fun in frisco

that is texas folks, not the san fran of california.

on our way out of austin towards oklahoma city, we stopped for an overnight visit with an old highschool friend and her family.they made up the bed complete with happy garland...and a welcome sign...and cameras...we had a snacky dinner that now has me pining for such snacks on the road and then we hit up the sno-cone lady for some icy cold goodness...and rock gathering.that evening we played the ukes accompanied by recorder and drum. in the morning we had pancakes, played go fish and did a school drop off. the visit was far too short but since we were on the BIG road trip, it was time to head out. next stop, oklahoma!

say hello to the great plains and skyscrapers

5/24 Austin to Dallas
Heading north from Austin led us out to the great plains and into the freeway tangle of Dallas. We took a break in West, Texas for some tasty Kolaches for lunch and had a brief public sculpture walk in downtown Dallas.And as promised, for the nephew a-go-go here we found some excellent skyscrapers (and some bronze bosoms but not for the nephew a-go-go).

we lurve you austin (oh yes we dooo)

after an eight hour drive we finally spotted the austin city skyline. after a slighlty chaotic dance through some crazy traffic, we found ourselves in east austin. as we wove our way to the second flickr stop of the trip to erin's happy place, we were welcomed with a kaleidoscope of color. east austin is a lot like the small pockets of los angeles with its kooky colored houses and brightly painted buildings. i could feel at home here.

we pulled up to erin's happy house with its red dutch door and chatted away like old friends. she is as sweet as i imagined ans just as funny. once her guy came home we trekked on over to local favorite, the shuck shack where mr. a-go-go & i split a catfish poor boy and enjoyed the warm humid night and excellent company. the next morning we were up for a south congress adventure as erin planned to give us a tour of one of her favorite streets packed with color and fun. she had planned a meet up with another flickr friend (hi melinda!) who arrived with hugs and smiles as if we had always known each other. after some tasty breakfast tacos and crazy coffee concoctions at jo's we were on our way.south congress reminds me of melrose from its eighties heyday. quirky shops, lots of color and crowded with people enjoying the city. we sampled a piece of chocolate covered bacon, picked up postcards, took jumping photos and had yet another lovely meet up in between with dee & her daughter. we all had so much fun i imagined i could live in this artful city.after a filling lunch from chuy's our group got smaller and the rest of us went in search of a working photobooth. we never found one. after cramming ourselves into one at one off the amy's locations we planned our shots, stuffed our dollars in and got all cheek to cheek and fish faced but the strip never came out. we hopped in the car and drove to another amy's location and wedged into the much smaller booth there only to find it didn't even want eyes and fish faces anyway. we are nothing if not adaptable.after a few more stops to visit with melinda's brother & sister-in-law's soon-to-be-opened shop, we ended our day and relaxed into the evening sharing stories and going over the many, many photos i took. i am so very happy to have finally visited austin and to have met these wonderful women in real life. if only we had more time to really explore the city and see it's galleries and museums. we'll be back, we will. we'll be back to play ukes with erin, listen to ben's awesome record collection, thrift with melinda, cook with dee and of course visit the friendliest, if not craziest, whole foods i have ever encountered. austin, we quite liked you!

drive all day and still in Texas!

5/21 Marfa to Austin
Friday morning it was time to pack up and make our all day run across Texas. We had folks to meet in Austin 430 miles away, so after jamming camp back into the car and preparing a light breakfast of fruit and nuts we headed east on the 90. First photo stop was the larger than Marfa but still small town of Alpine.
With a whole day of driving I thought this stretch might get a bit tedious but the changes in scenery and sky came often enough to keep our attention. In California it's possible to drive all day and never leave the state, as long as one is driving north or south, and we have done just that on previous trips. However, in those cases we were covering very familiar and frankly boring territory on interstate 5. Crossing west Texas was new enough and with the help of some pod casts the driving didn't drag.

The road to Alpine was just like what we had covered on the way to Marfa, marvelously flat with sharp hills just visible in the far away morning haze and clouds just out of reach to the southeast. Past Alpine the land changed dramatically. After climbing some craggy hills the road dropped into more open plains but with buttes! The first textbook buttes of the trip... flat tops and defined drops at both sides turning into weathered slopes. Even the road cuts here exposed a new sort of geology to view. In California the road cuts in sedimentary rock unfailingly show a folded and upended geology of violence. Near the San Andreas fault the layers are on edge and turned on themselves with diagonal offset slashes of thrust faults. Here the layers of rock lay in tidy horizontal batches of cake and icing. The butte tops look to have been leveled by a mason. The air had changed scent and got heavy like the still distant clouds were promising rain.

By the time we reached Ozona on interstate 10 the landscape had changed again. Low desert scrub and dry grass became juniper and cedar forest and the highway dipped over endless hills. Another highway, 290 toward Austin, and the land and sky changed again. Under dense overcast and more hot humid air the trees turned to oaks thinned by grazing cattle and goats. The highway shoulders were itching with spring color and we took some time to gawk at the wild flowers.


The highway dropped into Fredericksburg, with its long stretch of cream colored stone buildings. Here, the name of the local convenience store necessitated a photo stop (jek is one of mrs. a-go-go's other pseudonyms).

Past Fredericksburg there was more grazed oak forest but it steadily gave way to more small communities and then to thicker development and traffic.Finally, the store fronts became colorful as we left the highway for the riot of Austin.

el cosmico a-go-go

el cosmico just may be our new favorite place. okay, maybe not mr. a-go-go's but i don't know. he is currently swaying in the breeze, napping away on an orange stripey hammock footsteps away from our tent. i think it's safe to say he likes it.we arrived at el cosmico around 2pm after driving way way way past its road and having to backtrack about nine miles or so. it's in the middle of the desert and so the temps are warm, if not hot, dry and windy. if you're wondering what in the world i'm writing about, el cosmico is a tiny speck in a tiny town for you to rest yer weary head. from tent sites to yurts to vintage trailers there is a lot to choose from at all price ranges. for twenty smackeroos a night, mr. a-go-go and i have a tent in the shade (if yer the only tent camper you get shade, otherwise you are left out in the open, like a first come, first served dealio), access to a clean outdoor bathroom with showers and tub even, views of trees, teepees, yurts and trailers, use of an outdoor kitchen, free wifi and the company of the el cosmico cat. take that super 8 and yer stinky, mildewy air conditioned, forty-five dollar rooms! once we pitched our tent, mr. a-go-go and i headed out to the outdoor kitchen to add some eats to the fridge and scarf down a peanut butter and (pilfered) jelly sandwich before it dried to cracker consistency. i have decided that i want an outdoor kitchen complete with old metal drum tables, oilcloth decor, wasps nests and wooden stools. the view was nice as the cool breeze tickled the hair on our necks. swifts flew by and hovered like helicopters into the weedy green leaves of the wildflowers that were planted about. off in the distance you can see the white fabric of the yurts billowing in the wind and the tiny specks of new arrivals as they wheel their camp goods to their accommodations in heavy yellow meshed wagons.it's a pretty large chunk of property, kinda like a fairground but not THAT large. no cars are allowed on the grounds so you haul in your goods by way of bright yellow wagons. the yurts are the first accommodations you see (in house-wise), sprouting up all weed-like in a cluster just past the funky open air bathroom. they are of a pretty good size and i hear they have nicely made up beds and bits of pretty inside, i can't say it for sure as i never got to peek inside one as a good number of our fellow el cos-amigos were camping out in them.if there are campers, like we a-go-gos, you would actually arrive at our crayon colored tents before the yurts and trailers as the campsites spring up first along the windy dirt path that weaves around the property. el cosmico only just opened in november 2009 and so i won't judge them too harshly for their lack of trees at the designated campsites of which there appeared to be five or so. seriously, no shade. we popped our tent up off the beaten path under a sparse apple green tree and right next to a happy hammock. sarah, our guide gave us permission so we followed suit after the other lone tent that we saw snuggled up to a hammock across the path from us.up the path from camp and to the right were the trailers. if this were a trailer contest, el cosmico would come in a fair second to the shady dell. though, i have to admit, the extra outdoor showers that were porched in front of a select few trailers may tip it into a tie. very convenient. just past the trailers and a little further left at the end of the path that becomes all pretty paired up with flowering plant after flowering native plant you arrive at the outdoor kitchen that contains an oilcloth covered table. a series of stools to perch upon, fridge, sink and hot plate. there is also an old school bar-b-que out back that some of our el cos-amigos were putting to use when we arrived to cook up a curry dinner. el cosmico is pretty nifty though we a-go-gos don't think we'd want to be there on the weekend. not a bad thing, we're just not the beer guzzling type and like to noodle about camp with our ukes and books and hammock napping. we're early risers and our fellow amigos seemed to be late-to-bedders so if yer looking for some midnight bonding with assorted hipsters, the weekend may be a good bet. the place also offers free wifi in its considerably cooler-than-outside (as in temperature) lounge. the lounge closes at 7pm (and has a resident cat) but if you've a good battery on yer laptop you can park it at the outdoor tables under the happy strings of red, red lights.the bathroom at el cosmico is pretty cool too but not for everyone. there is an illusion of privacy that is pretty good as i think since yer all in the same boat everyone attempts to honor it but if yer not comfortable squatting next to a stranger with a series of wooden boards between ya, this may not be the place for you. but it is much more modern than the average questionable pit toilets you encounter at most other campsites. the toilets at el cosmico are clean and flushable. and there is something about taking a shower out in the breeze (don't worry, you're not OUT out there) that makes ya feel free.after two days, we were settling in for a longer stay but the weekend was upon us and we had to get our tails to austin to visit with some awesome flickr friends and you know, hunker down for the Lost series finale. if you plan a visit to el cosmico, make sure to wander the tiny artsy town of marfa, they have some good eats at the pizza foundation, lots of public art and things to photograph and if you get too hot, there's a DQ to hit and sugar up at.after our stay we woke up with the birdies and drove eight straight hours through tiny towns and pretty scenery to austin, texas where we got our flickr on!

pass to the cosmic wide open

3/19 El Paso to Marfa, Texas
El Paso did not give us a good first impression the day before. Traffic was especially crazy and impatient coming into town and the neighborhood where we landed was really very unappealing. Wednesday morning opened with our plan to head to Marfa right away and get out of what seemed like an unbearable city. The drive would only take three hours, and mrs. a-go-go had received a recommendation for a thrift store on the south side of town. She thought her wardrobe for the trip had come up short one solid color t-shirt, and maybe the stock at the thrift could fill the hole. It took a bit of hunting but we found the thrift. The detour took us through some more colorful and less hectic parts of town.We waited for the doors to open at 10am while watching a line form to get in the door... popular place, huh. Meanwhile people were actually gave a friendly, "Hola" as they passed. Shew! I'm glad the whole city isn't a crazy rushed hell-fire.

New wardrobe in hand we merged back onto I-10 east. The roads we had traveled up to this point had often made the car seem tiny in an ocean of hazy blue above and great wide tan canvas to the left and right. However, leaving the 10 at Van Horn to follow the 90 to Marfa the WIDE of West Texas curled back at the distant edges until we rode on the top of an enormous sphere. Really! I've never seen the curve of the earth like this with out riding an airplane to 20,000 feet. The picture at the top of the post cant take it all in. No picture ever could.

The flat rolled on until we reached the Marfa Welcome. We checked into El Cosmico, a swell place in Marfa where you can stay the night camping or in a yurt, tepee, or vintage trailer. mrs. a-go-go is working on a post describing El Cosmico so I'll leave it at that. We had time for a hammock nap and made dinner in the fading wide daylight.

from fresh juniper to the rotting stink of motel AC

3/18 Silver City to Gila Cliff Dwellings to El Paso, TexasUp as early as we could manage, we started the drive north on highway 15 from Silver City to Gila National Forest and the cliff dwellings. It turns out that starting out at 7ish was a good idea (normally I would have pushed to get out earlier to catch the dawn light) because the gate to the cliff dwellings doesn't open until 9am. The road north is only about 45 miles but it winds and dips like an agitated snake. That and and our normally pokey driving makes the trek about two hours long. Due to high water damage this winter the end of the road is closed to the trail head. The hike is normally a short but steep one mile loop. We parked near the washed out bridge following the posted directions at the visitor center a bit down the road. From there the hike round trip is about three miles. The morning was nice and cool yet, and we were only the second visitors of the day. The first part of the hike up a narrow canyon with lots of small foot bridges and wild grape vines was fairy tale idyllic. The cliff dwellings have had a long history of looting and defacing so they are well guarded by the park staff. We were met at the trail head by two swell rangers who were eager to answer questions, and to let us know that there was another ranger already up at the site keeping an eye out and waiting to meet us there.

I am glad we made the trek to the site. Even with all of the damage and well meaning restorations of the past 200 years it remains an impressive site. Here I'll let mrs. a-go-go's pictures do the talking again. Be sure to look for more of her super-duper images at the link at the top right under the header picture. It may take her a bit to get them all up. Here's a sample:





After all that walkin' and pokin' around, we took advantage of a shady picnic table near the visitor center for lunch. Fred, at the Silver City motel, had told us of the hot spring that was in walking distance from the visitor center up the middle fork of the Gila River so we took a short hike to try to find it. Alas, either our directions were faulty or the recent high water had washed out the small pools formed with loose rock walls in the river bank. Oh well, we needed to make tracks for Texas to get at least with in striking distance of Marfa, our destination for Wednesday.The drive got flattish and lonely again as we left the Gila National Forest. Not much to say about the drive but when we at last saw the edge of Texas sign we were tired and snippy. To get the photo of the sign required a small snit about where to stop and how to get off the highway. Guh! It's the sort of inevitable thing on a trip like this I suppose but we got the pic anyhow and cheered up. A bit further and we were in El Paso, Texas where we figured to hunker for the night. A Super 8 motel came along and we bit. I suppose that we should have held out for the Red Roof Inn, because the AC in our room made an icky stink in the room. Boy, that part of El Paso was real unfriendly like to pedestrians as we struck out on foot to find dinner. We settled on Subway after witnessing the lack of anything but fast food in reach. So we didn't get a good impression of El Paso until morning, but that is another post.