Thursday, July 15th: my first stop was a mere hour or so from Austin - had to have some fresh Hill Country peaches over ice cream. A real delicacy and a delicious breakfast if you ask me. *

I had gorgeous driving weather - deep azure skies dotted with an occasional bank of billowing clouds. I chose to stay the first night at the charming Balmorhea State Park cottages. These rooms were built in the 40s by the CCC and they are conveniently located directly across from the fabulous Balmorhea Springs.

This picture is totally lame, but it gives you some sense of how huge the Springs are - the area shown is about 1/4 of the total spring. To the left, in the center of the circular area, the water is about 30 feet deep. The temperature is a perfect 72 degrees.

West Texas scenery for your enjoyment.

I love the quality of the light out in deep West Texas. The contrast is always so dramatic.

After an invigorating dip in the Springs, I headed off to Alpine, Texas to enjoy dinner at the wonderful Reata restaurant. I had the best damned chicken fried steak I've eaten in a long time. Thick cream gravy with lots of black pepper. And if you think I saved room for the broccoli, you're out of your mind.

I obviously had mysterious lights on my mind at dinner. After I had finished mopping up the last of the cream gravy, I headed West toward Marfa, Texas, home of the famous Marfa Mystery lights. I arrived at the viewing area just as the sun was setting, and after a short wait was rewarded by watching the lights appear and swoop lazily around in the field next to the highway. They really are thrilling to see. On the drive back, I had to swerve to avoid a family of javelinas crossing the two lane road. What a wonderful evening!

Friday, July 16 - I headed due west from Balmorhea and ended up in El Paso, Texas at lunchtime. I was positively COMPELLED to stop at Chico's Tacos when I saw the swarms of people lined up at the counter. When I got to the counter, there were basically two items you could order: Regular or Large. And when I looked around, I observed that all the other patrons seemed to feel like these peculiar tacos were best consumed with a side of french fries, so I naturally did the same. *

These things were basically beef flautas stacked in a cardboard boat, covered with a generous ladle-full of thin tomato salsa and mounded with a lump of bright yellow cheese food product. A Fanta Orange seemed the best choice to compliment my culinary experience.