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.