Worth a turn-around

In spite of a loooong driving day ahead, we did something we seldom do while hauling the trailer: A double turnaround in order to peruse a roadside sight that defied understanding while zipping by.

We were off the interstate, thankfully, but still unable to get stopped in time to see what was up - did that sign on a small odd structure surrounded by seemingly endless miles of creoste/grasslands really say Prada Marfa?

Stopped, pulled over, turned around, went back, turned around again, and sure enough, that’s what it said.  Seems the rather startling structure is a permanent art installation that was constructed in 2005 near the town of Marfa.  A website informed me that it is modeled after a Prada boutique, and that the inaccessible interior includes luxury goods from Prada’s fall collection of that year.  In my humble opinion: Bizarre!

The floodgates opened with that stop; my mindset instantly transformed from “Gotta keep going as fast as possible with stops only for fuel and emptying of tanks” to “Ooh, lookit that; stop, lemme take a picture”.  I got away with it for a couple of times until the señor reeled me back in with a reality check about how many miles lay ahead of us still to traverse.

Texas kin in Valentine . . .

As we approached the tiny burg of Valentine, he recollected that we had had Means kin there way back.  His memory was right on: John Zack Means and his wife Cynthia Gay had settled there in 1884, just three years after the railroad was punched through that region.

Our Means kin and associated ancestral families, Kelleys, Senterfitts, etc., came to Texas from Louisiana, no doubt driven out by mosquitoes (that’s my theory, anyway).  In addition to Jeff Davis County, they settled in Lampasas, San Saba & Edwards counties.

Yup, there was another stop when we spied a bunch of plaques installed in front of a sandstone-sided building, one of the few structures in Valentine that was not abandoned nor made of adobe.  Most buildings were leaning precariously and in danger of collapsing.  I thought perhaps there would be a mention of our kin on the plaques, but instead, it appeared to name folks who contributed to the library, the building in question.

Now I am fraught with regret that I could not stay to photograph Valentine’s crumbling vine-covered buildings!  They were exceptionally picturesque, and I so much wanted to.

A UFO . . .

All things of exceeding interest seemed to be bunched up close.  An unidentified flying object suddenly appeared in the sky ahead of us; peering intently up at it answered no questions despite squinting our eyes to slits.  

As we drew nearer, our curiosities were sated by signage at a drive that we mere mortals were admonished not to enter.  Seems the “thing” is a tethered aerostat radar system, which is designed to provide low-level radar surveillance along the border between the United States and Mexico.  

NORAD and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agencies receive the data produced by the balloon-like skywatcher.  I learned via other means that it is kept aloft by its helium-filled interior, and that it can rise to an altitude of 15,000 feet.

Stopping can be habit-forming . . .

The dam really had burst by then: we also called a halt at a most bizarre set of billboard-size figures set up just beyond the fenceline.  We were in a quandary about its meaning for quite a long time.  We thought one of the figures was James Dean, and it was, but that was not enough of a clue for the light to dawn.  The license plate on the car had the word "Giant" on it, but even then, we didn't get it.

At long last and long after we had moved on and done a bit of checking, we came to the knowledge that the site was the area where the movie, "Giant", had been filmed.  Starring Rock Hudson, James Dean & Elizabeth Taylor, the flick was taken from Edna Ferber's novel of the same name.  I read the book many long years ago, but never saw the film and now I think I should.

Powered by a solar generator, music was emanating from fake-rock speakers.  As I walked past the car, I was positive it was rotating as I approached.  It was not, and neither was that man in a director’s chair and holding a megaphone real, although I had to get very close to be sure.  All very bizarre and fascinating!

 

Langtry, Texas, and Judge Roy Bean . . .

We were along that way back about two score years ago, but because we found ourselves in the neighborhood once again, there was no way I wanted to drive on by Judge Roy Bean's establishment of old.  What a shock it was to pull into fabled Langtry and to find a modern visitor's center in front of the equally fabled site.

Some of us of a certain age may have first heard the history of Judge Roy Bean dispensing his own brand of "law west of the Pecos" from a television series back in the day.  Perhaps his fame would be less wide-spread were it not for that program, but learn it we did.

How surprising that two structures the lawman built and used for home and business have survived intact.  His original courtroom/home burned in 1897, after which he constructed the one that now stands, in addition to a separate residence that he is said to have called an opera house in hopes of luring his idol, Lillie Langtry to perform there.  She is, of course, the inspiration for the settlement's name, and did indeed visit there, but after Bean's death in 1903.

 

 

 

 

The not-original Jersey Lilly saloon is in our very own Prescott.  The original, of course, is named for the actress Lillie Langtry, who was born on the island of Jersey.

 

 

 

 

The two-room structure housed a bar/courtroom (above) and a billiard room (below), which is where he died.  He is buried in Del Rio.  

 

 

These are by far the most ornate and unusual billiard table legs I've very seen.  Too bad the rest of the table did not survive.

Besides the new visitor's center plunked in front of Judge Roy Bean's establishment, a well-done and educational cactus garden has been added.  It included the wooden tower for a windmill that was purchased as a kit about 1900, and erected at the well site.

Did I mention "educational"?  Plaques at each new botanical specimen gave information about the plant's growth habit and included its uses by natives and Anglo pioneers alike.  Very interesting, but the resurrection plant really got my attention.  Its Spanish name is Siempre Viva (Lives Forever), and for good reason.  Without water, it appears to be dead, as in the photo below; however, it opens up as a bright green fern within 12 hours of rain.  The real kicker is that it can survive without water for years!

Our travels took us along Highway 90.  I tried to convince my pard that 90 was the speed limit to get him to step on the gas more, to no avail unfortunately.