This doesn’t look like texas

As we drive into Austin, we are a bit disappointed. Just the same old texas, a couple dairy queens and farms, as far as the eye can see. Then things begin to change. Skyscrapers pop up, and pretty awesome ones at that. We check out 6ixth street. Everyone in Lubbock was raving about it. The first restaurant we see looks good. We order some mushroom and goat cheese ravioli for sixteen bucks. Out comes the meal with three ravioli on the plate. This is not the giant cheap portions of Texas we are used to. After strolling through the street we encounter a “ten month pregnant” bum and more then a few people yelling nonsense. When ten o’clock rolls around we head over to our new couch surfing host.

No such thing as too many bubbles!

The best part of our trip to Lubbock, Texas was the private Jaccuzi tub in our room. I knew after seeing it that we were going to spend way too much time in that tub, but luckily there isn't all that much else to do in Lubbock! I started filling the tub, and of course I wanted as many bubbles as possible. In retrospect, an entire container of bubbles might be too much for one bath- as soon as we turned on the jets the bubbles started getting pretty out of control. They quickly flowed over the top of our wine glasses and onto the floor, covering the whole bathroom and even trailing into the room. We were in the bathtub for way too long, and were half-asleep at our 7:30 breakfast the next morning.

A place for all his buses

Waking up with a short two-hour drive ahead of us we decide to explore a bit of Clovis. Last night we saw some run down looking silos, a good place to start, as Jen loves decrepit places. As we step out of the car an ominous rusty warehouse looms over us. Jen does her best to encourage me to explore it. The closer I step, the further the oddities take shape: abandoned RVs, stacks of old printers and copy machines, piles upon piles of cardboard boxes. One of the warehouses has an open door. We creep around to it and are startled by a voice. “Why you college kids always takin’ pictures round here?”, questions a large woman on a tractor. Her form appeared to merge with the very structure of the vehicle as the folds of her abdomen curled over it. In the back of the shop we spot an old man with a Santa Claus beard blowtorching some unknown object. We quickly come up with some excuse and continue into the depths of Clovis.
Gates block off entire junkyards of organized garbage. This time I send Jen to peek through a broken glass window. She sees two staircases tunneling underground. We move on. I jump onto an old semi flat bead for a photo when a straggly haired man starts flailing his arms and approaches us. He opens his cracked lips to reveal a mouth full of stretched out corn kernel teeth. Past yellow the edges brown like a well-done egg. He extends a leathery hand to me, and I wearily shake it. Jen follows. We explain to him about our art and why we are trespassing. He insists that we enter his warehouse and look at a picture he found the other day. Jen accepts with a look of panic on her face. He leads us through a graveyard of more office appliances. Inside the only light comes through slits from uneven roofing panels. The backroom opened up to a hanger filled with four ancient buses. Jen follows him into the first bus. I can only peek through a window to get a look at what is going on. A warm glow emanates from the window and illuminates a surface textured with beads, fake jewelry, giant dollar bills and other assorted trash. Worry sets in and I make my way into the crowded bus. I bump into a cane with a goat skull garnished to the top. “Like it, I made it, see the eyes I made them ouda candy,” he cackled. I give Jen a look trying to give her a hint that we should get out of there, but she is in a trance by the mystery of it. -Aronson

Clovis, Texas- A place for family

Oh wait, Aronson said we are still actually in New Mexico, but its pretty much the same thing. We decided that the next must-see stop after Albequerque would be Clovis. We pull up to a cute little agricultural town with rows and rows of hotels. We pull up at the first one- an Econo Lodge where you can talk to the attendant outside through a sheet of glass. Unfortunately, that one was all booked up. Looks like Clovis is a more popular destination than we thought. She sends us over to the Days Inn, which to our surprise is actually a really nice hotel except for one little thing- the curtains covering the window to our first floor room are completely sheer. Our creepy voyeuristic neighbors aside, it was a great night.- jen

Albequerque not even worth two pictures

Upon leaving albe, or querque, or any other weird name the locals call it we realize this is the only spot we didn’t take pictures in. Ill do my best to fill the visual gap in. The navigation system went completely a wall in this city. It constantly had us going in circles and readjusting routes. I guess I should talk a bit about our hostess from last night. She was a complaining machine in the nicest of ways. Telling us about how shitty her life was for the entire hour before she fell asleep. We woke up to an empty house though which was nice. We took our only Albuquerque picture of her dog and headed off. Old town was boring, photo store was over priced and that’s all I can stand to write about this.- aronson

Crater- Holbrook- Jen the boring couchhost

That was pretty much our trip to Albequerque. Saw a giant crater in Arizona but didn’t pay to actually see the meteor hole hahah. Then we went to the best diner in Holbrook- pretty impressive, I know. Then we met Jen, our couchhost, blah blah blah. Aronson is such a blog nazi- keep trying and trying but he keeps insisting I blog- I try to make him but he keeps putting the computer between us and forcing me to blog. This is my blog-- hope you're happy.

Even more ridiculous Chinese tourists

Trying to wake up bright and early did not quite work out. By 11 we drive back out to the grand canyon. The place looks like Disney world there are so many tourists running around. I try and find a suitable place to set up shop and start painting. My hopes of out walking the crowd begin to look futile as we turn a bend and see the mob of infectious colored people spots far off in the distance. The combination of heat and supplies begins to weigh on us and we decide to throw down our stuff on a nice little rock ledge. People begin to swarm around the me as if I were the latest attraction. I can overhear an assortment of voices, “look mom it’s an artist”, “are those oil paints”, “I used to paint”, “that’s so cool”, at the time they seemed less generic. One girl even commeted on jen’s holga camera. The best of all though were the Chinese tourists. They come right next to me and tell me to look at the camera in Chinese until I comply. -aronson