Marfa Lights

January 19, 2013

Before we left Alpine today we went to the Blue Water Natural Foods Company to stock up. Really good, well stocked store with reasonable prices considering it is in the middle of the least populated county in Texas! Then grabbed a quick lunch at Cow Dog, an old RV converted to a food truck. All kinds of fun beef hot dogs. Greg got the German Cow Dog and I got the Curry Cow Dog. I am not a hot dog eater, but they were yummy!

Left for Marfa and crossed through the ridge that was an ancient lava flow and into the huge collapsed crater that creates a large plain. Marfa is 26 miles west of Alpine and sits in the middle of it. We self-checked into Tumble In RV Park and picked out one of the 14 spaces. The check-in was in an old restored trailer known as a “canned ham”. Check the photo and you will see why!

We drove into Marfa, parked and walked around. We are now at 5,000 feet elevation and it is definitely colder. There is a continuous wind over the desert that seems to be constant in the desert southwest this time of year. In 1971 a famous minimalist artist decided he was tired of New York and relocated to Marfa. He has since died, but in the meantime, Marfa has become an internationally known center for the arts. There are three art foundations with galleries, permanent collections, and studio space. The adobe houses are being bought up and fixed up and small stores and restaurants, including the trendy food truck have sprung up. There still seems to be a lot of poverty in the town, especially among the Hispanic population.

Marfa also sports the restored El Paisano Hotel by the same architect from the 1930's that built the Holland Hotel in Alpine. This hotel housed the cast and crew for the movie Giant with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. It was filmed around Marfa. The other interesting business is Marfa Public Radio. Public radio fans occasionally hear a broadcast from here on NPR.

Apparently, we picked the worst time of year to visit. Many shops and all the galleries and studios were closed. Sunday there will be the winter tour of studios, but we will not be staying here that long. We walked through the El Paisano Hotel and looked at the movie memorabilia, and went to the county courthouse. On the third floor we climbed up into the cupola and had views of the town and the surrounding desert and mountains.

We decided that we had seen all there was to see in town, so went back to the RV parka and ate dinner and watched Giant. It was fun to see the scenery in the movie that we could see out our windows!

The last sight to see in Marfa are the Marfa Lights. These are lights that were first written about in 1883, but were seen by Native Americans as well. They appear in the night sky across the plains from where we are camped. There is actually a viewing platform with restrooms and telescopes about 8 miles back up the road. They are bright globes that appear and disappear and move about. There are many theories about what causes them, but no conclusive evidence. About 11:30 Greg and I went outside to look for them, but with the bright half moon, and the lights from town, we didn't see any. Maybe if Greg gets up early he'll see some and wake me up!

We are still deciding whether to venture to Big Bend NP tomorrow or find one more interesting place to go first. Guess we'll just get in our seats in the morning and drive!