Yuki (and Brody's) RV Adventures: Alpine, Marfa and Fort Davis Texas

Greetings from West Texas!!

We are spending 5 days in the the small Texas towns of Alpine, Marfa and Fort Davis. Our RV park is in Alpine, the largest of the three towns. Alpine is in Brewster County, the largest county in Texas, three times the size of Delaware! As you can see in the picture of us above, no green grass, but lots of prickly burrs that get caught in my paws, ouch!!

We parked our RV next to our friends, Jerry and Charlie from Oxford, Mississippi. It was good to see them again.

One day we visited Fort Davis to walk around the old cowboy town

After that we went on a tour of the McDonald Observatory. A world leader in astronomical research, it sits atop Mts. Locke and Fowlkes and benefits from some of the darkest skies in the nation.

We got to go inside and I couldn't believe how big the telescope was.

We also visited Fort Davis National Historic Site. It was one of the most important posts in

frontier defense in the late 1800's The infantry gave protection to the immigrants, freighters and mail coaches from raids by the Apache and Comanche Indians in the area.

Starting in 1876, the fort was home to African-American soldiers who became know as Buffalo Soldiers.

We spent the next day in Alpine,

visiting the shops, and sights

and having lunch at the Reata. Check out Mom's chile relleno, sure wish she had saved me a bite!

Marfa is another small west Texas town,

famous for being where the classic movie Giant was filmed. It was James Dean's final picture and also starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and Dennis Hopper.

They all stayed at the Hotel Paisano.

We visited the courthouse

and climbed all the way to the top of the dome to see the sights.

Visitors from all over the world come to visit the Chinati Foundation, housing the work of Donald Judd, the renowned minimalist artist. Although, to be perfectly honest I am not sure why. Brody and I just shook our heads in amazement as we walked around the grounds looking at his "15 untitled works of concrete".

I have to admit, we skipped paying to go inside to see his 100 untitled works in mill aluminum, peeked in the window and it was just long rows of aluminum boxes. Maybe my artsy friend Mary can educate me as to the significance of his work.

The next day we visited the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Garden. I loved walking around looking at all the beautiful cactus, just had to make sure to keep my distance so I would't get pricked.

My favorite time of day is sitting around outside before dinner.

Brody loves it too, but his main goal is to lick dad's beer bottle. I don't like it at all.