The cool vintage sign that welcomed us to the Tumble In RV Park in Marfa, TX.
I originally planned on only posting this photo to our Facebook Page but then decided it would be a fine addition for here as well.
Tag Archives: Texas
7 Reasons to Visit Marfa, TX
Presidio County Courthouse, Marfa, TX
Far removed from the typical tourist trail in west Texas, we discovered at least seven good reasons to take a detour to Marfa, TX.
It’s Artsy
Ever since the renowned minimalist sculptor Donald Judd made Marfa his home in the early 1970s, the area has been a magnet for the creatively inclined. Today, the town of just 1,981 residents boasts as many as 14 art galleries. Judd’s work, along with that of other contemporary artists, is still available for tour through the Chinati and Judd Foundations.
. . . and literary
Named after a character in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Marfa retains its literary legacy to this day. Over the past decade, the Lannan Foundation has housed close to 200 fellows in Marfa through its Writers in Residency program.
The wonderfully urbane Marfa Book Company in downtown draws the area’s artists and writers together. The bookstore and art gallery functions as a gathering place that routinely stages music, readings, talks and other performances.
Is regional cuisine still relevant?
Ever since the dawn of the spice trade, the work of traveling merchants has helped homogenize world cuisine. Migrants, too, bring along traditional recipes and infuse their new homes with tastes from the old country. The effect is a wonderful variety of constantly improving food, but at the expense of regional and national distinctiveness. In America, where people move freely and trade aggressively, the forces of homogenization are stronger then we often realize.
When we set out on our Great American Road Trip, we expected to be wowed by “authentic” regional cuisine. We thought, for example, we’d find the best chicken and dumplings in the Deep South, and the best Mexican cuisine along the Mexican border and throughout the South West. When we rolled into Texas, we felt like we entered the home turf of America’s all-star barbeque team, and had expectations to match.
Why France is better than Texas
A seven hour drive across the windswept nothingness of West Texas got me thinking. Not so much about Texas, but about a far away place that always leaves me a bit awestruck: France.
Long ago, on our very first trip overseas, we spent two weeks in France; moving from Paris, to Burgundy to the Loire Valley. I left that trip convinced I could spend another two years traveling the country without ever needing to visit the same place twice. There’s Normandy in the North, the Rivera in the South, Bordeaux in the West and Strasbourg in the East. Normally that would be enough for any area to claim tourism bragging rights, but in the middle of all that greatness France layers in castles, quaint towns, beautiful cities, historic vineyards, and majestic mountains. The diversity of the country is overwhelming.
Then there is Texas. Read More…
Meet Brian and Shannon
Fulltime wanderers since 2010, Brian & Shannon are traveling the world on a quest to see everything there is to see . . . at least once.
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