Twitter road trips USA: Texas to New Mexico day two – as it happened

We've just checked into El Cosmico in Marfa and our morning in Gruene feels miles away. While the rest of Texas had its eyes on Wendy Davis, we are currently wandering around in a pitch black field trying to find Sarah's safari tent ($65) and my trailer ($120), dubbed the Kozy Coach.

There's very little activity but I can already tell the place is hip – there's Jo's coffee from Austin on the counter, designer soap and plenty of places to charge gadgets. More on this hotel – and this currently sleeping town – in the morning.

On the way in, we stopped to see the famous Marfa mystery lights flickering in the distance from the highway – the lights look like tricks on the eyes, but there's definitely something flickering in the distance. My bet: there's a light far out in the fields on a timer. (Sorry, Marfans.)

Our search for wi-fi upon arrival has been futile. For now, it's time to shut down the blog. Tomorrow morning we'll explore Marfa and hit the road. On our route: Fort Davis, Balmorhea, Pecos, White Sands and Roswell. Tips welcome!

In honor of the great scribe of the American southwest – and apropos of his upcoming collaboration with Ridley Scott – here's the trailer to the Cormac McCarthy-penned The Counsellor, a clip from No Country for Old Men, and an excerpt from All the Pretty Horses.

First up, The Counsellor, starring Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt and a cheetah:

The most harrowing coin toss (and haircut) you'll ever see, courtesy Javier Bardem, the Coen brothers and Mr McCarthy:

And from his novel of innocence lost across Texan borders:

"She rode with her hat pulled down in the front and fastened under her chin with a drawtie and as she rode … all seeming unaware down through the low hills while the first spits of rain blew on the wind and onto the upper pasturelands and past the pale and reedy lakes riding erect and stately until the rain caught her up and shrouded her figure away in that wild summer landscape: real horse, real rider, real land and sky and yet a dream withal."

And a tune at the behest of Darcy Stefan: 'Mother', by Smog

We've arrived in Alpine for dinner at Reata at Atlatl2's suggestion. The special of the day is grilled catfish (Sarah wasn't kidding about its popularity.)

We've just completed the longest leg of the drive – about 450 miles straight across Texas with stops in between – and we're feeling ragged but happy to be free from our air conditioned box on wheels, as lovely as it is. We're staring bleary-eyed at the menus, so the earlier jalapeño cilantro soup suggestion is much appreciated.

We've still got 30 miles to go until Marfa, where we'll check out the reader-recommended Marfa lights and the El Cosmico tent. We're staying in a trailer. Stay tuned.

As the long day of driving goes on, we'll be cruising to another reader playlist – thanks to everyone who continues to submit below, including Casadewhack, Gangoffour, bristela and others!

This one's for you, trimphone: an endless loop of Texas scenery.

Katie has scheduled a stop in Fort Stockton later in the day, and would welcome any tips sent to @katierogers for good grub and the city's sights. So far, there's only been word of a huge bird.

But what more could you want? Sticking to the stereotype that everything is bigger in Texas, Paisano Pete – the greater roadrunner pictured at the top of this page – is the largest in the world, at 10 feet tall and 22 feet long.

And that's enough for this blogger, who drove 300 miles to see it – along with “every other household in Texas [that] has a picture somewhere of the kids standing at his feet … Sure, he has no animatronics. He doesn't talk or pluck a huge rubber worm from the ground at the top of every hour. He offers no historical or educational significance. But he's darned big. And in the end, that's all that matters.”

Enough said.

Texas Hill Country turns out to be rife with caves, and though Katie's heading to the Caverns of Sonora, there were too many for her get to on the road to Marfa. On Guardian Witness, Brian Vauter recommended the Natural Bridge Caverns, which are about 30 minutes north of San Antonio. He points out that the 'Hall of the Mountain King' is "as big as a football field (American football, mind you)".

There's also the not-so-aptly named Cave Without a Name, between San Antonio, New Braunfels and Kerrville, and the Longhorn Caverns, which have been home to Ice Age animals, Comanches, and Confederate soldiers, according to the park service.

As Katie, Sarah and John hit the road, we'll be taking requests for their driving playlist in the comments below – this one deserves a special shout out to bristela, who's been generous with the tips!

We've officially entered the Road Trip segment of this live blog. It snuck up on us directly after we left Ingram. No cell service and very little scenery; the rolling green of Texas Hill Country shifted to the rocky expanse of West Texas before our eyes.

The temperature outside is a balmy 91 degrees – it's 109 in Austin right now, so looks like we got out just in time.

We're toward the tail end of a 90-mile driving stretch from Ingram to Sonora, where we'll visit the reader-recommended Caverns of Sonora. 

We can't spend much time in Sonora as we're already behind schedule to make our 8pm arrival deadline in Marfa. But the speed limit here is 80mph, so we're hauling.

Fear not, Britons – not everything's bigger in Texas: Stonehenge II is only "90 percent as tall and 60 percent as wide as the original", according to the Arts Foundation. 

The pair of Maoi heads, each 13-ft tall, don't compare to the tallest on Easter Island (33 ft), but are about average in comparison to the hundreds of originals.

At TarquinFintimlin's suggestion, we stopped at the Lakehouse, a roadside restaurant overlooking the Guadalupe River that prides itself in its farm-raised ("always in America!") catfish.

I had the most popular menu item, four pieces of Lakehouse catfish, for $10.95. According to photographer Sarah, catfish is the most commonly found fish in Texas, just because there's not much else to choose from.

Sarah had a piece of baked catfish and John ordered chicken fried steak, which should delight our English to English blog readers, who are obsessed with it.

Now we're adequately fueled and on our way to nearby Ingram, home to Stonehenge II.

And if you're wondering what the scenery is like on the drive from Bandera to Kerrville through Texas Hill Country, this video will give you some idea. [It won't let us embed it - which is a shame.]

While Katie and the team are making their way to lunch at the Lakehouse, here's what we've discovered about Kerrville (pop: 20,425) - thanks to a cursory glance at Wiki:

Kerrville is named after James Kerr, a major in the Texas Revolution, and friend of settler-founder Joshua Brown, who settled in the area to start a shingle-making camp. Being nestled in the hills of Texas Hill Country, Kerrville is best known for its beautiful parks that line the Guadalupe River - which runs directly through the city ... hunting ranches, and RV parks. It is also the home of Texas' Official State Arts & Crafts Fair, the Kerrville Folk Festival

and the Kerrville Music site:

Founded by Rod Kennedy, the Kerrville Folk Festival has run annually since 1972. It is the longest continuously running music festival of its kind in North America

Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Michelle Shocked, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams, and Nancy Griffith have all played there.

And that gives us ample excuse to play this Texas tribute by Lyle Lovett

We're on our way to Kerrville for lunch - and will take TarquinFintimlin's suggestion and head to the Lakehouse.

The tiny town of Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of the World, was definitely worth the short detour from I10 on our way to Kerrville.

We stopped in at the Bandera General Store to ask owners Marcia Kabat and Glen McComb what the biggest misconception - and biggest truth - was about their state.

Glenn McComb's response:

Misconception: "That Texas is geographically flat. There's deserts, high plains and coastal areas."

Truth: "Everyone here is so proud to be a Texan."

We swung by the Bandera County Courthouse, because why not?

Then noticed Boggy Creek Taxidermy across the street.

We asked Bandera native Greg Schmidt, 54, the same two questions:

Misconception: "People say everything's bigger in Texas but that's not necessarily true."

Truth: "I think people are nicest in Texas. I've gone to other states and people are stuck up. In my opinion I think the people [here] are friendlier, and I deal with a lot of people."

Reception is looking patchy on the car radio, so rather than wait, here's the team's second Texas mix (scroll down to get past number 8). We've got some more tunes coming in from readers, which we'll put up later...so keep them coming

We're on Main Street in Bandera now, so we'll hop out and look around.

John, Sarah and I put our heads together to make a playlist for the road. Here's the first part, with a second to come when we hit the long stage of today's drive.

The kicker: all musicians listed are Texans. Leave your additions in the comments below.

About six miles away is the town of New Braunfels, known for its German influences ('Braunfel' means 'brown rock' in German) and also for its quality tubing and water park offerings, none of which we will have time to visit today. But if you're interested, Schlitterbahn was by far the most popular reader recommendation for New Braunfels. There's also a huge cavern here called Natural Bridge, but we are bypassing those for Caverns of Sonora later today.

Before we set off on our journey toward the day's halfway point, Sonora, we walked around the centre of New Braunfels and visited Naeglin's Bakery. The bakery bills itself as the oldest in Texas and the smell of its strudel permeates the entire town centre.

I bought a German pretzel ($2.15) to share with my tripmates while we're on the road. After picking up our second coffee at the day at Crosswalk Coffeehouse, we hopped back into the car.

Our next stop is Kerrville, about 60 miles away – anyone know what we should be on the lookout for? If you have an idea, you know what to do. We're also in the midst of building our own playlist for the road, which we'll share with you soon.

Upon checkout, we told the concierge that our final destination for the day was Marfa.

"Yeesh, there's a whole lot of nothing between here and Marfa."

[Blogger's note: I'm secretly excited to see what "nothing" looks like in Texas.]

In the interest of saving time, John, Sarah and I decided to have breakfast at our inn, the Gruene Apple. As show tunes from Disney movies plinked from the automatic piano, the friendly owners prepared a tasty hotel breakfast of sausage, biscuits and eggs. We ate while overlooking the Comal river.

Breakfast was the first time Sarah and I managed to get a word out of John since arriving at the Gruene Apple last night. It turns out meat comas are real: John was in a nearly literal meat stupor after overdoing it at Smitty's. But he bravely pulled it together after spotting the breakfast spread.

We left about an hour ago and are still discussing the inn's themed decor. My room had a golf theme, while Sarah had some sort of floral air-travel scheme. I think we all regret not asking to see what was behind each oddly named door in the inn.