Recently I took my first trip since the pandemic by driving to Marfa. I am not sure how well-known Marfa is outside Texas but it is a wonderful small town with lots of art, and I just liked the idea of a road trip. (It is also the town where the 1956 movie Giant got filmed.) There is something about driving by myself for long stretches of time that clears my mind and helps me gain insights into my life. I took the scenic route, staying on I-20 until Pecos and reaching Marfa through Route 17. (Random fact: if you're going to stop in Odessa for lunch, I highly recommend the restaurant Cork & Pig.) Once I was on Route 17 I was often by myself for extensive periods of time with only the occasional oil tanker driving in the opposite direction and the experience was amazing. The backdrop of mountains was gorgeous too. Needless to say, I had taken some of my drawing and painting supplies with me to do sketches. Hopefully I will find the time to do full paintings using the photographs I took before summer is over.
I stayed at Hotel Saint George, which I highly recommend. (It is right by the railroad tracks and the train makes a lot of noise when it comes by, including in the middle of the night, but that didn't bother me.) The hotel has a great gift shop where I bought books about Donald Judd and Marfa and great-looking glasses. In the picture below, I bought the Chinati book from the Chinati Foundation after I toured the outdoors spaces, and everything else is from the hotel's gift shop, called Hey I like it here.
I saw the Prada Marfa in Valentine, TX (basically an outdoors art installation using Prada merchandise in the middle of nowhere), which was another nice drive, about 35 minutes each way on a straight road - my kind of driving. It also took me past the gates of the "Little Reata" ranch from the movie Giant and cardboard cutouts of the stars. I stopped by Hotel Paisano, which was the headquarters for the crew of the movie Giant (I liked my hotel more, but not everyone likes contemporary hotels as much as I do), had lunch at the Water Stop, which was very good. The coffee shop The Sentinel was one of my favorite haunts (I also loved the Do your thing coffee shop), and the last evening after looking in vain for an open restaurant I discovered the pizzeria Para Llevar, which was excellent. (A lot of restaurants are closed during the week, apparently. Some were closed because of the pandemic.) The staff recommended the chicken pesto pizza and it did not disappoint. I bought more drawing supplies from the Marfa Art Supply (as if I did not have enough) and walked around. When I return to Marfa, I hope to try the Al Campo and Cochineal restaurants, visit the Judd Foundation, which was not open when I was there, and see more of the art galleries.
It is funny how easily I struck up conversations with random people throughout my stay - maybe it was because I was happy to be on vacation, and proud of myself for taking the trip. That was a nice change after the past year and three months.
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