Home of that awesome band and won best thrift of all times by Charlotte and me. Also won worst motel: Clayton House with bed bugs and shoe polish stained bath towels. Just lovely…

While in Houston, I caught up with the lovely James who runs my all time favourite blog, and it was such a joy to see her, her husband Aubrey, and the little (well, not so little) family again… I really love these guys. In the heat of conversation I forgot to take pictures of those two hotties, but they’re both really outstanding photographers so check Bleubird’s blog to see why that bunch is so loveable!

And no, our train doesn’t stop at Needville, uh!

Whilst stopping in San Antonio we had to visit the Alamo. I’ve learnt a lot about the history of the US on this trip, especially looking more into the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Mexican War. However the visit of the Fort left me with an uneasy feeling. The explanations and scenography – too manichean and caricatural for my liking…

Then we headed to Port Aransas where it’s not only stupidly hot but also incredibly humid.

Oh and this is what happened each time I took my camera out: steam on the lense!!

Wow, I’ve been slacking at keeping this up to date. I must admit that posting everyday is challenging, especially in Texas as the distances between cities get huge and after a long day’s driving I feel like lounging more than anything else.

On this trip we have been thinking of Wim Wenders a lot, because although we’re not stopping in Paris, Texas (where, by the way, not one scene of the movie was shot) we have stopped in Gila Bend where he took some pictures and we spent one night at the Marathon Motel where a scene of Paris, Texas was shot. The motel doesn’t look at all like it used to in the movie (it used to be pretty worn out!) but it still has the emblematic old windmill. He must have spent a long time travelling around here for location scouting and I can relate to his fascination for these landscapes.

After spending the last 4 weeks wearing my sneakers I suddenly felt the need of wearing slightly more feminine shoes but quickly realized it was a mistake! This is no country for old men, or women for that matter.

Both in Terlingua and Marathon we have been lucky to meet some awesome people, among which Valynda from Far Flung Tours and also the generous Nancy and Buzz from Uvalde who invited us to stay with them. Unfortunately we had to pass on the invitation because of how much we’re trying to fit in our itinerary but we had a lovely time with them nonetheless. Maybe some other time!

The next morning in Marathon we met Chris, Dana and Zach and had a great breakfast together. Zach was kind enough to invite us to see his donkeys and his woodwork atelier.

Zach moved to Marathon a few years ago and built the hen house and the atelier all by himself. His next project is to build a house.

As we were preparing to leave Marathon, we came accross an unusual colourful contruction and as we stopped, the owner of the place (which is actually a B&B, check Eve’s Garden) was kind enough to give us a tour of the property… Kate, her son and daughter-in-law are building this place using an experimental cement made of recycling paper called “papercrete”.

Thank you to all the people who made our stay so much fun and so full of education.

Terlingua is a small town in the Big Bend National Park only inhabited by about 2000 people, mainly working in the various tourist attractions (water and jeep tours, hiking guides etc). However, during its yearly world championship of chili cookoff (?!)  in November, the population grows to between 10,000 to 15,000 people for a week-end..Santa Elena CanyonWhite buffalo

The day we went canoeing on the Rio Grande…Because the level of the water is pretty low, the river divides itself in several streams, juggling around stones and gravels. Theoretically the border lays on the deepest spot of the stream.

The table for the picnic stood on one the gravel limb in between streams, so we actually had our snack in Mexico.