Marfa, Texas
Driving up from Big Bend, I spent some time exploring the small desert towns of West Texas including Marfa, Fort Davis, Alpine and Valentine.
Alpine, TX
While staying in Marfa I was introduced to a man named Lonnie and his wife Paula, who had moved to Alpine a few years earlier to escape the constant growth and development of the Texas hill country. In their older years they wanted a quieter life and ran a small ranch there. I was invited to spend the morning with Lonnie and Paula, starting at dawn at the ranch followed by one of the biggest breakfasts on their back porch.
Lonnie is a horse wrangler and stuntman who has worked in movies for 45 years. He has worked with Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Sam Elliot among many others, and I spent the morning hearing stories from the sets of some of my favorite movies of all time. We shot a few stills and did some filming as the sun rose.
After we finished filming, sitting on the porch of Lonnie and Paula’s place back in Alpine, Lonnie told me he didn’t mind Covid so much because he could always go up to his ranch alone and spend time with his horses, Emiliano and Zapata (named after his hero). I told him one of the things that hit me hardest in early Covid was when John Prine died. Tears sprung in his eyes immediately and he nodded in agreement, and said softly, “I loved that man”. As I was leaving, he pushed a book into my hand of interviews with John Prine.
Big Bend National Park
After two weeks working in Austin, I headed out to West Texas, into the high desert to stay explore Big Bend National Park and border country. On the way in I stopped to read a sign with info about the park and was struck by the knowledge that I was looking at the eroded core of an ancient volcano.
New Orleans, Louisiana
I spent two weeks in New Orleans - first visit to an incredible town. It felt incredibly distinct, and I had a fantastic early morning walk out to the Mississippi along the bayou.
Tenessee
I weaved through the Smokey Mountains towards Nashville, and then spent several days at the Eden Estate snowed in outside the city.
North Carolina / December
I spent Christmas in Raleigh and over New Year a week in Asheville, where I stayed in a beautiful new cabin development just out of town called Firelight Cabins.
Winter Road Trip 2024
After 6 consecutive winters spent in the mountains of the Northeast navigating snow storms and keeping wood stoves alive, I decided to take a few months to travel and explore the South and West of the US along with my intrepid Border Collie, Murphy. We’ll be visiting areas I’ve never been before, leaving the Catskills in mid-December and winding our way to New Orleans by way of North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi, before turning West for Austin, Marfa and New Mexico.
The open road. After 12 winters in the North East, I hit the road in December and headed South to Texas and New Mexico.