806 W. Oak St. - Sanderson, TX - 79848
Stories of Sanderson and the Big Bend area
An Evolving Motel Office
When we took over the motel in July we were taking over an operational establishment with clean rooms and and an inviting exterior courtyard. Most of our projects (except the deep cleaning Kalea has been killing!) have been about adding a fresh coat of paint here or new seating there…
Read MoreTestimonials of Our Own
It sure has been a whirlwind of a summer. We took over ownership just two months ago exactly and so much has been accomplished already. Turning this place back into its *new* vintage form will be a long process, but the place looks better every week…
Read MoreFriends lend a hand and Tabb shares his thoughts about it
Last month we had the priveledge of welcoming a couple of friends to help in our motel endeavors. Ava came up from Austin with great enthusiasm to be a part of this motel revamping experience. She was a huge help with painting. Joe's friend Tabb traveled all the way from Virginia to help us run the motel for a couple weeks….
Read MoreThe Breezeway
The area between the motel apartment and the first guest room was originally open and not connected. In recent years, a roof was installed connecting the two structures and walls put up to make it into a storage area. The problem with too much storage is you tend to fill it up. Plus, this eliminated a lot of natural light for the apartment bedrooms…
Read MorePerseids Meteor Shower - This weekend!
Keep your eyes to the sky this weekend because August 11-13 is the peak viewing time for the Perseids Meteor Shower. This meteor shower, named after the constellation Perseus, occurs every year from about mid-July thru the end of August. This year, however, the showers are expected to be particularly specactular because…
Read MoreThe Desert Air Motel - History
Over the last month we've been trying to dig deeper into the history of the Desert Air. I'm going to do my best to get everything correct here, but I'm sure there may be some holes. The Stavley's who owned the Motel in the 70s introduced themselves to us during our first week of ownership and wish us well in our endeavor. They provided as quite a bit of information and it was fun hearing their stories…
Read MoreThe Bats of Sanderson
Our friend Tabb agreed to come and run the motel for 10 days while we all needed to return to Austin for a bit. Somehow Joe convinced him to drive to Sanderson, TX all the way from Virginia. In any case, he made it here, helped us run the Motel, explored the town, and made some friends. When we made it back to Sanderson to relieve him we expected he'd be departing the next day, but it turned out he landed a small renovation job for a neighbor. This kept him in town a bit longer than expected. ..
Read MoreRepurposing a Piece of Sanderson
Turns out our little adventure for a Sanderson property isn't the only one in the works. We spoke with several locals about other happenings in town. The owner of one such project allowed us to reclaim furniture and other items from the shuttered Sunset Sieta Motel…
Read MoreOnline Merchandise
We are happy to announce that our online merchandise page is now up and running and we have received some inventory of our Desert Air Motel branded goodies!
Read MoreThe Parade - By Josephine (Age 10)
This following entry is from a guest writer, my daughter Josephine, and her experience on the 4th of July Parade…
Read MoreWe Survived The First Week!
Its official, we have survived a week as Motel owners! It’s been an interesting… sleeping on air mattresses in the apartment, getting startled awake at 4am by a wary traveler looking for a room, multiple days of thunderstorms, and figuring out all the quirks of this 5-decade old gem…
Read MoreAdding some shaded areas….
We love spending time outside, and we want to provide some additional areas for our guests to hang out comfortably and be protected from the sun. The current shade structure has one table that is frequently used, but it's not quite enough space. Our first project will be to add an arbor in the center grassy area in front of the motel rooms. The arbor will provide shade for a set of swings and some seating…
Read MoreA cozy roadside motel…
Thanks for listening to our back story and journey to Sanderson! We don't mean to distract you from the real star of the show...the motel! We have some fun ideas and improvements to make, but in actuality, this little roadside inn is charming and functional as is. If you take a look at reviews left by travelers you quickly get the sense that the motel is clean, comfortable and a nice stay. We tend to agree with those statements…
Read MoreWe’re counting down the days….
That's our back story (Our story link.). That's how we found Sanderson. I don't think we mentioned any dates in the past blog posts, so I'll give you a sort timeline of events. February 2018 the Ryza family stumbles into Sanderson on a wrong turn. Mid-April we take another trip to Big Bend National Park and find Sanderson a nice place to stay. Now 'our story' is comprised of two families...the Ryzas and the Godins. On the same mid-April trip we find ourselves lodging in Sanderson again because of a campsite assignment snafu in the national park. Our love of Big Bend Country seems to suddenly be overtaken by the fondness of this little town…
Read MoreOur introduction to the Desert Air Motel…
Joe and I left for Sanderson before the dawn cracked. It was the first Friday in May and less than 3 weeks after we had first stumbled across the Desert Air Motel. This was to be our first official visit with the ole motel. We quietly rolled into town around 11am and planned on circling the joint, scoping out the town, and getting a general better feel for the community….
Read MoreAn unplanned return to Sanderson…
On the last day of our Big Bend trip, we decided to take a relaxing dip in the Hot Springs before heading back to our campsite. Everyone is pretty tired at this point of our trip, so we were looking forward to cooking some dinner on our camp stove and relaxing as the sun began setting. Unfortunately (or fortunately in hindsight) when we got back to our campsite we had a surprise visitor.
Read MoreWe return to Sanderson, intentionally this time…
Two months after our accidental stumbling into Sanderson we got the Big Bend itch again. This time our friends joined us for the trip. The usual form of travel to Big Bend these days has been to leave mid-day on day one and drive as far as Fort Stockton. After one night in Fort Stockton, day two of the journey begins with us on the road before sunrise. This allows us to see the beautiful sunrise colors against the West Texas mountains as we head south. It also gets us to Panther Junction Ranger Station just before 9am to ensure we are assigned a good back country camping spot. Once camp has been set up we still have half a day for hiking.
Read MoreHow a wrong turn led us to Sanderson, TX.
We love backcountry camping Big Bend National Park. There is nothing quite like waking up to ocotillo, cenizo, cactus and the Chisos Basin in the background. After another fabulous family camping trip in the Chihuahua Desert (which included micheladas and enchiladas in Boquillas, Mexico, of course), we were headed home toward Austin on a Monday morning. I took over driving at Marathon and proceeded to head north to Fort Stockton where Hwy 385 meets IH10 and we begin traveling east toward home. Anyway, that's how we usually go, but I missed the turn to Fort Stockton.
Read MoreRoadside motel in town of Sanderson. Discover small town charm in the middle of the west TX desert.
