Full of artist studios and foundations owned by a few people, Marfa proves to be a very interesting town. It's very kitch, but also very small. So there's one cool coffee house, but there's no wi-fi. There's one cool local band, but the lead singer is an ass and got kicked out of the hotel restaurant the night we ate there. There are lots of neat adobe buildings many of which house art galleries or are rented out to book stores or artists studios, but they're all "owned" I guess by these federations, most of which have the name Judd painted on the windows. It's known for it's eclectic feel, but I have a feeling the most unique people there are visitors, most of whom were on vacation from Austin the few days we were there. We probably met as many Austinites as we did Marfians or Marfadites, or something.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

Along the road to Marfa, I discovered windmills.



This isn't the appropriate term for them, but I'm ignorant and have a horrible memory, so I'm calling them windmills. Michelle can correct me in the comments. Anyway, these ginormous windmills produce energy. And we passed a lot of "high energy grids" or something like that. Companies like Whole Foods get their energy from such windmills. Apparently they're a great source of energy that doesn't deplete our resources. So if you own or are a part of a company that needs to get on the ball about facing ecological issues - bring up the windmills to your boss or your owner. Do a little research first though, this is definitely not a class A presentation on energy resources. Not to mention I can't remember the dang name of the windmills.

I also found a cool pen at a gas station. Just for the record I love pens and it is totally acceptable to buy a super cool pen at a gas station when you're on vacation because vacation is the time to splurge. I love my pen that has a monkey on top of it.



Unfortunately, the monkey is supposed to light up and doesn't. That's the risk you take when you buy from a gas station, not going to lie to you.



I bought another memento from the trip from a local jeweler. Agate is the rock found in Marfa and the surrounding area. It's a beautiful stone that comes in a variety of colors. The cool part about it is that it looks 3d and you can see "things" "designs" whatever inside the stone as if they were bottles that someone built a little boat inside of. So of course I bought a cool ring from the local guy who sells Agate and makes jewelry out of it. Awesome!

I've mention cacti several times I'm sure and of course you know I have my ever expanding cacti garden at my house. Ahem. So of course I had to buy three small cactii native to the area. Plus my landlord had this cool mini-cactus cactus bush in front of our efficiency and said I could clip some of it off.



In addition, one of the houses on the way to the Brown Recluse where we had coffee every morning (but did not check our email) had a PURPLE cactus bush in their yard. Well, I'm not going to lie to you. I coveted that purple cacti plant. So one night after Michelle and Frank had gone to a local bar (owned by an Austinite - i told you!), on their way home they decided to still my beating heart and get me a little snub to plant in my garden. Lo and behold, when they came bounding into our little house where i was reading, they presented me my present and beamed about their sneaky accomplishment. It was Michelle's idea, but Frank's pocketknife (necessary for "camping" as we were) that completed the task. It's beautiful though and already planted in the ground.

I'll take a full picture of my ever-growing garden when I get the three other cacti that I bought planted...