Bear with me. This will have to be a wide and spacious entry since it is about Texas.
First of all, my friend (since we were 14!) Alan had me fly down to Austin to paint a mural on his 5' x 9' entry wall. He initially wanted something abstract with a nude, but it turned out that he wanted something impressionist (he's an engineer and doesn't do artspeak)and he chickened out on the nude. so we regrouped, walked around his property.....
.....went over to the Llano river..... clear clear water running over granite in streams....
and I sketched and pondered and came up with a plan he liked. It also had to have bluebonnets (mandatory in Texas murals) and three "Queen" butterflies....one for Alan, one for me, and one for his 102 year mother. (also a friend of mine)
In five days I was done, and like God, I rested. Alan supplied me with Shiner beer and Texas Bar Bee Que (part of my contract) and at night we killed scorpions on his big back porch (a plague for new construction in Hill Country)...20 scorpions in five days. Also, a pack of coyotes on the trail of something tasty came howling by my window at 2 pm one night. I thought I was surrounded by wolves. Nature rules at Alan's place.
Then my friend Norma Jean came down from her home in San Angelo to pick me up and return to Austin to get Phil at the airport. Norma has been my friend for 45 years...we were roomates in Peace Corps, and I was there when her twins were born. We went to her daughter Natasha's place and stayed the night, left early the next morning for Terlingua, down on the Texas Mexican border at the west entrance of Big Bend National Park.....600 miles of Mostlly Flat.....through Fredricksburg (adorable), to Fort Stockton on the killer highway 10, Marathon and dropping down through Alpine and on to Terlingua just at sunset.
We checked into the El Dorado Hotel...a homey place that Willie Nelson would have liked....and went out to watch the sunset over the mountains with liquid refreshments and lawn chairs.
Later we went into the bar to listen to music, have a delicious burger, and later View Art.
The next day we drove up to stay in Big Bend National Park (60 miles) with our friends Larry and Gary. The room was small so it was quite cosy. Gary and Norma drug their sleeping bags out to sleep on the porch, and Larry, Phil and I snored in harmonic chords. D-flat, I believe. 
Big Bend is an extinct volcano, and you can see Mexico through the awesome notch in the crater. It has javelinas, skunks, bears and the largest community of mountain lions in the USA. Uneasy lies the back of the neck of those who sketch alone in Big Bend. I was always on the alert in the midst of such stunning natural beauty.
The next day we hiked 2.5 miles into the desert to see dinosaur bones. I blanked out the location name because people steal the fossils and sell them for money. It was hot, very interesting and full of what Phil called " all those goddamn plants with stickers." Our friends Gary and Larry are men of wide ranging interests, so I learned a lot about the wild life, the history of the area both geologic and human, and the plants. I LOVED the hike and I did pretty well on my new hip.
People ask me how I found time to do these journal drawings. Well, I memorized what I could and then spent a lot of time drawing in the back seat of Norma's KingKab on the long stretches. Texas roads are usually very straight and smooth. Washington roads are curvey and bumpy....if I drew in the car here I would throw up.
After Big Bend we drove to Marathon and on to Marfa. I wanted to see Donald Judd's installations. He was from New York and is a famous minimalist/conceptualist sculpter (think I got that right). He also started the Chinati foundation there.
It was not Phil and Norma's thing. Lots of comments about concrete and aluminum packing cases. However, I enjoyed it. Very peaceful, and there were lots of dead birds (flew into the plate glass) around the perimeter of the buildings housing the aluminum cubes, and some fantastic grasshoppers. Shadows and highlights kept moving with the changing light.
After Chinati, we drove through charming Ft. Davis and up to the McDonald Observatory. Phil and I decided we wanted to come back to that for a whole day of exploring....many wonderful huge telescopes and night skies to see. I bought myself a sky chart in the gift shop, but it won't do me much good in cloudy Seattle.
We ended up in San Angelo where Norma and her husband Donald were wonderful hosts. Norma has a Huge Garden where she grows heritage veggies and flowers and takes her produce to the farmer's market. I picked peppers for her and Phil helped her cover her tender plants from a threatening frost. Norma also took me for a massage from her favorite masseus. His technique was one inch away from Rolfing but I was brave and felt wonderful afterward.
We also went to the water lily garden and of course I went nuts. I met the man, Mr. Landon, who set it up, and he is very concerned that this national treasure (most complete collection in the USA) is going to be closed by the Texas Legislature.....they have decided that any water plant not native to Texas has to be destroyed. If you love waterlilies and want to save this contained collection, contact http//www.internationalwaterlilycollection.com. Mr. Landon said that years ago he planted several species in the Concho river, but the turtles thought they were lunch and ate them all up overnight. In short, the lilies are not invasive.
After three days in San Angelo, we returned to Austin and stopped by Alan's to pick up my paints and luggage. In Austin, Natasha arranged for us to meet her twin brother Bernabe and his lovely wife Lauren at a Taco Express (fabulous food and atmosphere).
Me, Phil, Norma, Madeline, Brandon and Natasha and Donald.
And Lauren and Bernabe.
And then we went to the Capitol Building and also to the highlight of Phil's trip, Lance Armstrong's bicycle shop. Then we flew home. Jinglejanglejingle. Git along, dawgies.
Oh yeah. I forgot to mention. I made Alan a paint shirt like mine.
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