Woah, horsey.  We’re packing up again.  And again, it seems all too soon.  I feel somewhat guilty and privileged as I’m situated in an air-conditioned facility, saturated with iced espresso and bombarded by the comforts of Mellow Johnny (Lance Armstrong’s bike shop/pit stop).  Meanwhile, the crew is breaking down the site and tightly packing the landship yet again.  (Again.  I’ve used the word too many times.)  I suppose I’m preparing myself for a “real job,” one in which you must diligently check email in luxurious conditions.  I admit, I’d almost rather be the object of the relentless sun.  (ALMOST.)

Austin, thank you.  We’ve been presented with remarkable kindness and I feel that “thank you” isn’t an adequate expression of gratitude.  Randy and the Austin Green Art crew provided a delicious and fortifying meal on Monday night.  We were joined by a few guest campers and were able to enjoy/employ a surprise amenity delivered by Green City Solar–a solar powered generator!  We hooked up our sewing machine, charged our electronics and at last, stored a few perishables in our normally empty refrigerator.  Thank you, Green City Austin, of the solar division!

Yesterday we set up at a tipi at MASS Gallery on the cement parking lot and outfitted it with all the necessary home furnishings found in the nearby Goodwill dump: a cot, a cooler, an oil barrel and an uprooted fire hydrant as its centerpiece.  (And anchor weight.)  We held an artist talk in the evening, which successfully unfurled as a discussion and later developed into a late-night dip at Barton Springs.  59 seconds in a 59 degree natural pool.  I was pretty disappointed when my swim was truncated by a whistle, blown as my flailing limbs hit the cooling surface.  I thought I had done something horrible, but realized that the pool closed at the very moment I plunged.  Oh well.  We might take a quick rinse before getting on the road (momentarily).  I think that’s a great idea, because we now have a crew of 8, and a drive of 8+ hours to our next destination–Marfa, Texas.  I’m looking forward to a rooftop ride, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.  (Now is when the 200lbs of old seat belts and webbing come in handy.  Strap me in, captain.)

So, Marfa it is.  We won’t make it there tonight, which is good, because we’ll have an opportunity for a wilderness camping adventure in a wildernesseque park with a wilderness campfire.  No rest stops tonight.  We’ll be in Marfa for only one day, tomorrow, so we won’t set up camp, but look for us in Albuquerque on Saturday, where we’ll be installed alongside some other tents at the Saturday farmers’ market.

And now I’m getting a breakfast call, which means I need to exit.  But before I do so, I’d like to send out a raging applause to Austin, particularly Randy Jewart of Austin Green Art and Xochi Solis of MASS.  Y’all make me smile–more than a gooey box of delicious donuts.  It always comes back to that, doesn’t it.  (Exit stage left, west to WEST TEXAS. )