Places Archives | Page 3 of 13 | Funky Texas Traveler

May 02 2018

5 Reasons to visit Big Bend National Park

If you have not visited Big Bend National Park, I’m going to give you five compelling reasons to pick a date and go. These reasons drove my son and me over 600 miles across the state of Texas to experience an incredible adventure in this isolated wedge of the US. You can skip ahead to that story here.Whether you are a native, transplanted or temporary Texan, the true west still waits for you at Big Bend National Park

#1 Big Bend National Park is large and lonely.

Whether you find Big Bend National Park hauntingly beautiful or beautifully frightening depends on how enamored you are with neighbors and nearby conveniences. This isolated area about the size of Rhode Island is one of the largest, most remote, and least-visited national parks in the lower forty-eight United States. [Read more…]

Apr 10 2018

Marfa, Texas

Marfa was to be our bit of luxury at the end of our West Texas Wander but being in Marfa on a Monday put a different slant on the visit. Now I think Monday is the perfect time to visit as part of any West Texas adventure.

Marfa is in big danger of becoming the Aspen of Texas. It used a rail stop between El Paso and San Antonio and a watering hole for ranchers. Now, “local Marfans are losing ground to transplants from New York City and Seattle, the kind of people who thought they’d never set foot in Texas,” Mallika Raowrites in the Huffington Post

Why we visited Marfa on a Monday

We’d left Big Bend National Park later on that November Sunday afternoon than planned. It was a long drive on the River Road that follows the Rio Grande River to Presidio. The River Road passes through terrain that can look like another planet, but we didn’t stop to absorb the scenery. We were anxious to be off the road before sunset, but it would be worth it to linger as long as there is daylight.

Coming into Presidio as it became full dark, we were antsy to reach Marfa. Like horses headed for the barn, we’d been on the road for five days and were starting to get the traveler’s sense that it is time to go home.

Sunday night in Marfa

We finally got to Marfa, checked into the Hotel Paisano and went downstairs for a late dinner. Never one to sugarcoat things, Shane said, “I love you, Mom, but I’m ready to be around someone else.”

“I completely agree with you,” I told him. We toasted his conquest of Big Bend’s Emory Peak earlier in the day, both realizing the trip we’d planned and dreamed about for months was almost over.

[Read more…]

Apr 03 2018

Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival

Port Aransas is clawing back from Hurricane Harvey. How better to celebrate her recovery than with the Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival, April 6-8? After all, wooden fishing boats, tall wooden ships and stubby wooden hauling scows put Port Aranasas on the map. The Port Aransas Wooden Boat Festival touches on all of those.

Admire the Texas Butthead

Maybe you read my post about the Texas Scow Schooner, called a “Texas Butthead” by more refined naval architects. Check out the loving reconstruction of the Lydia Ann, a scow schooner that was rescued by the wooden-boat loving folks in Port Aransas. With the shoals and sandbars all along the Texas Coast, vessels like the Lydia Ann brought the goods inland to early Texans. [Read more…]

Mar 14 2018

Big Ass Crawfish Bash

In 2017, the Bigass Crawfish Bash grabbed the Guinness World Record for the most crawfish served in an 8-hour period. Almost 15,000 people consumed nearly 60,000 pounds of crawfish served up by 87 boiling teams. The Bash also raised a record $124,000 for charities, including Camp Hope, a place that helps veterans and their families cope with combat PTSD.

When the 4th Annual Bigass Crawfish Bash returns to Gulf Greyhound Park on March 24, you’re going to want to be there. After all, how can they possibly top last year?

Better logistics for one thing. This year, I-45 South won’t be in the middle construction and Bash organizers have set up a shuttle ($5 RT) at Mall of the Mainland. Still, expect to see huge flocks of seagulls circling Gulf Greyhound Park that day.

If the Bigass Crawfish Bash is unfamiliar to you, don’t feel left out. I’d never heard of it either until a friend started talking about it, a few months before the 2017 Bash. The fact this now-giant event exists is because a couple of guys were drinking beer and trying to get out of cooking. When you hear this story, you’ll appreciate the Bash even more.

[Read more…]

Feb 15 2018

Camping in Texas – Tent to Trailer Adventures!

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One of my Jazzercise instructors loves to make fun of me because I like to camp. Just wait until she hears that last weekend, my husband took me camping in Texas for Valentine’s. So sad she hasn’t discovered this vital escape technique. The more hectic your life and the world is, the more you need to go camping. It gives you breathing room essential to revive you. And in my experience, absolutely no other vacation every does it so thoroughly.

It doesn’t matter whether you camp in a tent or a trailer or whether it has been decades between your camping moments or you go every month. Sleeping and eating in nature will unplug you in a way that luxury hotels or cruises can’t deliver. Just be open to the moment, like my friend Joyce Doyle. Read about her recent and long-ago camp experiences, and I guarantee that you will be on the Texas Parks and Wildlife site this weekend.

Tent camping with daughter

“Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom.” Through my barely awake stupor, I tried unsuccessfully to stifle a groan.

“Are you sure you can’t wait?” I whispered. After hearing the response I knew was coming, I began to move out of the comfort of the warm sleeping bag and reached for a flashlight. We found shoes and threw a jacket over our pajamas, trying not to wake the rest of the family. Slipping out of the tent, I noticed that the night was cool but not too unpleasant. [Read more…]