Frost, friends and fine art in south central Texas

This past Sunday we departed Big Bend NP and began what will be a three-month meandering to Aztec Ruins National Monument, site of our next volunteer assignment.

Leonard & Kat admire this metal sculpture. A museum

docent showed us how to make it move.

First on our list of stopovers: the bustling town of San Angelo, Texas. Why San Angelo? It so happened that Kat, a good friend and fellow expatriate from our years in Costa Rica, was there visiting Margie, her mother. Not wanting to miss out on either the prospect of seeing our pals or getting a tip on where to find good eats – and isn't that what life's all about? - we set the GPS for the San Angelo KOA.
 

For the uninitiated, San Angelo (population about 112,000) offers the kind of amenities found in similar third-tier cities...and a few found only in larger ones. (I'll get to one of those in a minute.) Visitors will find a mix of shopping and dining options capable of satisfying most any heart's desire. The list of “what's going on in San Angelo” also featured a blast of Arctic air bringing yet another round of sub-freezing temps to the area.

 

Our first morning in San Angelo found Leonard scrambling to retrieve our water pressure regulator, the one he connects outside the rig to mitigate potential problems arising from excessive water pressure (a problem in some RV parks). Seeing as how we'd already lost one regulator to ice, we weren't exactly excited about forking out another $60 bucks to replace the replacement. The potential for freezing pipes and hoses is the stuff of which RV nightmares are made.
 

As for our visit with Kat and Margie, Kat steered us towards a fabulous Japanese-Korean restaurant where we dined our first night in town. The next day, Margie wisely chose to remain in the warm confines of her lovely home while Kat suggested a trip to the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts. Off to the museum we went!

To be frank, my expectations going in were fairly low, the result of growing up in a place where people paid good money for paintings done by orangutans at the local zoo. (One need only look at the walls of any primate cage to know what those looked like.) I wouldn't have been at all surprised to find the museum's walls filled with images of poker-playing dogs or deceased celebrities immortalized on black velvet. Little did I know that we were about to discover a hidden gem in this small, historic town.

A sampling of SAMFA's glass and ceramics collection.

The museum building is a lovely, modern structure in San Angelo's river district . It houses a wonderful permanent collection of ceramics, paintings, sculpture and photographs representing a variety of artistic styles. SAMFA features special exhibits, too, like their current offerings showcasing works of regional artists, including painter H.W. Caylor and sculptor Gib Singleton.

We spent a good hour marveling at all the museum had to offer then followed that with a stop at a nearby Starbucks to consume large cups of steaming hot brown liquid before returning Kat to her mom's to bid farewell in advance of our departure for San Antonio the next morning.

Soon, hopefully, that famous southern Texas winter weather will return. In the meantime, Leonard and I will console ourselves with one simple thought: at least it's not snowing!

Steer horns form the base for this chair. (And, no, we're

not getting one for the RV!)

Harvey Wallace Caylor lived the frontier life and ranks among the American West's great artists.

Gib Singleton trained at the Chicago Art Institute. His sculptures

are displayed at some of the world's most notable museums. 

SAMFA lets regional artists show their talents. Note the creative recycling of used paint tubes. (I'm sure this painter isn't the first to want to throw a hatchet at his work.)



Art of the future? This bracelet was produced by a 3-D printer. Watching that printer in action was like seeing something out of Star Trek.