Meet Cassie

ahoy!

Meet Cassie – aka Cowsie, aka Couchie, aka Turkey, aka Scooper.  Cassie is an old friend from college (actually, she’s 7 days younger than I am, which makes her VERY young).  She lives in Maine in a beautiful house with her love (and my dear friend) Mark, and their cat Scout, who is black and white.  Cassie is a painter and manipulator of felt and foam – click here to see some of the insane things she makes.  Cassie and I have been scheming about our travels together for an entire year, ever since I spent last February hibernating in her guest room, starting the booking process for this trip.  She had never been to New Mexico or West Texas before, so we figured that would be a perfect place to meet up for a road trip.

getting a lot of mileage out of these ponchos

She flew out to Santa Fe right before New Year’s so we could spend a couple days there with the family.  And then we hit the road!  We spent two days driving through Roswell, Carlsbad, and the gorgeous Guadalupe Mountains before ending up in Marfa, Texas.

out here, you can stand in the middle of the road for 10 minutes at a time and not see a car

For those of you who don’t know Marfa, it’s a little town in far west TX that has become a mecca for artists and designers, ever since sculptor Donald Judd moved out there in the 1970s and deemed it hip.  This wasn’t Judd’s plan at all – he was just trying to get away from the NYC art world, and find some peace, quiet, and a ton of land for his work.  The land he bought is now part of the Chinati Foundation.  Marfa has since attracted other artists and creative folks, and it’s a weirdly hip little place.  I’ve been through here a surprising number of times in the past few years (this might be my 5th visit?), and I keep discovering new things.  My favorite place to stay is El Cosmico, because they have yurts.  They also have a great manifesto (or “mañanifesto”) – you should read it.  They also have teepees and vintage trailers.  Also, semi-outdoor showers.  Cassie and I got a yurt for the night – a really nice yurt:

yurt interior

But it was a really cold night.

Here are some more photos of our adventures.  Next stop, Austin!

mmm.....