Texas!

El Paso

We enjoyed our one night stay at the Stanton House in El Paso. The hotel is nicely appointed, and though we didn’t make use of the spa, it still was a good alternative to camping in the rain. We had dinner at a great restaurant that felt so different from the bay area. It was clearly a place people came for special occasions, and the restaurant played its part, with lots of very well dressed waiters hovering over every table, a good wine list and some purely for show gestures, like bringing a mini coat rack next to every woman, so she can hang her purse on it. I can hear the eyes of every Berkeley-ite rolling at how un-woke that is. Why assume that only the woman has a purse? And with the constant “yes m’aam” and “yessir”, they are making assumptions about people’s gender preferences…

The following day we briefly visited El Paso Museum of History and El Paso Museum of Art. They were both free, and had interesting exhibitions. Together with the nice hotel, the excellent dinner we had the night before, it was a really nice welcome to Texas. Alas, we couldn’t stay long. We had a reservation for two nights at Marfa.

Marfa

The road from El Paso to Marfa starts out going along the Rio Grande, the natural border between Mexico and the US. After dome time it goes due east for a bit, and then again goes south east through the desert towards Marfa. At that point the road just goes straight on a mostly flat terrain. There is a stretch of about 40 miles where the highway just goes in a straight line.

There is almost nothing there. A small town or an occasional bump on the road are all the excitement you have in this 40 minute stretch of desert highway. But then, out of the blue, we got the first hint that we were approaching Marfa -

A Prada storefront, in the middle of nowhere. Turns out it is called Prada Marfa and is a sculptural art installation. It even features in a recent “The Simpsons” episode. After some more uneventful highway driving we got to Marfa, and quickly familiarized ourselves with the tiny tiny town. It has an interesting history, and became known as an artistic destination in the 70s, when the artist Donald Judd acquired properties in town and started making art there. Over the years he created a foundation and a permanent collection that can be viewed….only if you come to Marfa. There are several interesting articles about it if you are curious.

The highlight of our visit was a tour of the Chinati foundation’s collection, which features works by Judd and other artists. The foundation is located in an old US Army cavalry base that was shut down in the 40s, and stood in disrepair until Judd bought most of it in the 70s and turned it into the foundation. Some of the art in it was created for the location itself, and the structures that house it are considered part of the work (Judd did not believe in the distinction of sculpture vs. paintings vs. other forms of art. For him it was all artwork). I think he was a purist - he wanted this art to be displayed only in the foundation in Marfa, never in Museums, and wanted viewers to focus on the art, so no one is allowed to take pictures. There are strict rules about not taking into the foundation anything that might fall like a backpack or a mug, because if it did fall and damage any of the art, it might cause irreparable damage. There is metal sculpture made of two large cone like objects that are exactly the same. If one would get dented, they would no longer be the same and would both have to be melted and re-cast, because being identical is part of the definition of that particular piece.

The tour was really interesting. Our guide was a bit pretentious, talked a bit too much and gave us a bit too little time to appreciate the works, but it was still quite an impressive tour. There is a major piece which is probably the center of the foundation’s collection, which consists of 100 very large aluminum boxes, arranged inside two large hangars. You can see pictures of them in this article (remember, we were not allowed to take photos). The workmanship is truly exceptional, and the aesthetics are captivating. I am not very big on conceptual art, but there was something truly mesmerizing in walking around looking at those giant silver boxes.

That night we came back to another installation - the base’s hospital - which is right at the edge of town. The night was dark and the sky was clear, and we stayed there for a while looking at the stars. The sky is so full of them, but you can rarely see them anymore, especially when you live in a large metro area like we do.

Our Airbnb in Marfa was also a bit special. It was built in the space between two stores, and measures 9 by 25 feet. It is truly tiny. The shower is behind it, outside, and the inside walls are very clearly the outsides of the two stores. It was a nice gimmick for the two nights we stayed.

The drive from Marfa to Austin, our next stop is 6.5 hours long. It was our longest single day distance thus far. The drive is not especially noteworthy, it is mostly in high desert middle of nowhere type terrain, and only as you get closer to Austin does it start to have more frequent signs of human habitation.

We didn’t know this ahead of time, and if we did we might have planned thins differently, but about an hour out of Austin is Fredricksburg, which is the first in a long string of cities referred to as the Texas “German Belt”. There are wineries nearby, and a museum commemorating WWII’s Pacific front, which Fleet Admiral Nimitz commanded. He was born in Fredricksburg. President Lindon B. Johnson was also born in this area. By the time we got to this are we were tired from the long drive and just wanted to get to Austin. I guess we left some stuff tor next time.

Austin

Austin was great. After spending two nights here, I totally get why so many people are moving here. The energy of this place is great, it has a lot of young people, tons of nice restaurants, bars and nightlife, and is generally clean and really pleasant. It has a good progressive vibe (anecdotally, someone complemented me on my Green New Deal t-shirt), and is very bikeable. Everyone is doing sports of one kind of another, and they even have outdoor Yoga!!

A friend of my daughter who is going to school here, gave us a tour of the city and we spent a good amount of time with her. It was great to see a familiar face after almost a month of traveling. We will definitely come back!