Been Travelin'

For the last two weekends and then some, we've been visiting the kids. First, we drove down to Normal to spend the weekend with Greg. I finally got to hear him play his drums (he's quite good!), and he showed us what he could do on the guitar we got him for Christmas--he's quite good at that too. He's turned out to be a very musical fellow!

True to our standard Normal M.O., we availed ourselves of the many retail opportunities that abound in that town and in adjacent Bloomington. I ended up bringing home this way cool pair of madras cons:



while Jeff retuned from our foray into the slightly more eclectic downtown Bloomington with this treasure:



a tenor banjo from the 1920s!

Only a few short days after our return from Normal, we flew down to El Paso, rented a car, and drove down to Marfa to visit Rachel and Chase.



We availed ourselves of luncheon by the railroad tracks at the Food Shark truck,



enjoying our cans of Blue Sky pop



while watching a couple of local toddlers playing with some stray tumbleweeds.



We went to the rock and mineral show that was being held at the local Am-Vets hall,



where the theme was fluorescence and where I bought a blue mountain jasper cabochon and Jeff bought a lace agate cabochon.

We went thrift shopping in nearby Alpine, where Chase scored this most excellent styrofoam numeral:



We went to the elaborate and discomfiting installation at Marfa's Ballroom gallery, "Hello Meth Lab in the Sun":



This was only one of a number of rooms into which the large, usually open space had been carved. Among others were a hippie commune kitchen, an Upper East Side drawing room photo gallery, and an incinerated kitchen.

In another local gallery, we took a break from viewing art and hung out with chickens, ducks, dogs, and a cat in the venue's backyard...



We went to an art opening, and we were serenaded by two erstwhile northern Californians, Alex and Anthony, who recently moved to Marfa. They eschew the pedestrian concert circuit and instead come over to their audiences' homes, cook them dinner, and then perform their repertoire for an appreciative few at a time. Very cool.

We watched the sun set and sipped beers from Rachel and Chase's backyard shed under the watchful eye of the border drug blimp. You can see it below--it's the blurry darkish spot to the left of the pole, about halfway up.



Only too soon, the weekend was over and we had to bid farewell yet again to Marfa--I'm sure we'll be back, though, to chill in the high desert!