Posted on March 13, 2015
We left Big Bend National Park with the intention of heading straight to New Mexico. But when I started to see signs for Marfa, Texas, something in the brain clicked. “I know this place! I heard of this place!” I told Dan that I don’t really know what the small town has to offer, but it might be worth spending the night, seeing as the sun is already setting. We pulled into Tumble Inn RV around 8 o’clock and immediately felt warm when 5 of the 14 spots were occupied by Airstreams. We checked ourselves in and paid for a night in their customer run office, which just happens to be an adorable 1962 Mobile Scout. So dreamy! That night after dinner we drove through the tiny, one street light town, and ended up at the Marfa Mystery Lights lookout. The mystery lights are strange bursts of light that can be seen over the empty land that surrounds Marfa. They don’t appear every night, but many people have been lucky enough to witness the phenomenon. Supposedly they were first seen by Native Americans hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but were made popular by the people who settled here afterwards. We’re not sure if we saw the mystery lights or heat lightening in the far distance, but I just keep telling myself we saw them.
The following day we woke up early, got in an extremely necessary shower after camping for a week, and decided to explore the town. We sipped on lattes at Squeeze, drove around the back roads, and ate a delicious lunch at Comida Futura. We hitched up The Toaster and decided to hit the road after half a day, but we made a necessary pit stop at the famous Prada Marfa art installation. So weird!
Marfa is an interesting little town. With a population of 1,800 people and one traffic light, there isn’t much to do besides be inspired. This resulted in unique food joints, garages turned into art galleries, and a diverse group of characters just trying to support themselves with their art.
Marfa was a short adventure…but I’m glad it happened.
Bye!
-Toni
Posted on January 11, 2015
-Ernst Tinaja hike was really cool.
-Top of Mariscal Mine hike!
-Rio Grande River, Mexico was spitting distance away.
-Ended up in Marathon, TX on the way out of Big Bend. Cool town!
If you want to be away from civilization, cell phone service, and electricity, Big Bend National Park is the place for you. We hadn’t done much “camping” up until this point. We can say we’re permanently camping, but we have a Sleep Number mattress in the bedroom, a shower, and heat. Let’s be real, we’re glamping.
We stocked up on water and food, filled our propane tanks, let our families know we’d be checked out of civilization for a little bit, and started the trek south. Everywhere you look in Big Bend looks like a desktop wallpaper. The views are impeccable, the sunsets are out of this world and the stars are brighter than we thought possible. We did a couple hikes at Ernst Tnaja, Mariscal Mine, and the Chisos Mountains. They were strenuous, but each one made you feel like you earned something by the time you were done. We took lots of long drives, on both dirt roads and paved roads. We spotted a wolf, a baby fox, an falcon, and a family of Javalenas. They were too fast for photographical purposes, but we were excited either way.
We will both agree that our favorite memory from Big Bend, and one of our favorites from the trip thus far, was the night we spent in the hot spring. One night, around ten o’clock, we slipped on our swimsuits, threw on our coats, and drove a few miles to the famous hot spring that is attached to the Rio Grande. The Rio Grande is essentially the border between Mexico and the U.S. It was pitch black while we were driving the winding dirt road leading to the site. The moon hadn’t risen yet and we were both pretty spooked. We parked and clung to each other tightly, walking the dark path to the hot spring. After half a mile we spotted it. We ripped off our coats and hopped right in. 110 degrees! What! We lounged in the spring, with our heads rested on the stone wall bordering it, and watched the moon rise over Mexico. We kept looking at each other and saying, “Is this real?!”
On our way out of southern Texas we stopped at a town just outside of Big Bend that caught our attention on our way down. Marathon, Texas is a quiet, rural town with a population of 430 people. We snapped a few photos and grabbed a sandwich at a local grocer. The town had so much character. We didn’t want to leave.
Texas has been good to us so far. Now it’s time to start heading West!
-D&T
Posted on January 11, 2015
-Our site at McKinney State Park was beautiful!
-Spent Toni’s birthday in the North Loop neighborhood.
-Happy Thanksgiving!
-Hamilton Pool outside of Austin is definitely a site to see!
Austin Austin Austin. I (Toni) could go on forever. We pulled into Mckinney Falls State Park the day before my twentieth birthday and I was instantly the happiest I had been in awhile. The air was fresh, the trees were yellow and orange, and our campsite was perfect. We knew we were going to be spending over a week in Austin so we spent a couple hours getting set up and comfortable. We strung our bistro lights from the trees, put our chairs around the fire, set up the grill, made the inside feel like home again, and bought some firewood. Moving around a lot is fun, but sometimes just staying put somewhere for a decent amount of time is better. The trailer starts to feel like home again and you truly get the feel for a place. The next morning I woke up and I was twenty years old. Where did the time go? I immediately felt like I should have gotten in more trouble when I had the chance! But when I took a second to calm down, and came to the realization that I can’t be a teenager forever, I realized that I had done pretty damn well so far in life. I started this trip when I was nineteen years old. I already have a year of college down, I saved up enough money to support myself on this adventure, and I am so happy I can’t even believe it half the time. We decided to spend the day, eating tacos at Taco Deli (so good you won’t believe it!), drinking chai at Epoch’s, wandering in and out of the vintage shops in North Loop, watching Willow play with puppies at the park, and eating pumpkin pie and cupcakes at a local bakery. We winded down around a bonfire back at the State Park. I ate about five s’mores and I don’t remember being upset about it!
The next day was Thanksgiving! Our favorite! Not being with our families was strange, and new for the both of us, but we had fun and tried something new. Thanks to a helpful recommendation from Laura, our friend we met at the dog park, we ate our Thanksgiving dinner at Casa De Luz. Casa De Luz is a communal space in Austin with yoga, day care, art classes, and a buffet style of all meals for a fixed price. The food is all organic, vegan, and absolutely delicious. When we first walked in we were told to grab tea and water, a bowl of soup, and a plate of salad. Once we finished with our first course, a cook brought us our main dish. A vegan style Thanksgiving was right up our alley. We indulged in mashed sweet potatoes, garlic kale, quinoa, green beans, cranberry sauce, and probably something else that I am forgetting! We finished off our meal with a slice of cherry pie and off we went, with our pants unbuttoned under our jackets. It’s not a proper Thanksgiving dinner if you’re not busting from the seams after, right?
The rest of our days were spent hiking at the State Park, stuffing our stomachs with tacos, exploring downtown Austin, taking Willow to the puppy groomer, decorating the toaster for christmas, eating from food trucks, taking photos, drinking whiskey around the bonfire, and doing everything we could to win a stuffed donut at the carnival down the street.
I think it’s safe to say we both left a piece of our hearts in Austin. Maybe we’ll be back for good after this trip.
Bye for now!
-Toni
