothes in hopes of warmer weather there.  Gotta be!

I have been working on some hooked and prodded lapel pins and am posting a step by step way to do them yourself.  Take a look on your right ...  I'll put a few steps on at a time.  It will be long but I hope informative.  Let me know what you think!

When I told a friend recently that we were waiting until now to leave she thought we were nuts but we had "stuff" to do ... places to be, people to see!  LOL!  But now it's just about in the bag ... literally.  This weather has been brutal since early December.  Bye bye IN!

I'll keep you posted on how our trip went and how we like Marfa TX!  Later ....

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Happy New Year ...

It has been a busy first week of this new year!  Whew!  But today was a little less busy.  Wendell & I have been busy preparing to go to Texas for a few weeks to get out of this cold Indiana winter.  We're lucky to have good, close neighbors who will look after our place.  I think neighborliness has almost become a lost art, don't you?  There are lots of little last minute things to do but today was spent cleaning our vehicles.  We're taking the pickup but I don't want to leave my little car sitting with salt on it this winter, so it will get a good wash before we go.  This a.m. we cleaned up and cleaned out the inside of both vehicles!  Boy, was that job overdue!  I really need to put some sort of bin in my PT to haul around the odds and ends that need to be delivered here and there!  LOL!  I know you know what I mean!

This afternoon I got over to my work room and trimmed a quilt I made several months ago to send to a veteran.  I hope I'll have time to bind and mail it out before we leave!  As I was flapping it out to lay down on the floor, after trimming, I learned a hard lesson.  Don't flap things around my new design wall!!!!!!!!!  The quilt pieces will just fly off!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh, well.  I love to mess with this anyway and only "lost" about 20 pieces, all down low.  So it was fun putting it back up.  But lesson learned...

Tonight we're going to a flood risk seminar to pick up some literature, then on to dinner at the local gun club.  Someday I plan on taking the shotgun and shooting some clays!  Believe it or not, several years ago I won a turkey by being the closest to the target with a shotgun at a turkey shoot!  I was the only woman shooting!  Bet you didn't know that about me ...

Anyway, happy new year and my God bless you richly in this new year.