Fest Out West Part 1: Choo Choo

For the past five days I've been enjoying dry air, cool breezes at night, breathtaking sunrises, and millions of stars that fill the west Texas sky. I had never been west before (I was told by the locals that Lubbock ain't west) and so the journey to Lajitas, Texas was much anticipated. Most of that anticipation occurred over the loooong train ride.

We boarded the train bright and early Thursday at 4:40am. Once settled, in our cozy chairs, we all quickly fell asleep for a couple hours to awake to breakfast announcements in the dining car. My parents, grandparents, my sister, and a couple friends of my parents were with us. Here's Annie and Papa about to enjoy a lovely breakfast on the train...

As we got further and further away from San Antonio, the trees started shrinking in size, down to shrubs. And the green grass soon turned to dirt. A couple times along the way we passed different lakes and rivers, but the best sight of all was the Pecos River Bridge. We were so high up on a tiny railroad bridge, with a breathtaking view!

The train ride was about 7 hours. While relaxing and enjoyable, we met a couple interesting people...some traveling all the way from New Orleans to LA. We call it the cu cu choo choo! Our train pulled into Alpine, Texas a little after noon. That is where John (my uncle) met us with a massive bus, handed us a cool beer, and put on Three Amigos for the hour and a half bus ride to Lajitas. Now that's what I call a warm welcome!

"No, we will not die like dogs! We will fight like lions! Because we are... The Three Amigos!"

We arrived in beautiful Lajitas shortly after a couple Shiner's and some laughs with the Three Amigos. The resort is right out of an old western movie, but with updated plumbing, thank goodness.

Here's a view from our porch at the Bandlands Hotel

And a couple photos from the hotel

That night we enjoyed music from Matt Skinner while eating BBQ and then headed to see Micky and the Motorcars with Doug Moreland trio band. The show was outside, under the stars! Couldn't have asked for a better way to start our adventure out west!