Day 3: Valentines on the 12th of February?!?

ICE ICE Baby!!!

Mike and Bone rose early and were out the door around 5:30 in the morning to find a frosty dilemma. Now neither Mike and Bone have a racist bone in their body, but both of them hate black ice! Amarillo was completely covered in a half inches of ice in the night sky. Mike's Land Cruiser slid and slithered safely in the side roads on the way to I-40, where after 20 minutes as the sun rose, the road quickly cleared and dried out.

Now, it was time for coffee! What better place for a cup of joe then a College Town. So the Boys headed down the road to a place Mike lived as a youngster, Lubbock! Home of the Texas Tech Red Raiders!

Raiding River

Texas Tech, started with a call to open a college in West Texas began shortly after settlers arrived in the area in the 1880s. In 1917, the Texas legislature passed a bill creating a branch of Texas A&M to be in Abilene. However, the bill was repealed two years later during the next session after it was discovered Governor James E. Ferguson had falsely reported the site committee's choice of location. After new legislation passed in the state house and senate in 1921, Governor Pat Neff vetoed it, citing hard financial times in West Texas. Furious about Neff's veto, some in West Texas went so far as to recommend West Texas secede from the state.

In 1923, the legislature decided, rather than a branch campus, a new university would better serve the region's needs under legislation co-authored by State Senator William H. Bledsoe of Lubbock and State Representative Roy Alvin Baldwin of Slaton in southern Lubbock County. On February 10, 1923, Neff signed the legislation creating Texas Technological College, and in July of that year, a committee began searching for a site. When the committee's members visited Lubbock, they were overwhelmed to find residents lining the streets to show support for hosting the institution. That August, Lubbock was chosen on the first ballot over other area towns, including Floydada, Plainview, Big Spring, and Sweetwater.[20] On November 22, 1923, Paul Whitfield Horn was selected as the university's first president.

Construction of the college campus began on November 1, 1924. Ten days later, the cornerstone of the Administration Building was laid in front of 20,000 people. Speakers at the event included Governor Pat Neff; Amon G. Carter; Reverend E. E. Robinson, Colonel Ernest O. Thompson; and Representative Richard M. Chitwood, the chairman of the House Education Committee, who became the first Texas Tech business manager. With an enrollment of 914 students—both men and women—Texas Technological College (hence, Texas Tech) opened for classes on October 1, 1925. It was originally composed of four schools—Agriculture, Engineering, Home Economics, and Liberal Arts. Mike lived in Lubbock in the early 60's and use to go on campus.

And, like all college campus's it is a lovely place to get a cup of joe, which Mike and Bone did from the College Coffee Shop "A Cup of Joe"! With hot Java in hand the Boys minds drifted the one of main reasons to go to College,,,,, football! Mike and Bone did a quick stop to check out their Football Stadium.

The Red Raiders Jones AT&T Stadium (commonly referred to as "The Jones") is was opened 77 years ago on November 29, 1947, with a seating capacity of 27,000. It was named after Clifford B. Jones, Texas Tech's third president (1939–1944), and his wife, Audrey, who donated $100,000 (equivalent to $1.41 million in 2024) towards its construction. The inaugural game was held on November 29, with Texas Tech defeating Hardin–Simmons 14–6.

Like many College Football stadiums, it has since been expanded. The stadium's first expansion in 1959 raised the seating capacity to 41,500. The existing west stands were moved in sections a few feet at a time via steel rollers upon Santa Fe Railway rails and moved 150 feet further east, and the playing surface was lowered 28 feet below street level to accommodate the new lower bowl. The stadium was expanded again in 1972 with new red metal seats on the north side, increasing capacity to 48,000.

The largest renovation project to date was the construction of a $51.9 million, 175,000-square-foot press box on the stadium's west side that included luxury suites, club seating and decks for television cameras and the press. The project added 2,000 seats and was completed during the 2003 season to its current capacity of 60,229 (just about half of the Big House!).

The stadium name was changed to Jones SBC Stadium in 2000 due to a naming rights agreement with SBC Communications, then led by Texas Tech alumnus and CEO Edward Whitacre, Jr. SBC Communications funded a large part of the stadium's West Stadium Club expansion. On April 6, 2006, the facility officially changed to its present name of Jones AT&T Stadium as a result of SBC's purchase of AT&T Corporation and adoption of AT&T as its new corporate name.

For 2006, the stadium was upgraded with a $2 million inner field wall that matches the traditional Texas Tech style brick façade. An inscribing of the Matador Song at the Double T in the north and south end zones was also added.

Red Raiders Roost !

The Distinctive Texas Tech Brick Style

Rockin' a Meteor?

It turns out that Odessa is literally star-struck! Driving through Odessa, Mike and Bone saw a sign talking about the “Odessa Meteor Crater.” Intrigued the Boys pulled over, where the sign discussed that the Odessa meteor crater as the largest of several smaller craters in the immediate area that were formed by the impact of thousands of octahedrites (an iron metallic type) that fell in prehistoric times.

This area known as the Permian Basin, identifies five craters at the Odessa site and shows a distribution map of the meteorite fragments recovered from the area. The recoveries have generally come from an area to the north and northwest of the main crater site, with only a few found to the south. They indicate that the structure of the main crater, because it was one of the earliest to be recognized and studied, is now used to name similar impact sites on a worldwide basis.

Not much of a Meteor Crater Eh?

Over 1500 meteorites have been recovered from the surrounding area over the years, the largest of which weighed approximately 300 lb, but excavations in the main crater confirm that there is no meteorite mass underground and probably never has been. The site has been designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service, and a small information area and nature trail has been set up on-site for a self-guided tour.

One of the Iron Culprits!

The Odessa Crater is measured 550 ft in diameter and the age is estimated to be around 63,500 years (Pleistocene or younger). The crater is exposed to the surface, and was originally about 100 ft deep. Because of subsequent infilling by soil and debris, the crater is currently 15 ft deep at its lowest point, which provides enough relief to be visible over the surrounding plains, but does not offer the dramatic relief found at the more famous Meteor Crater in Arizona.

Next, Mike and Bone left scruffy Odessa and drove right into a wasteland!?!

A Trashed Landscape!?

Now the Texas landscape changes from Lubbock to Odessa, from flat grasslands, to scrublands filled with lots of thistle-like plants on dusty, oil rich lands. Soon, Mike and Bone saw the rhymethic pumping of the Texas lifeblood, or as Jed Clampett called it "Texas Tea!" Throughout this desolate landscape, where the wind seemed to be a constant force of nature, the plastics problem that has chewed up a lot of time on social media was viscerally apparent everywhere!!

Plastic trash was littered through out as far as their old eyes could see (even with glasses!), attached to that prickly thistle. Kinda of a sad commentary on the local community. But soon, the plastic-fringed thistle and non-stop Oil pumpers were replaced by flat out desert of West Texas!

As Mike and Bone headed further down the road on I-40 and saw the iconic Caprock Escarpment, which is the geographical transition point between the level High Plains of the Llano Estacado and the surrounding rolling terrain that the Boys had been on. !

Scaling the Escarpment

The escarpment is made of caliche—a layer of calcium carbonate that resists erosion. In some places, the escarpment rises around 1,000 ft above the plains to the east. The escarpment's features formed by erosion from rivers and streams, creating arroyos and highly diverse terrain.

It made a natural path for native Americans and wagon trains heading out west. Back in the 1800's Native Americans and the fledgling United States had a loong history of not mixing well, which lead Mike and Bone to their next stop. Fort Davis!

Finding Fort Davis

Fort Davis, is one of the best examples of an Indian Wars frontier military post in the Southwest, protected emigrants and transportation on the Chihuahua Trail.

Set in the rugged beauty of the Davis Mountains of west Texas, Fort Davis is one of America's best surviving examples of an Indian Wars frontier military post in the Southwest. From 1854 to 1891, Fort Davis was strategically located to protect emigrants, mail coaches, and freight wagons on the Trans-Pecos portion of the San Antonio-El Paso Road and the Chihuahua Trail, and to control activities on the southern stem of the Great Comanche War Trail and Mescalero Apache war trails.

Fort Davis is important in understanding the presence of African Americans in the West and in the frontier military because the 24th and 25th U.S. Infantry and the 9th and 10th U.S. Cavalry, all-black regiments established after the Civil War, were stationed at the post.

Today, twenty-four roofed buildings and over 100 ruins and foundations are part of Fort Davis National Historic Site. Five of the historic buildings have been refurnished to the 1880s. The Boys did a quick tour of the Fort and will the fading winter evening they had two places they needed to check out. The Boys needed to go to a Prada Store?!?!?

Prada in Marfa?!

Mike and Bone drove in the middle of nowhere, Marfa Texas, population 1,500 to go shopping? Well just for a photo of an strange sculpture!

The Prada Marfa is a permanent sculptural art installation by artists Elmgreen & Dragset, located along U.S. Route 90 in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States, 1.4 miles northwest of Valentine, and about 26 miles northwest of Marfa. The installation, in the form of a freestanding building—specifically a Prada storefront—was inaugurated on October 1, 2005. The artists described the work as a "pop architectural land art project."

Realized with the assistance of American architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, the construction cost $120,000. The original intent was that the building would not be repaired but would rather gradually degrade into its surroundings. This plan was revised after vandals graffitied the exterior and stole its contents, the night the sculpture was completed.

Designed to resemble a Prada store, the building is made of "adobe bricks, plaster, paint, glass pane, aluminum frame, MDF, and carpet." The installation's door is nonfunctional. On the front of the structure there are two large windows displaying actual Prada wares, shoes and handbags, picked out and provided by Miuccia Prada from the fall/winter 2005 collection; Prada allowed Elmgreen and Dragset to use the Prada trademark for this work. Elmgreen and Dragset originally had wanted to place the sculpture elsewhere and was interested in a "Prada Nevada", but failed to find support in the state. They were then helped by the New York-based Art Production Fund (APF) which connected the artists with Ballroom Marfa in Marfa, Texas, a center of contemporary art and culture. The installation was then placed at a location northwest of Marfa near Valentine, Texas, where a local artist Boyd Elder served as caretaker for the installation.

Prada had previously collaborated with Elmgreen and Dragset in 2001, when the artists attached signage to the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York City with the false message "Opening soon—PRADA". Prada Marfa is located relatively close to Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation. The site-specificity of Prada Marfa invites for a comparison with other art movements such as minimalism and land art, which are equally dependent on the site where they are placed. Prada Marfa relies almost entirely on its context for its critical effect. The "sculptural Intervention" can be interpreted as criticism of consumerism, luxury branding and gentrification, but whether intentionally or not, it is also argued it reinforces the capitalist values it criticizes. Therefore, this work of art experienced a change of meaning and gained an ambivalent moment, that the artists did not expect. Along a ledge that runs around the base of the building, hundreds of people have left business cards, weighed down by small rocks.

Sadly, the night Prada Marfa formally opened, the building was broken into, its contents (six handbags and 14 right-footed shoes) stolen, and the words "Dumb" and "Dum Dum" spray-painted on the building side walls. The sculpture was quickly repaired. The replacement contents conceal a security system to alert authorities if they are moved. The sculpture subsequently received extensive local and international press coverage.

In March 2014, vandals painted the building light blue, hung fake logos for Toms Shoes from the awnings, and posted a political manifesto on the door. Ballroom Marfa issued a statement decrying the vandalism and pledging to restore the site. A Texas artist, 32-year-old Joe Magnano (using the pseudonym 9271977), was subsequently arrested and tried. Magnano pleaded guilty to two counts of misdemeanor criminal mischief and agreed to pay Ballroom Marfa $10,700 in restitution as well as a $1,000 fine. It is a amazing the a strange sculpture, in the middle of nowhere, on a Wednesday evening in the Winter, at least 4 cars stopped in the 15 minutes Mike and Bone were there to take a picture just like the Boys.

Its No Fun, Being and Illegal Alien!

The Boys next headed to check out the quirky little city of Valentine enroute, they passed a Spy Balloon that it turned out was for Border Patrol.

A Desolate Valentine in February

They soon arrived in sad little Valentine, which is on the Southern Pacific Railroad trail. It was founded and named when the Southern Pacific Railroad crew, building east, reached the site on February 14, 1882. Trains began running the next year, and a post office was established in 1886. In 1890 Valentine had a population estimated at 100, two saloons, a general store, a hotel, and a meat market. Two years later only one saloon was left, but the population had risen to an estimated 140. Valentine became a shipping point for local cattle ranchers, and by 1914 the town had an estimated population of 500, five cattle breeders, a news company, a real estate office, a grocery store, a restaurant, and the Valentine Business Club.

A decade later the population had fallen to an estimated 250, but it rose again to 500 by the late 1920s and to 629 by the early 1930s. In the late 1970s the town had an estimated population of 226, a high school, an elementary school, and two churches. After the Train stopped using Valentine for a stop, the Town has slowly, sadly atrophied. In 1990 it was 217, by 2000 the population was down to 187,,,,

Now it is only 64.

The drastic decline was sadly apparent, driving around Mike and Bone saw that two-thirds of the homes and business were now abandoned. In fact, the Boys had intended to hit the only local establishment for a beer, but alas it was not open, and the Boys headed out towards to the town of Alpine on the outskirts of Big Bend National Park for the evening.

Staging for Big Bend in Alpine

The Day had started at 5:30 sliding around in 30 degree weather in Amarillo, and was ending in 70 degree weather in South West Texas. Since tomorrow was the big day hitting Big Bend National Park, so the Boys took it easy and had a quiet dinner at a little place in Alpine (strangely named) called La Casita before hitting the hay early!