During a recent trip to Houston, I decided to make an early-bird dinner reservation so I could get over to the Rice University campus in time for the evening viewing of James Turrell’s Light Epiphany. Open since June, the site-specific “skyspace” was commissioned to mark the university’s centennial. The pyramidal structure has been outfitted with LED lights that Turrell has programmed to change in particular sequences—one just before sunrise, one just after sunset—in accordance with the solar calendar. Seeing as how the sun always sets on time, I didn’t want to be late.

As I hurried toward the structure (located next to the Shepherd School of Music), my first thought was that it looked like some sort of futuristic hover craft. I handed over the email confirmation I’d printed out (though free, reservations are required for the sunset show) and fell in line with the other visitors. Heading up the white staircase embedded in the structure’s grassy slope, I felt like Roy at the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind as he walked, willingly, up the ramp and into the mother ship.

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Tagged: art, Houston, James Turrell, Rice University, skyspace, Twilight Epiphany

For many travelers, this far West Texas town is a last-chance pit stop before heading south to brave the wilds of Big Bend National Park. But, this past spring, after driving 407 miles (that’s roughly 7 hours and 143 country songs) from Austin to get here, my three friends and I were perfectly content to drop anchor in this desert oasis for a few days. Our plan: to brave nothing wilder than our TV-less hotel room. And so we spent 72 hours shopping, strolling, eating, and exploring along the short stretch of Highway 90 that makes up the town’s main drag.

Read on for my Marathon trip guide…

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Tagged: 12 Gauge, Barton Warnock, Big Bend, birding, Burnt Biscuit Bakery, Crinoids Hills, Evans Gallery, Front Street Books, Gage Gardens, Gage Hotel, Hallie Stillwell, J.P. Bryan, James Evans, Johnny B's Soda Fountain, Klepper Gallery, Marathon, Marathon Coffee Shop, Post Park, stargazing, trip guide, West Texas, White Buffalo Bar

In one of my favorite descriptions of Marfa, writer David McDannald points out that sometimes it’s “a shadow of a town” and sometimes it’s “a desert Mardi Gras.” At the end of this month, West Texas’s buzziest destination will be lit up like Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday when hundreds of Austinites and Brooklynites and Portlandiers (okay, and maybe some folks from other parts too) roll in for the seventh annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love. Held at El Cosmico, hotelier Liz Lambert’s trailer-strewn (and Beyoncé-approved) kibbutz just off of Highway 67, the event will have all the trappings of a true hipster gathering: an “epic” sandlot baseball game, arts and crafts workshops, and Shiner-braised vegan riblets from Frank, along with three days of jam sessions with Ben Kweller, Meshell Ndegeocello, Amy Cook, Brownout, and others. I can only hope that Blondie himself will be making a surprise appearance like Robert Plant did last year.

Tickets, which range from $25 to $130, are available here.

Tagged: Amy Cook, Ben Kweller, Brownout, El Cosmico, Liz Lambert, Marfa, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Plant, Trans-Pecos, West Texas

WHAT: Wild Boar Farms, a roadside farm stand worth pulling over for.

WHERE: Stonewall, at the northeast corner of Hwy 290 and Luckenbach Road.

WHY: For starters, the head farmer’s name is Daniel Bacon. That’s as good a reason as any to patronize this long, wood-paneled structure, which is less a makeshift farmstand than a mini country market. Plus, it’s open nine months out of the year. I went in thinking I’d buy a bushel of the juicy Hill Country peaches that were in season during my visit and maybe one of the watermelons out front, but once I saw the bounty inside—tomatoes, zucchini, pattypan squash, anasazi beans, jugs of peach cider, Oma’s mini cherry pies, I could go on—I started thinking of the empty refrigerator I’d be returning home to and how to fill it.

BONUS POINTS: For ample parking, a public (if rustic) restroom for customers, and the sweetest hand-written note about Mama Bacon’s Mayhaw jelly (click through to see).

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Tagged: Hill Country, peaches, Roadside Attraction, Stonewall, Wild Boar Farms

If you’ve already picked up your copy of Texas Monthly‘s September issue, you’ve noticed that the magazine has undergone a top-to-bottom redesign. In the new Touts section, you’ll find the debut of my Texas travel column, the Wanderer (or, as my colleagues like to call it: Breal’s On Wheels), which will be a chronicle of my three-day trip to a different Texas town or city each month.

Since joining Texas Monthly in 2005, I’ve had the pleasure of writing about everything from barbecue and camping to fine art and six-man football, and I’ve probably spent more time on Texas’s highways and back roads than in my Austin office. As TM‘s head honcho, Jake Silverstein, points out in his detailed rundown of the magazine’s new look, mine is an enviable job. As a native Texan (born and raised in Fort Worth), I couldn’t agree more.

Just as the aim of every page (and web page) of Texas Monthly is “to deepen a reader’s understanding and enjoyment of Texas,” as Jake puts it, it is my aim as “the Wanderer” to share with you some of the best places to go and things to do in this great state of ours. I hope that my adventures will incite you to throw your overnight bag in the car and take off to explore a part of the state you’ve never been to before or one you’d like to rediscover. Luckily for us, Texas is so vast that experiencing all it has to offer will be a lifelong pursuit.

- Jordan

p.s. You can also keep up with my wanderings via Twitter and Instagram.

Tagged: Austin, the Wanderer