Chickens N Things

 

Trust me we are not totally insane ... ok, part way. On the way back from the Big Bend trip we decided to take highway 67 as far as we could back to the Dallas area. Again while that was a 600 mile trip we broke it into two parts and stopped in San Angelo for the night.

 

Again after a bit of computer research and ratings we settled on The Inn at the Art Center which is part of the art colony named the Chicken Farm. Yup.

 

As you come off MLK drive in San Angelo you enter the art compound.

 

This place is a working art colony with a dozen or so full time artists and many more who have shops here selling all sorts of ware. Below is a brief description of the two individuals, artist and handyman, who have developed both the art colony and the Inn.

The Inn is comprised of 4 rooms in the old chicken house proper. The view below is of the front entrance where you meet the hosts and get your keys. It also is the little breakfast room, fully stocked with whatever you may need for your stay, including fresh baked items in the morning. Our room was inside the two windows you see here to the right of the entry door.

From the view above if you turned right you would see the view below of the tremendous volume of personal art work that is available from the resident artisans.

Our room was so "way over the top" as to be unbelievable. It was about 500 square feet of hand made and polished wood and stone; absolutely remarkable. All the knot holes in the wall were drilled out so that you could put your wine corks in them adding to the ambiance. The inlay work on the wood was so clever and appeared to be very time consuming ... the room was a true work of art.

Inside the shower stall I referred to as the "grotto" was this hand laid stone pebble floor surrounded by ceramic flooring and other stone work ... all items reclaimed from nature or other wood projects.

After a great night with our friends, Sandy and Lawrence, we departed the Inn at the Art Center and passed by the highly regarded restaurant on the grounds. Unfortunately it was closed while we were there but the menu looked very eclectic and the ratings of it were excellent.

Fun trip and another must repeat place. We had never stopped by San Angelo even with Goodfellow AFB there, but will now put it on the list to do again.

After the wonderful night at the Art Center we got hungry as we approached Commanche on highway 67 and stopped into Rockin' J's Restaurant and Tavern for a burger. We weren't disappointed at all once you get by the ex gas station exterior, with the ambiance being quite nice and the food very good.

This concluded our trip with our great friends Sandy and Lawrence who got a taste of Texas that I think was far more than they were expecting. This trip really highlighted the distances, food, weather, and spectacular scenery that the western part of Texas has to offer.

Presidio

 

After touring the park we decided on a different road trip to the west of Lajitas some 40 miles to the border town of Presidio. This road is claimed by Texas Highways as one of the top 10 scenic in the country, so we had to give it a go.

 

This is a beautiful two lane road that follows the Rio Grande all the way from Lajitas to the little town of Presidio with views like below all the way. There are plenty of pull over spots to take pictures and on the day we went little to no traffic ... nice easy pace.

 

Arriving in Presidio we did some restaurant reviews and settled upon the El Patio place below. There were only a couple of choices for places to eat so we ventured in. This is a very typical place for a small town in very west Texas.

 

The place was busy but the owners hustled at an unbelievable pace; one owner here taking orders in rapid fire English and Spanish alternatively. We all had representative Mexican egg or brunch type dishes and everybody thought it was excellent ... especially for about $8 for a large plate of food.

 

On the way back down the same highway we did stop at one place for photos and here is Jo-Anne getting to wade across the Rio into Mexico.

At the same spot an adobe structure that represented the mud brick construction used successfully here for many hundreds of years.

And a rather prolific and beautifully shaped cactus ... wow!

Arriving back to our B&B we were greeted by this guy who enjoyed the last evening at the place with us.

 

This whole area of southwest Texas is a beautiful and spectacular piece of the world that should be on everyone's bucket list; but our time was up and the next day we piled into the trusty Terrain and began the trip back to Dallas.

 

The Park

 

We entered Big Bend National Park via the western entrance at highway 118 at Maverick Junction and the entrance station there. The park host was very knowledgeable and gave us our pass and a map of the place. Keep in mind that there are over 150 miles of road in the park so you'll only select a few during your stay.

 

We chose to do the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive first and were not disappointed. The first stop on the trip was at the Sotol Vista. This vista has spectacular views toward the Rio Grande about 20 miles away and is named for a particular cactus variety, the Sotol.

 



 

For thousands of years the natives would cook these plants for food and drink and use the fiber for ropes and sandals ... really neat. There was no explanation for the rock below but we assumed it was used in the preparation of this cactus for eating and other things.

 



 

After that vista we motored another 20 miles down to the river and the Santa Elena Canyon. The picture below is still from a vista above the canyon but you can actually keep on going down right to where you can walk to the river. It had just rained and was pretty muddy so we opted out of the hiking part, but spectacular nevertheless.

 

 

Now hungry we headed to the park headquarters in the Chisos Basin Area another 30 miles or so. The park headquarters, hotel, and restaurant are located there at about 7,000 feet altitude and really spectacular.

 

The view from our table to the north was great even if the local locust appeared to want to join us for some of the good food. The food was good and the gift shop well stocked with neat stuff representing all the aspects of the park. Next to the restaurant is also a small nature museum.

As we departed the Chisos area one more rocky outcropping with some pretty hardy trees caught our attention.

 

The park is so huge that you need to spend a lot more time than we did to really enjoy all aspects of its varying terrain, foliage, and animal life ... did see four road runners though. A wonderful day trip and we'll be back to see more ... maybe in a different season.

 

After a long day of touring and a large lunch all we needed was a snack for dinner back at the B&B. We stopped at the Lajitas store and were impressed by the huge selection of food and other articles; including some excellent freshly made deli sandwiches. Super day!