A Photographer: August 2009

8.15.2009

New Mexico and Arizona

Ray Parish a professor at UTEP let us view his art and showed us around his gallery and workshop. We ran into Mr. Parish after going of route, which was probably the best thing that could happen. His art was pretty amazing. Every year he host an artist to live above his workshop free of rent. You can find out more here http://www.borderartresidency.org/about.php

Pecan trees

Whitesands in New Mexico

8.05.2009

15 days in Texas...

Texas was awesome! Dallas was fun, Austin was a really good time and cannot wait until I go back. Went to San Antonios river walk at night which was really nice to finally see. After San An we headed west on 90 and ran into a couple of cool small towns. First we spot in Sanderson, which i liked because it was an old railroad town. It is located in a valley and it had a really nice small town feel with a sweet little cafe. In Marathon, we met this awesome pilot/artist whos name is Gill. He had amazing architecture. Marfa was cool, but i expect more then what I saw. Everything being closed did not help. A couple of us went to this awesome house party which was a lot of fun. The hose played some salsa and merengue. Van Horn and Fort Hancock followed. Both were pretty uneventful although on the way to Van Horn I did see the Prada store in the middle of nowhere. El paso was a cool city which was a while away from the Border. I went to check that out and took some pictures of the wall aka "the fence". I also met oscar who hooked me up with the quickstep world champion jersey. Also ate at this pretty good pizza place which was the best pizza I had outside of NYC.

The tour started and now it is done. Heres a briefing on the tour. 6pts for 1st place, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th and 1 for 5th. 14 stages. 1st person to get to the truck/campground/hotel wins. There were a couple of sprint finishes which were fun. At one point I was in the lead and then I took a sag day after Austin. I was in no shape to ride. There was a little controversy on the way to Marfa. The two riders who won left 20min or so before myself or everyone else. I thought it was BS and they should of gotten there points taken away, but it did not happen. That would of put me at a tie entering El paso which I probably would of won or came in 2nd but not to the leader. I ended up getting second in El paso to Dan from Canada. This was the 1st time I got beat on a sprint. As far as climbs, I never got dropped the whole tour.

Final Standings

Bennett 49

Crihs 44

Matt 28

Blazer 27

Dade 21

Chadster and his whoas

Happy 30th Brian!

Whitesboro Inn Pool

Top 3 in Dallas

Dallas girls are fun

Aftermath of the big D

Camping is fun

Continuum Cycles sent me this in the mail

Dogs were on the move

I guess I am a perv

Sanderson was great!

All american diner

Heading to Sanderson, Tx

Bowling in Brackettsville

The Alamo

Bennito's gear

Met Gill in Marathon. He had a mini art complex. It was pretty great.

A little shave

Shopping anyone ?

The wall "fence" separating Juarez from El Paso

Texas was what I expected and more. I cant wait until I come back.

8.02.2009

Headed to Tejas!

So I am in Texas and have not had a lot of time to upload pictures. So far Texas is going good besides the rough roads. The heat is not that bad as i thought it would be. I am going to be in Texas for 15 days, which is 30% of this trip. Right now I am in Marathon. Last night I was in awesome Samderson. It was a very photogenic town. There was this one place called Roundhouse Cafe which i ate at 3 times yesterday and once again this morning. As far as the Tour de Texas, I am currently in 2nd behind bennett. I had to stars in a row until today. I am 5pts behind him, so I will look to cut the lead down tomorrow.

Drinking a Blue Moon in Stigler.