Today, we left Carlsbad, New Mexico, bound for Marfa, Texas. We weren’t too far down the road when we came upon a pleasant surprise- Guadalupe Mountains National Park. How one just stumbles upon a national park, I don’t know. If we were better planners we would have noticed that we would be passing another national park. It’s not exactly rest-stop-sized. If we were better planners we would have made sure we made time for it. However, we are only sort-of-kind-of following a plan so what’s a few hours to stop and drink up God’s beauty and get my “passport stamp”. I gotta have my stamps.
Remember what I said about planning? Well my map app and I don’t get along too well. We had been on the road about an hour after leaving the park and I was talking to my dad when Brent says, “I need to talk to you.”
Uh oh.
Brent - Were we supposed to turn back by the park?
Me – I don’t think so. This is our road. I think…
(Please God, let it be so.)
I look at my phone which has horrible reception and the map page won’t load. Of course. Finally, it loads and…we missed the road.
We. missed. the. road.
Again.
What is the navigator supposed to do??
Cry.
Sob.
Sob big giant tears and choke out, “Maps are just so hard for me. I’m a girl. My brain doesn’t work like yours.”
Yes, I admit I actually said, “I’m a girl.”
I know. (Boo. Hiss.) For the record, I don’t really believe that but I’m not above using it when it could get me out of potential trouble.
Brent, the sweet loving husband that he is, told me a few minutes later that it was okay because I was just “lost in the moment enjoying myself”. Enjoying myself I was. The vast barren landscape of west Texas is almost too beautiful for me to bear. I could stare at the horizon for hours. It’s a good thing because we had hours to go.
We pulled into Marfa, an eerily quiet town, hungry. It was already dark so we stopped at the first and only place we saw with a light on, Pizza Foundation. Unfortunately, they were out of pizza. They sent us down the empty street to Cochineal. One minute it felt like we were in a nearly deserted ghost town and then next minute it felt like we were in a trendy LA restaurant. Chochineal was full of hip folk and couldn’t seat us for 45 minutes. We headed back out into the empty streets to find Jett’s Grill at the Hotel Paisano.
The hotel is best known for housing the cast and crew from the classic movie Giant. After driving up and down the quiet streets, we finally found it and stumbled in tired and hungry from the long day of driving. Like Chochineal the patronage of the restaurant didn’t seem to match the town. There was a Woodey Allen lookalike in one corner, a hippie with skin tight purple capri pants and pilgrim shoes in another, a family whose young child disappeared halfway through dinner a few tables over, and us.
To add to the already surreal evening we pulled into Tumble In campground to this.
An empty “office” and an empty campground.
Love and Laughter,
Jenn
December 8, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Reading this actually made me a bit green with envy of your trip. It’s everything that road trips are about: getting lost, encountering strange and new places and empathetic husbands. Great post!
December 11, 2011 at 6:13 am
Thank you Michelle. I suppose in hindsight it was pretty amazing. The day of…not so much! Ha ha! xoxo
December 8, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Oh my on that “office”!! That is too funny! The whole map thing is funny (in retrospect of course!)
Love all the pics!
December 11, 2011 at 6:15 am
Thank you!! It was all very surreal. I half expected to wake up and the office be gone!
December 8, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Courtney can certainly commiserate with you. I love her dearly, but not for her map reading skills. After just a few days of driving she took us down a two-lane dead-end road and I had to do a u-turn with a 30 foot trailer on a 20 foot wide street. Im enjoying reliving our trip through yours. Safe travels.
December 11, 2011 at 6:16 am
Two-lane-dead-end-road? Oh no! That’s funny! In hindsight, of course! Thanks for reading!
December 9, 2011 at 6:49 am
Wow, hipsters and people in purple pants? Crazy randomness in such a twighlight zoney way! I love the tile on that floor of that hotel- looks like it’s from the 20s.
Loved the previous 4 posts too- the photos of the scenery are amazing. And you are a beautiful model in your ‘new’ duds. The Cave looks otherworldly and I totally forgive you for saying “but I’m a girl” I’m sure I would have done the same thing
And meow cow is really trying to figure out the aliens- he’s such a clever little boy. I’ll disagree about the bats though- not cute in my book- I guess my mom brainwashed me by calling them flying rodents. But then again, you’d love them all the more now!
keep having a blast!
December 11, 2011 at 6:20 am
Oh Debs you should have seen the purple pants guy! I love an unique sense of fashion but this was almost too much (in a good-wow-really way). Not only did he have on the skin tight puple capris with pilgrim shoes, he had loooooong braids and a red Axl Rose bandana with wire rim glasses. I’ve never seen an ensemble quite like it! You and Derek would love Marfa!
Flying rodents? Yes! Do they come in unusual sizes? xoxo