Hot springs on the Rio Grand. The other side is Mexico. Waded across for lunch in another place downstream. The border is fluid here as it has always been. Trumps wall is coming to seal it off. Anti wall movement dominates local politics in Marfa and Big Bend national park. I Crossed here in 2001 two months after 9/11. The consequences of that event continue to endanger this place.
Donald Judd world. I saw this stuff published when I was 30 and it blew my mind. Artist buys an army base, and ultimately part of a failing town and remodels it to his life. I went in 2001 but these spaces were not open. Photo note: photos are forbidden. I dunno why: every angle of photo is on the internet. So these photos were of today, shot by renegades. Off to big bend NP tomorrow Friday to hike, camp, and maybe cross the Rio grande.
Romana’s Marfa Burrito. Met the sheriff there. Dive perfection. Second photo would be the definition of palimpsest except that it’s not sacred text on vellum.
Remote adobes built by Spanish settlers. Very eccentric adobes. None other than Billy the kid was to be hanged here, but shot his captors and rode off.
“Never eat at place called Mom’s. Never play cards with a man with a city in his name. Never sleep with a woman who has more troubles than you do. “ From Nelson Algren’s gritty cross country road novel. ‘A Walk On The Wild Side’
Sacred site for proto-paiute young men on their vision quest 10,000 years ago. So what profound spiritual discovery do 15 year old boys make and inscribe? Vulvas. Carved everywhere. Archaeologists spin it as becoming one with the earth.
Bridge# in Utah. Colorado River it was once 1916 the longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi. One lane. Pre I 70. The only way over. There w as a posted spec as to how many horses, wagons or sheep could cross at once. A concrete bridge was built in the 80s after a kid playing with matches burned hi the whole canyon.
The Loneliest Road in America US 50 Nevada and Utah. Start of a 30 day road and camping trip. I have always loved this road: Basin Range - Basin Range up - down -up-down. It’s so big and empty it feels like you’re standing still at 90 mph. Back June 8.
