So, last time, I had us starting out for Western Texas, and, ultimately, the town of Marfa.
We left Georgetown and headed West. There were a number of possible routes, but Martha thought it would be best to travel via route 10, and thus head to Fredericksburg, which had a number of interesting things to see, and then from there on.
But, beyond Fredericksburg, we found ourselves in the beginnings of West Texas, which is to say...in vast, Vast, VAST spaces. Frankly, unless you’re really into range land, tumbleweeds, and the occasional cow (okay, maybe it was a bull), there isn’t really much for me to say about large chunks of West Texas.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. It can be very pretty. There is something serene about it, at times. And, frankly, it feels a lot like Eastern New Mexico, which is pretty indistinguishable from western Texas. As an aside, for a very long time, Texas claimed much of what became New Mexico. It almost made good on those claims several times. In the 1850s, in fact, Texans even started to set up a “county of Santa Fe,” which would include nearly half of New Mexico, including the city which is now the state’s capital, i.e., Santa Fe itself.
That didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. As a good New Mexican (at least while I still lived there), of course I am glad that those dang cowboys stayed on their side of the border. But...honestly...on those occasions when I’ve driven to Roswell or Carlsbad, I had to admit, they had a point. It looks like Texas, it feels like Texas, it acts like Texas...maybe it should be Texas.
But, then, of course, if that were the case, then big chunks of Southwestern Texas, including El Paso, should be part of New Mexico. I wonder how Texans would feel about a swap.
Probably not wise to ask them. They carry six shooters ‘round these parts.
About the photos: First, a shot from the parking lot of our hotel in Sonora. Don’t worry. That’s just the sunset. Not the end of the world. Even if it does look a bit reddish and scary. (I assume a passing truck bent the street light.)
Second, and just ‘cause I like the shot, a photo of Martha in the “Freight House Kitchen,” which used to be one of our favorite restaurants in Bernalillo, NM. Alas, it closed because of Covid. Sigh. Ah well. Maybe it will return someday. This, by the way, is a photo from 2018. (see https://www.abqjournal.com/news/bernalillo-s-freight-house-kitchen-tap-closes/article_b76b8f5b-2f5a-5137-8e8c-64320495108b.html)
And third, here’s Dan Blocker as Hoss on Bonanza. This photo is from Wikipedia and is believed to be in the Public Domain. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Blocker#/media/File:Bonanza_Dan_Blocker.jpg)
Anyway, we drove...and drove...and drove. Not much changed. We had lunch somewhere along the way, but I don’t remember where. Plus, we stopped now and then to get iced coffee or to use restrooms. Sometimes it was hard to find places to do that. Starbucks stores get rare as you go along Route 10. Our fallbacks are usually McDonalds (which has really good hot coffee, by the way) and DairyQueen (less good coffee, but great ice cream), but those too grew scarce as we went our way.
Finally, we came to Sonora, Texas. We got there just as the sun was going down. We had hoped to go a bit further, but the late start made that impossible. Because it was getting dark, and because we were getting tired, we ended up not seeing much of Sonora, and honestly, I’m not sure what there was to see.
I did look up Sonora when we got home. It has (of course) its own Wikipedia page.(1) According to that, Sonora is “a city in and the county seat of Sutton County, Texas...The population was 2,502 at the 2020 census.” In terms of geography, it has a total area of “2.0 square miles (5.1 km2).”
It has some interesting claims to fame. For instance, it was here that William "News" Carver (1868 – 1901) shuffled off his mortal coil. News Carver was an outlaw, one of the last of the great Western gunmen, and a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. He was in Sonora after the Wild Bunch had split up to avoid the law. Somehow, Carver ended up in a local bakery where a number of lawmen ambushed and shot him. The exact circumstances of the firefight, and why it happened, remain a little murky to this day.(2)
Another wild west link, but via television, comes in the form of the actor Don Blocker (1928-1972). Those of us who are “of a certain age” will recall him as Hoss Cartwright on the show Bonanza. Blocker wasn’t a native son, but he did teach English and drama in Sonora’s high school in 1953-54. A few years later, he’d head off to Hollywood to win fame and fortune.(3)
Oh, and a third cowboy connection, but of a different sort, we later learned from our daughter-in-law, Emily, that her father had grown up in Sonora. That was before he became a rancher and a lawyer and many other things as well.
Anyway, getting back to our trip, we had dinner at a local restaurant, Sutton County Steak House (quite good by the way).(4) Then it was off to bed.
In the morning, we were on our way again. And, in the process, we’d meet Judge Roy Bean...and I’d end up bleeding, rather copiously, in the dairy section of Walmart.
But that’s for next time.
Footnotes:
1. Which you can see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora,_Texas)
2. “William Carver (Wild Bunch)” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carver_(Wild_Bunch)
4. Sutton County Steak House https://sutton-county-steak-house-inc.square.site/
Copyright©2024 Michael Jay Tucker
Copyright©2024 Michael Jay Tucker
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