It's been a few days since my last post because the area of the country we were in had little to absolutely no internet connection. It was weird but strangely glorious at the same time.
We're back in civilization now, in San Antonio to be exact, hanging out and enjoy a couple days along the River Walk. That's another post entirely, so for now, let me take you back to where I left off...
We left Austin and drove west toward Midland, Odessa and Monahan's...
This part of the country is like another world. I know I have said it before but its worth saying again, seeing all the decaying remnants of a life left behind is a cool and weird experience.
These are things or places that at one time, a person or many people put great import into building up and maintaining. They built a life. Laughed, cried, fought and made up. They created memories and moments...then they left.
The people are gone now but the things they created are still here, slowly decaying and disappearing forever.
It's fascinating. When you get out and walk among these remnants, you get the feeling that you have stepped sideways just outside of a boundary. There is a sense that you are standing on the edge...of something.
Edge of what? You may ask. The edge of society, literally.
These places are not fully wild and away from society, they exist within the strange boundary between civilization as we all know it and the untamed, unscripted wild beyond.
This is why I find these areas fascinating...because when you stand in one of these places, you are literally standing in a place where you can still see and feel civilization on one side and on the other its wild and untamed. It's the true fringe.
The one word that comes to my mind when thinking of these places, is feral. Once tamed and domesticated, they have since been abandoned and left to the wild. These areas still hold some semblance of society and normal human existence but its different. Wild but not yet completely gone. You can clean it up and maybe get some of these places to work again, but they will never be exactly the same. There will always be a wild element to them just below the surface.
Now, imagine a group of people who spend most of their time in and around these boundary areas. They can move easily between mainstream society and the absolute wild but their preferred place is this boundary area between. They live a life outside the boundaries of the rest of us. Now you are getting the gist of my book.
And, now I will move on from this thought....
We drove down to Monahan's.
Yes, its a pretty sandy place. Miles and miles of gorgeous sand dunes. I managed to take some great video footage of it, I will upload that when I am finally home and have good enough internet to upload it.
After Monahan's, we drove south to Marathon then west again thru Alpine and then Marfa.
All of these West Texas towns are amazing. They all are existing on that boundary I spoke of earlier. This is part of what makes these places so amazing and unlike any place that exists more within the preferred boundaries of society.
From Marfa, we headed further south toward Presidio. We were literally on the edge of the US for the rest of the trip heading to Terlingua.
We drove along the Rio Grande for a while. Somewhere along the way, the boundary areas gave way to pure, gorgeous wild spaces. We pulled over and got out to listen. The only sound around was that of the river rushing by and birds in the sky above. It was awesome.
It was also completely off the grid.
Standing here, its not hard to understand the pull to be in places like this.
We got into Terlingua late so we headed into Big Bend to get all checked in for the night.
Our time in Terlingua and Big Bend will be another post as this one is already pretty long. It's time for me to put this computer down and do some walking around outside along the river. Have a great day everyone. See you in the next post.