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I'm fixin to start planning a trip to Alpine, Fort Davis area in Sept. I haven't been there since 1960 and I was 7 yrs old. Wife has never been that direction except when we've flown over it. I really just need some ideas for a place to stay for a home base for about 3 days. I know I need to get busy making reservations. I plan to go to the McDonald Observatory and I guess that would be off limits for the .45 since it's part of UT.

OP:

Can't say I'm totally versed in the area, but have made trips
there in the past. Alpine has a few motels and is
central to the places which you intend to visit.

From Alpine, go about 18 miles down Highways 67/90 towards Marfa at
night to see the Marfa Lights. These are mysterious lights which
rise and fall in many different fashions. The State of Texas has built
a nice facility with a big parking lot and a raised structure from which
you can see the lights. It's free.

Marfa during the day: Art museums/galleries. This is the town in which
the classic Texas movie "Giant" was filmed. It was one of only 3 movies
that James Dean made before he was killed in a headon car accident in California.
There's a gal chef from the East Coast who runs a fancy restaurant in downtown
Marfa, but I can't recall her place's name.

Fort Davis is where the "Buffalo Soldiers" used to be stationed. The Indians
bestowed that title upon the black soldiers since the Indians thought
the black soldiers' hair was similar to that of a buffalo. Fort Davis is reputed
to be the best preserved fort from the days of the settlers.

From Fort Davis, travel northbound on Texas 17 and just before I-10, bring
your bathing suit for a great dip in Balmorhea Springs. IIRC, this is the largest
spring fed swimming pool in <Texas, US, world, universe?>. This place is great.
It was greatly enhanced by the WPA (Works Project Admininstration) during the
Great Depression. Balmorhea is pronounced "Bal-more-A".

It's mentioned in the great country song "Loving County", which I sometimes put in my signature
line. Loving County, TX is out by El Paso. The song is about a guy who commits
a murder to get an engagement ring for his true love, then she marries someone else, and he
"gets a chance to look up at the East Texas sky." (Huntsville Prison's death row).

I had white line fever by the time I reached Balmorhea.
Now she's in Fort Worth,
And she's just given birth
To the son of that oil company man.

Have a great trip. West Texas rocks since it's not the urban rat race side of Texas.

SIA

If you're going to Fort Davis and you and your wife enjoy staying in Bed and Breakfasts I can recommend The Veranda in Fort Davis. Although I haven't been there in the last couple of years, we've stayed there 6 or 7 times previously. Wonderful accommodations and a very nice breakfast. Here's a link: http://www.theveranda.com/

There's also a State Park, Davis Mountain State Park, just up the road from Fort Davis towards the Observatory that has a very nice Hotel. The Indian Lodge, http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/find ... ian_lodge/. Again it's been a couple of years since I attended conferences held there but it's very scenic area with nice accommodations.

As mentioned in other posts, both Alpine and Marfa are beautiful towns with a world of history and interesting things to see and do.

Oh, and the restaurant in Marfa is called, Maiya's http://www.maiyasrestaurant.com/. Open Wednesday through Saturday evening hours only I believe.

Enjoy your trip...and now I'm mad at you for making me remember all the wonderful trips I've enjoyed out there and want to go back.

Yeah thanks, the Veranda and the Indian Lodge were two of the three I was looking at along with the Holland Hotel had good reviews. I hate to rely too much on user reviews because I've read too many bad reviews on hotels we have stayed at that were good, especially in Hawaii. I think users are more likely to write reviews when they're unhappy than when they're happy.

SIA has some great suggestions. I can't toss much more in as I've only been down there once and that was 10 years ago. A little trivia Loving County is the least populous county in the US, with a population of 67 in 2000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_County,_Texas" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... ff9d1.html

OP / other interested parties:

It just so happens that the Sunday DMN, 6/20/2010 edition contained the above
story about Alpine. It contains information on places to eat, as well as lodging.

The author, Judy Wiley, is from Grapevine, TX (Tarrant County, between Dallas
and Fort Worth) and has written a number of travel stories about various Texas cities,
including Abilene, Sweetwater, and others.

One of the Alpine attractions that I was not aware of is the Museum at Sul Ross State
University. See more about it at http://www.sulross.edu./museum

Sul Ross State University has a group of rather New England-looking college buildings which are
perched on a bluff overlooking the town of Alpine. Alpine's population is 5,700.

SIA

http://our.tentativetimes.net/marfa/reatarun.html

The above link has directions and photos of the "Reata" ranch,
the ruins of which are still visible in Marfa.

The movie "Giant" was filmed here in 1955.

SIA

Going out there you are going to be well west of West, TX 76691, or did you mean west Texas?

While visiting Fort Davis and environs, you will be in the area that my grandmother grew up in. My great-grandfather was a cavalry officer out that way in the 1870s - 1890s, and a few years ago I found a picture of him hanging on the wall of the "West of the Pecos" museum in Pecos TX, the county seat of Reeves County, which also includes Balmorhea.

Pecos is up off I-20, Balmorhea is down off I-10, and Loving County is north of Reeves, so that song always was a little confusing until I was out there teaching my class and heard the locals referring to "Over 't' Balmorhea" as if it was right next door.

I was actually scheduled to conduct classes in the seven counties immediately east of El Paso, but they changed my schedule and sent me elsewhere. Maybe I was having too much fun.

west Texas, not West, Texas. A real vacation is not in the budget this year. Just somewhere we can drive to. I just want to see that part of the state again, and McDonald Observatory. Thanks for all the info. The James Dean stuff was something I didn't know about.

If you have the opportunity in your drive, go through Gail TX over on 180, and have lunch at the Coyote Cafe, great home cooking.

glbedd53 wrote:west Texas, not West, Texas. A real vacation is not in the budget this year. Just somewhere we can drive to. I just want to see that part of the state again, and McDonald Observatory. Thanks for all the info. The James Dean stuff was something I didn't know about.

Don't know if you are aware of it, but ya'll might rent the movie "Fandango". It pretty much covers the area that you will be traveling in it. Good flick, too.

As for a more recent movie that was filmed in/near
Marfa, see Robert Duvall in "No Country for Old Men".

It's very violent, but reflects the current craziness of
the Mexican drug cartels when they come into Texas,
and the relative inability of the Terrell County, Texas
(Sanderson is the main town, between Del Rio and
Big Bend) sheriff to corral all the evildoers.

SIA

I had white line fever by the time I reached Balmorhea.
Now she's in Fort Worth,
And she's just given birth
To the son of that oil company man.
"The Lights of Loving County" country song.

I just mapquested the distance from Mentone, one of the only
towns in Loving County, TX to Balmorhea, TX.

If we can assume that he is travelling from Loving County, TX
to Balmorhea, we can deduce that he isn't much of a road warrior.

He got "white line fever" after travelling only 69 miles. :-)

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:I had white line fever by the time I reached Balmorhea.
Now she's in Fort Worth,
And she's just given birth
To the son of that oil company man.
"The Lights of Loving County" country song.

I just mapquested the distance from Mentone, one of the only
towns in Loving County, TX to Balmorhea, TX.

If we can assume that he is travelling from Loving County, TX
to Balmorhea, we can deduce that he isn't much of a road warrior.

He got "white line fever" after travelling only 69 miles. :-)

SIA

It wasn't the distance that drove him over the edge. . .

Still confused, again. The girl lived in Pecos (Reeves County) and he worked in Odessa (Ector County) and he was driving to El Paso (El Paso County) when he lost his mind in Balmorhea, where the sheriff found him (Which sheriff?)

Anyway, as I contribute to massive thread drift, I looked up my old schedule and they had me scheduled to teach, starting in Reeves, in: Pecos, Brewster, Presidio, Jeff Davis, Loving, Ward, Winkler, Culberson, and Hudspeth counties, not necessarily in that order, when the company I was working for, which contracted me to the other company to teach for them, pulled me off the line and promoted me to engineer. My company had pulled in all of its contract instructors, due to a dispute about the utilization of the contract instructors. We were supposed to be three weeks on the road and a week on the shelf (at home) with all travel paid, but the other company was doing two on the road and one on the shelf, and even one for one, and we were getting paid salary, not hourly. Since all of our expenses and hours were being reported to the other company it took a while for my company to catch on to that there was a disparity between what we were being paid to do, and what they were being paid for us to do.