West Texas Trip

Last week I had the opportunity to travel through West Texas on a business trip. (At the first of the year, I sculpted out a sales territory for West Texas and Eastern New Mexico and hired a Sierra Blanco raised gentleman, Dalton West, who has been the high school pricipal at Liberty Hill for the past several years.) Anyway, Dalton and I started our trip in Midland, calling on Crane, McCamey, Ft.Stockton, Marathon, Alpine, Marfa, Ft.Davis, Balmorhea and Pecos. It was a fun loop, as I had not been in the Davis Mountain area for over 15 years.

There were several highlights to the trip, but it was particulary fun to see Brent and Ruth McWillaims in Marfa and Mrs. Grubb in Ft.Davis. I also met Marsha Roach in Alpine, as she is the Superintendents Assistant at Alpine ISD.

While we were in Alpine, Jim had mentioned to me that his girlfriend, Amy (who lives in Alpine), worked in an apparal business. While driving down a street, I thought something about a certain business seemed familiar.....so I popped in and asked for Amy..... A very nice lady said...."I am Amy". Long story short, I met Amy and we were able to chat for a little before Dalton and I had to head down the road. My final opinion....Jim is dating way over his head.....Amy is wonderful.











Spending the night in the Paisano Hotel in Marfa was certainly a highlight as well. The Hotel is owned by Joe Duncan and has been renovated to a very nice condition.

Marfa has changed quiet a bit, but driving through the town, it still looks like the Marfa of 20 years ago with a few changes. We stopped at a convience store and I ran into Britt Webb. He looked really good and was thrilled to catch up.

While in Marfa, I ran down to the paper with Coach Mac to deliver a game report and learned that Robert Halpern is the editor of the Big Bend Sentinal. He recognized that I was a Lane immediately. I think he was in Clay's class.



That evening, we also ate at "Jet's", the restaurant attached to the hotel. The food was absolutely wonderful and a real treat in Marfa.



After returning to the Permian Basin Fudd treated us to a wonderful tour of Athletic Supply and then we had dinner with Jim, Jacque and Fudd.

It was a fun trip and brough back many memories. There was a moment when we were in Marathon and Dalton was meeting with the administration.....I was standing outside, looking at the desert mountains and was just in awe at the quiet, solitude.....pretty amazing. Part of me misses the Davis Mountain area. Audra and I are now thinking about a Texas trip to see Mom and the Mathis', but also return through Ft.Davis for the 4th of July Celebration this summer. We will see......