I know, I know. Where the fuck is Abilene? Well, it is the entry to proper west Texas, if the huge outcroppings of prickly pear cactus can be considered the prickly, pearly gates.

One of the more interesting parts of my job is that I will probably be making short local trips fairly often, and that's fine with me because I love that shit. So when possible, I will make any and all appointments on Fridays so I can leave Thursday nights or Friday mornings and have a bit of time to explore places I have never explored.

In the case of Abilene, I HAVE driven through a couple times, so was pretty certain we didn't need two nights, and since we went to see Low on Thursday we couldn't have done two anyway. But, as I suspected, two would have been far too many.

We drove out via Breckenridge, TX, which was small but rusted pretty in that abandoned west Texas way. I had to do an interview there, so David wandered about for an hour and took some photos. I like the way the boy sees things, I must say.

Then to Abilene, where I had found a certain bed and breakfast by Googling something like "funky Abilene" or "art Abilene" or something. The fellow who owns it said he was on his way moving to Austin, when he pulled into the gas station next door to a motel that was about to be torn down, and he saw something in it, so he stayed in Abilene & bought the place. The only part of the motel that could be saved was the newest part (built in '51 I think he said), which gives him a home, gallery, and three remaining rooms for the b&b. It is closed off from the main road and has a lovely garden & water fountain and koi and whatnot. It was quite peaceful and a bit of a surprise.

I conducted my second interview in town then David & I went for a wander and a drive. We went to the TOUCH OF CLASS LOUNGE (not TOO classy), then explored downtown. Downtown was actually extremely clean and had some great buildings, but at 7pm on a Friday? Absolutely NOTHING OPEN. It was sort of weird. A bit creepy. We picked up some wine & went back to the b&b where the dude who owns it was making us a sushi dinner. YES, I AM SERIOUS.

And it was pretty good! I mean, come on. It was Abilene. My expectations weren't exactly HIGH.

The next day the dude, who is an artist for a living, gave us a drawing and origami lesson. And then we left and went slightly south of the city to a town called Buffalo Gap, where they had an old historic village. It made for amazing photographs. Unfortunately, not only was it 104 F outside, but the historic village was wasp central, and I was getting freaked out, so we didn't stay overly long. Not that we NEEDED to, really. It was pleasant but not worth more than the 45 minutes or so that we were there.

I was happy to explore. I got a Schwinn and a skull at a flea market for $30, which I felt was extremely reasonable. Buffalo Gap had a frighteningly conservative newspaper, and the b&b owner was quite strange. It was a weird little jaunt. I can't exactly recommend that folk make a special trip, but if you ever find yourself NEEDING to go to Abilene for some reason, I think we did it well and I'll be happy to give suggestions. But again – don't go out of your way.

I think I'll score these little excursions when they come up, though the first one is hard since I don't have anything to compare it to yet. The city was remarkably boring, but everyone we met was SO NICE. Then again, there was that Buffalo Gap newspaper comparing Obama to Hitler. But there were goats there, which is a big plus in my book. The b&b was a welcome surreal touch to what could have been a really boring business trip. I'm going to have to give this one a square 5, with 0 being suck-ass and 10 being awesome.