West Texas is where its at!

Hi Friends, on Monday 2/13 the weather cleared and we drove from Roswell into West Texas with an unplanned stop at Carlsbad Cavern. Our planned trip to Lubbock was snowed out and the pipes froze in Roswell so it was time to head farther south. We had traveled on route 285 from close to Santa Fe to Roswell and then continued south to Carlsbad and finally to our camping spot for the night in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Carlsbad is one of the biggest caverns in the world and is both a national park and world heritage site so we couldn't exactly complain about our trip being diverted. We did a fabulous walking tour of the cavern including the mile long trail from ground level. Everyone should go here once in their lives. I took a few snaps but didn't bring the tripod so no photos of Carlsbad but there are tons on line if you wanna check it out.  http://www.nps.gov/cave/index.htm

Hiking down into the cave entrance (taken with my I phone)

No one ever sees the cave site from ground level. . . .pretty spectacular location on top of a mesa

We then headed on to Texas across the dry, dusty, Chihuahuan desert. Oh my, as soon as we crossed the border it felt like we were in a different country and I guess alot of Texans would agree.

What can I say, I like this shot!

Gotta love the bullet holes. . . Route 285 into Texas is not exactly upscale

This is the first official rest stop after entering Texas. . . . Just kidding.

The first real town you hit on Rt 285 is Pecos, a very depressed town with one big claim to fame

By the way Texas apparently has more of these history markers than any state in the US. Unfortunately as Howard Zinn points out in his classic book "Lies Across America," These signs seem to leave out all historical facts that don't involve white people conquering, whipping and winning and you can be sure that in every instance the "cowboys" "soldiers," "Texas Rangers," "white settlers," etc. always come out in top.

If you look closely at this sign you will see why so many towns in rural America have lost their downtown shopping districts. If you look even more closely you will see that this same problem is coming right out of this horse's ass! (below)

You can see that things are booming downtown

Well at least there's BBQ. . . .but darn it is closed too!

We tried to catch some music in Fort Stockton but Monday is not the night! 

Well we got the hell out of Pecos and finally stopped for the night in Fort Stockton at Camanche Land RV Park. . . . you gotta love it. 

Our time in West Texas was framed by the country music we heard on the radio. There was one song in particular that Bay Area types and city folk in general will surely "cotton" to. Check out these lyrics and then saddle on over to you tube and watch the video. This is my favorite new country song. y'all come back now, ya hear!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XB2peAKwOA&ob=av2e

Can't Even Bait a Hook by Justin Moore

I heard you had to drive him home after two umbrella drinks

I heard he's got a Prius, 'cause he's into bein' green

My buddies said he saw ya'll, eatin' that sushi stuff

Baby that don't sound like you, that don't sound like love, sounds like it sucks...

(Chorus)

He can't even bait a hook

He can't even skin a buck

He don't know who Jack Daniels is

He ain't ever drove a truck

Knows how to throw out a line, but not the kind in a field and stream book

No darlin' I ain't even worried, you'll come runnin' back

He can't even bait a hook.

Has he kissed you in a hay field as the summer rain falls down?

Has he took you to meet his mama, back in his home town?

Does he drive the interstate, or take them old back roads?

Can he melt your heart with a country song, every good old boy should know?

I didn't think so...

(Chorus)

It won't be that long, 'till you start gettin' bored

I'll be smilin' on the river, realin' in one more...

He can't even bait a hook

He can't even skin a buck

Hell he don't know who Jack Daniels is

He ain't ever drove a truck

Knows how to throw out a line, but not the kind in a field and stream book

No darlin' I ain't even worried, cause you'll come runnin' back

He can't even bait a hook

No baby I ain't even worried

He can't even bait a hook

Now Davy Crockett could bait a hook and a lot more. As Davy says "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." . . . .sounds like a plan. Davy Crockett is the hero of West Texas, this statue is in Ozona. If you do a little research you will learn that the myth of Davy Crockett was largely created by the Disney sponsored TV show that we used to watch as a kid, but in West Texas the legend lives on. . . .

Eric Bibb and Guy Davis in Concert

Our stay in Santa Fe was supposed to be our first rest stop but instead we were hassling with phones and car chargers. Nonetheless it is a beautiful city that has become an arts center with incredible New Mexican architecture, amazing New Mexican food and a few too many yuppies. Our friend Joseph Day from the Hopi Mesas calls it "Fanta Se". . . I don't think he means that as a compliment. We stayed an extra day when we heard that there would be a fantastic concert with two African American musicians that could best be described as American roots blues masters. I was unfamiliar with their music and was surprised to learn that it was really a double bill with each artist performing separately. 

Eric Bibb was just at Yoshis last week with one of the Bay Area’s most soulful vocalists Linda Tillery. I was totally impressed with Bibb. He is an amazing guitarist with an understated, acoustic, delta blues style and a wonder resonant singing voice. He sang a wide repertoire of old and new songs that included some early rural blues classics and some originals as well. He was accompanied by a wonderful harmonica player named Grant Dermody who played like Little Walter. Guy Davis, son of Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee is a wonderful storyteller, singer and songwriter as well but Bibb’s music really resonated for me on a deep level. 

Ironically Bibb has lived much of his life in Europe and I found myself reflecting on the long history of Black musicians who have moved to Europe where they seem to be appreciated on a deeper level. Early New Orleans saxophonist Sidney Bichet, trumpeter Art Farmer, dancer/singer/actress Josephine Baker and many others left the US to find a different level of respect across the Atlantic. 

Bibb and Davis were both performing music that is truly American Roots music and yet their audience was in this case largely white and upper middle class. This is a story that has been repeated for a very long time with acoustic blues in particular. I was struck by the irony of this being my first blues experience on the trip and here we were in a beautiful historic theater in Santa Fe surrounded by a wealthy, largely white audience, listening to stories and songs of working class African American culture from the rural south. Folk music and acoustic blues have been embraced and held in great reverence by urban intelligencia for well over 50 years. I will skip the lecture on the confusing and sometimes contradictory history of folk music but suffice it to say that there is both a history of respect and reverence mixed with a romanticization of the idiom and its alleged cultural purity. . . .but I digress. I guess you will need to take my class for “the rest of the story”

http://www.ericbibb.com

www.guydavis.com

OK its time to catch up a bit. . . .

We are now in Cajun Country and just spent a week at Mardi Gras. My blog posts are way behind but don't worry, we're gonna catch up pronto. First a few paragraphs about life on the road. Ya know we have been sharing the fun stuff but it ain't all fun all the time. . . although its been mighty close. We had a bunch of technology hassles, car chargers that wouldn't charge, broken cell phone cameras, bad internet connections, etc that when you are on a modern road trip and dependent on these devises it can turn into a living hell.

We also hit some very bad weather after leaving Santa fe with freezing rain, frozen water pipes in the trailer and snow that prevented us from our planned route to Lubbock to check out Buddy Holly's home town. Luckily we managed to avoid the 4 inches of snow in North West Texas! We also hit a 12 hour downpour driving from Galveston to New Orleans with flooding in Galveston that almost closed the ferry docks.

We have some really amazing stories coming soon. You're going to love our Mardi Gras blog so keep checking back. more soon

"Return to the Planet of the Small Museums"

The UFO Museum in Roswell NM is well. . . . hard to describe,  but I will once again let the photos do most of the talking.  I must mention that the walls of the rather large museum, located in an old converted movie theater were chock full of lengthy documents that were almost incomprehensible. Imagine a high school English project where each student is required to write 2 or 3 pages on a topic. However only the first draft will be submitted and no proof reading will be allowed. That’s pretty much what we have here. . . .Oh MY!

The whole town has commodified the "Alien Thing" to the point where the images are everywhere

Are these "Illegal" Aliens or is it just a multicultural perspective? They would probably be deemed illegal in Arizona . . . .

This young lad greets everyone in the museum lobby. Oh by the way admission was a stiff five bucks 

This is the first of hundreds of "essays" on the walls of the museum. They are off to a good start with a few spelling problems  . . . .read the first sentence very carefully!!

Quality diorama don't ya think! Or did it look like this? (see below)

This original "Crash Site" art totally rocks. . . .

I absolutely think it could be! It could also be your mother but hey. . . .

Heres the cool stuff!! Alien autopsy baby 

Oh yeah, were talking fully incubated!

Anyone have any extra formaldehyde? 

Possible early contact? 


I have a bunch more photos but, well, go to this link for the grand finale. My first ever U tube!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qVGthCJi9g

As much as I wanted to believe the Roswell story this museum was so poorly designed that it was virtually impossible to follow the story of the incident. Maybe when my friend Rob Saarnio takes over as curator all will become clear. LOL. In the mean time as "Paul" (my favorite current movie) would say, "Its probin' time" . . . .more soon.

My new Band!! This is in the window of the music store across the street from the museum.

Small Museums rule "The Sequel"

Our stay in Santa Fe included some exploration of the surrounding area. We found ourselves at the Cerrillos Trading Post museum and I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story. I will mention that Cerrillos is a very strange little town, beautiful but weird.

Exterior . . . nice place huh 

Entrance gate in back of gift shop that contained nothing you would ever actually purchase. . . Hell I went in to buy a bag of chips . . . . no way, no food but behind this gate was a whole 'nother world

This is the first thing that caught my attention. . . .I just like this idea!

Gotta have a wooden Indian and cardboard cutouts of big stars with handwritten labels!
For those of you who are culturally deprived thats John Wayne on the left and Keefer Sutherland (pre 24 days) on the right!

Followed by room after room of cool stuff ( see below )

 cool stuff including . . .

these totally weird little hand made displays.

But this next one wins the award for bizarre!

Check out these brave Indian Turquoise miners!

Watch out Ken. . . .you've go competition! and by the way, nice hair dude, whats your secret?

Attractive art don't ya think!

Huh? Better read this one carefully.

And on the way out of town we ran into "Scary Larry," when we finally did stop to buy some chips in neighboring Madrid. . . . pronounced  Mad drid. Thats really his nickname. . . . .his travel companion  told us that she worked his scary persona into her most recent screenplay. I'm not making this up!

Close up of Larry's S&M Barbie wiper blade. . . .could this be a little kinky friend for our Turquoise miner? You never know. . . .

I think it is about time to head out of town towards our next museum. . . .The UFO Museum in Roswell!

Small Museums Rule !!

If you have never been to a small museum somewhere in rural America you have no idea what you are missing. I promised 3 museums in this blog but there is just too much important info to cram into one entry so . . . .here is the first of three entries. (Oh, by the way this post is dedicated to our good friend and museum curator extradinaire Rob Saarnio)

Moqui Cave . . . I already mentioned this earlier and with a quick cut and paste. . . .

A classic tourist attraction just outside Kanab, Utah: Moqui Cave. This place is hard to describe but I can tell you that it is classic western kitsch, owned for generations by a Utah Mormon family that has collected rocks and minerals, dinasour footprints, arrowheads and an amazing assortment of Indian pottery and artifacts that no private owners should ever be able to claim. The clovis point collection takes the cake. . . . 

Our host Lex, the 6'4'' Mormon whose grand dad was the 46th child of his great grand dad and he had the pictures to prove it!

Thats right 2 rooms of stuff! and we are in an actual cave! 
For what it is worth Moqui is  the original word for Hopi.

If these points are real and if they are from Clovis and if you know much about archeology then you will be asking the same question I'm asking. . . .what the hell are they doing in "Moqui Cave" ?


But who really cares when you've also got wood carvings of John Wayne, autographed photos of the Lone Ranger 

So why does it say Clayton Moore under Tonto's picture and Jay Silverheels under the Ranger? whoops! Got it backward but hey we still have two genuine autographs.

and then of course what small museum is complete without. . . 
Elvis. . . .the King. . . . thats what I am talking about!