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.