Heads I win

The Gage Hotel is so Texas that I think you can use the word Texas as a verb when you describe the hotel.  It Texas-es so hard.  When you first walk in the door of any building here, you will see some kind of animal head poking out of a wall in that room.  I had a theory that the hotel owner married into a family of taxedermists, and this place was the perfect opportunity to blend those talents.  

There are heads in every space.  Indoors, the heads are carefully preserved to look as they may have in life.  Outdoors, the heads are reduced to skulls and posted as exterior decor on buildings.  There are chandeliers made of antlers.  There are paintings of skulls when no actual skulls are present, but sometimes, there are skulls arranged in the shape of a head,  and that’s pretty entertaining.  

The part of the hotel we’re staying in has lots of common space for guests to use downstairs.  There is also about a half of an animal seemingly walking out of the wall at the top of the stairs.  Each room seems to be adorned with an animal head, but the strangest one of all is the horse head.  Until that moment, I thought displayed animal heads were hunting trophies, but a horse head would suggest that any animal who passes away for any reason is subject to stuffing and putting on a wall.  The horse got a spot just above a fireplace, and there were reins that hung down toward the mantle of the fireplace.  Poor guy has to stay ready for a rider eternally.  Can’t let it’s disembodied head be free from reins.  

Our guest room has only an antler-laden light fixture.  West Texas minimalist, I suppose.  Make no mistake, the hotel is beautiful, and our room is gorgeous, but the decor just Texas-es so hard.  

Needless to say, when we check out of here, I think I will have had my fill of heads poking out of walls for a while.  Maybe I just don’t Texas hard enough.