We arrived into Midland last night after another slight delay on the highway in.

We found La Cheve-Ceria for dinner. Excellent quesadillas and margaritas! A colourful and vibrant place seemingly filled with oil workers. We took a place at the bar and enjoyed the spirit while there. The menu? Other than the ‘Happy Birthday Shot’ at $40, everything else was $4!

Some late comers (and we were there only at 9pm) ordered the birthday shots that came out with full Mexican fanfare – lights, whistles, the music went up about another 30 decibels – they sure know how to party!!

Midland is oil and gas through to Odessa and the Pecos. If you’ve watched ‘Landman’ on Paramount then you will already have a good picture of what it looks like. Flat, dry, ground for miles, littered with oil pump jacks and gas fields with their pilot lights offering up a spectacle in the dark of night.

On through Odessa and to Pecos, we made a stop at the Pecos Museum. Pecos is home of the world’s first ever rodeo held 4th July, 1883.

Of course Judge Roy Bean “The Law West of the Pecos” was appointed a Justice of The Peace in 1882 in a desolate area of West Texas. He operated out of his own Saloon, the Jersey Lily so named after his actress wife Lily Langtry. The town of Vinegroon he also renamed – Langtry.

The Museum has a replica version of the Jersey Lily Saloon out back.

The Museum itself is the site of the Orient Saloon. Still with original floorboards, pressed tin ceilings, original bar, saloon tables (including one with shelves for your guns) and much memorabilia original to the saloon and donated from the community.

Oh and of course bullet holes in the North wall from the gunfight where Barney Riggs shot and killed William Earhart and John Denson on October 3rd, 1896.

The re-enacted Jesse Heard said “…bullets were flyin’ and bodies were droppin’..”

After touring all the rooms of rodeo, US Marshals, football, Golden Girls, house rooms, war and of course the gun room we left to continue our journey.

We are now keeping on West with clear blue skies and strong winds.

Kat x