TEXAS, SAN ANGELO: PAINTBRUSH ALLEY, SHEEP, AND WATERLILIES

 March 22, 2021

San Angelo turned out to be a pretty big surprise--in a good way. It turned out to be a place I think we just touched the surface of, a place it would be fun to return to. There were many things that were closed because of Covid that I would like to see, and there were some great places we didn't know about before we just stumbled on them. One of those amazing, unanticipated finds was Paintbrush Alleyway.

This second sign has a hilarious nod to Bob Ross (star of the TV show The Art of Painting) in the middle section.

The alley is part of San Angelo's "Art in Uncommon Places" initiative that we had seen the fruits of in other places. The sign says it is themed after the 1956 movie Giant, but there were a lot of other "themed" murals before we got to Giant.

So here are some of the other murals. One of my favorites is this peacock that welcomes visitors.

TEXAS: SAN ANGELO STATE PARK AND SAN ANGELO CONCHO RIVER WALK

 March 22, 2021

Bob wanted to get up early (definitely earlier than I wanted to get up) to visit the I-20 Wildlife Preserve. I decided to sleep in and let him go by himself, and I was glad I did because when he got there, the park was closed and he had to turn around and come back.

We ended up getting on the road at about 9:30, heading southeast towards San Angelo, a distances of about 112 miles. One of the things that makes a driving trip like this one so much fun is that running into quirky things is almost inevitable 

For example, we saw this huge metal thing being towed down the road that looked like an airplane wing. Bob figured out that it was a blade of a electricity-generating windmill. I read that the blades of a turbine windmill are 120 feet long. I can't imagine turning the corner with one of these in tow.

The signs in the fields were pretty quirky.

And how about the totem pole made of antlers? Pretty quirky, right?