[Monday] We got up at 6:00 am and took an Uber at 7:00 am to IAH airport. We arrived at Terminal C at 8:15 am and by 8:45 am we had made it through security. We ate breakfast at a restaurant in the airport and then took United UA5266, an Embraer E-175, at 12:08 pm CST from IAH to ELP.

In El Paso, we took a taxi from the airport to the Amtrak train station. At 3:45 pm MST we boarded the Amtrak Sunset Limited from ELP to ALP. We arrived in Alpine at a little after 8:00 pm CST, ahead of the scheduled arrival of 8:45 pm CST. We walked across the street and picked up our key to our room at the Holland Hotel.

< < El Paso Amtrak Station.

< The Holland Hotel.

[Tuesday] This morning, since the Holland Hotel doen't have breakfast, we walked a couple of blocks to Scoops Coffee and Pastries restaurant and ate breakfast.

We then picked up our rental vehicle (a Jeep Mojave truck), checked out of the Holland Hotel, and drove to Odessa.

< There is a lot of this in West Texas!

We checked into the Hawthorn Suites by Windham. We rested until time to meet Kay's friend Carla, son Benjamin and his wife and their son for dinner at Cheddars restaurant at 5:30 pm.

< Dinner in Odessa.

[Wednesday] This morning we checked out of the hotel and drove east on I-20 to Stanton. We drove around the town and looked at the old convent and a few other things. We went to the Martin County Hospital and met Kay's cousins, Jonama and Morgan, for lunch at the hospital restaurant. We had a good visit and the lunch was delicious.

< Lunch in Stanton.

We then drove to Fort Davis and checked into the historic Hotel Limpia. It is named for after the Limpia Creek that flows in the Davis Mountains. We ate supper at the restaurant next door.

After it got good and dark, we drove to Fort Davis State Park and we were able to view the Milky Way pretty good and made some photos. Its hard to make a photo of the stars, but our iPhone 15s did a decent job.

< Hotel Limpia. < Our photo of the Milky Way.

[Thursday] This morning we drove to a Mexican restaurant in Fort Davis where we had a good breakfast. We went back to the hotel, checked out and drove to Fort Davis State Park. We tried walking on the Montezuma's Revenge Trail, but it was too steep and rocky. It is not well maintained.

We tried to drive our Jeep up Skyline Drive, but about a third of the way up it overheated and we had to stop. We drove to Fort Davis and stopped at a car repair and they checked it and it checked okay. They said it was common for cars to overheat on Skyline Drive. He said to use a lower gear and rev up the engine. We went back to the park and tried again with no luck, so we abandoned Skyline Drive. We spent some time at a bird blind viewing site and saw lots of birds that you don't see in east Texas. We then drove up to historic Indian Lodge, which is in the park, and ate lunch at the Black Bear Restaurant.

< Indian Lodge in the distance.

< Fall colors on the road to Fort Davis State Park.

< Looking south toward Big Bend National Park.

We drove back to Alpine and checked in at our B&B. We were staying in the New The Buffalo - Shipping Container. We saw these on our last trip to the area and Lawson wanted to try them, so we decided to do that this time. It was like staying in a small RV. It had just about everything you need to enjoy staying there. If we do it again, we would get one of the larger containers.

< < New The Buffalo - Shipping Container.

The car rental people swapped out our Jeep and we went to the store and bought some food for dinner and breakfast.

After dark Lawson went up on the roof deck to see if you could see lots of stars. It was too close to the city to see lots of stars.

[Friday] Today we got a late start and ate breakfast in our shipping container. We then rode around Alpine on the north side close to Sol Ross University. We stopped at the Lowe's Grocery and got some lunch items.

We ate lunch at the container and drove south on highway 118 and took some the roads leading off to the east until they dead ended. We came back to the container and rested until time to eat dinner. We went to the Panda Buffet Chinese restaurant and ate dinner.

< < Typical terrain around Alpine.

[Saturday] This morning after breakfast in our container, we checked out and decided to drive to Marfa. On the way, we stopped at the viewing site for the Marfa Lights. We then went on to Marfa and walked and drove around the town. We drove back to Alpine and were able to check into our room at the Hotel Holland about 2:00 pm.

< On the road to Marfa.

After some tea in the lobby, we took the Jeep and filled it up and turned it back in at the Amtrak station.

For dinner tonight, we walked down the street to Line Thai Cafe. We enjoyed the food.

[Sunday] This morning we had to walk about 5 blocks to the Lowe's grocery store and picked up something for breakfast. We walked back to the hotel lobby and ate it. After about an hour in the room, we checked out and walked across the street to the Amtrak station. We knew that the train was late since we were checking it's location on the "Track my Train" Amtrak website. The Sunset Limited arrived at 11:30 instead of 10:41 am CST. We arrived in El Paso at about 2:00 pm MST instead of 1:25 pm MST.

< < Amtrak in Alpine.

< The seats are comfy. < West Texas from the train.

We took an Uber to the Wyndham El Paso Airport Hotel. We waited in the lobby until our room was ready at 3:30 pm. After we put our luggage in room 1110, we walked across to the airport to see the route to our flight next morning. We came back to the hotel and ate dinner at the Salsa Bar and Grill. The food was really good.

[Monday] This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and at 10:00 am we walked across to the airport terminal and checked our luggage for our flight to IAH. United UA 4002 (ELP to IAH) was on time and departed gate B9 at 12:05 pm MST. We arrived early at IAH at 2:45 pm CST. We collected our luggage and took Uber home. We got home at 5:15 pm.

Some random thoughts on West Texas...

* We were impressed with how large and crowded the El Paso airport was. I think about 6 airlines serve it. It has about 15 gates. It is modern and well organized. It was a quick trip through security.

* West Texas is a very interesting place to visit. Each of the towns have some unique features. Our favorite is Marfa. The houses listed in the window of a real estate office there were very expensive for what you got. You need over half a million dollars to buy a reasonable looking house with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

* It would help to be able to speak Spanish if you lived there - well, I guess the same could be said about Houston.

This draws to a close our to West Texas. We hope you enjoyed the photos and brief descriptions of our activities. God willing, join us again soon for another travel adventure.

Goodbye for now,

Lawson & Kay

How clearly the sky reveals God's glory! How plainly it shows what he has done! Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next. No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their message goes out to all the world and is heard to the ends of the earth. God made a home in the sky for the sun; it comes out in the morning like a happy bridegroom, like an athlete eager to run a race. It starts at one end of the sky and goes across to the other. Nothing can hide from its heat. (Psalm 19:1-6 GNT)