Marfa, Texas

Marfa was the perfect place to spend time getting acquainted with West Texas. Not that we didn't enjoy the bar-b-q and tex-mex joints in El Paso, or the Best Western we found on the fringe of town after touching down at 10pm. It's just that Marfa had that austere, minimalist, wide-open range, closed community feeling we seek in new places. 

Sporting stylish jeans, leather boots, flannel and an unshaven face, we were frequently asked: are you from Austin? No, sorry, (I know we're cool and hip) but we're from Fairbanks, Alaska (which might as well have been Jupiter - first planet after Austin - inferred by the looks we got associated with our geography). 

Along highway 118 south of I-10 and north of Marfa

Despite spending less than 24 hours in Marfa, the chamber of commerce page surmises the attitude we felt: "Whether you aim to remember history or forget it, live at large or only get away for the weekend, write your novel or just find a great place to read one - Welcome to Marfa."

 

There are many art galleries and studios in Marfa. Unfortunately, since we arrived Sunday afternoon and left Monday morning, there wasn't much to wander through, but we did check out Donald Judd's "untitled 15 works in concrete" part of the Chinati Foundation's collection now occupying an old Air Force base just south of town.

We stayed at the Thunderbird. This pesudo- 50's style motel was sleek and private, trendy but not too pretentious. Though I typically prefer seedy drive-ups for $39.99 a night (or less), staying one night in the Thunderbird was well worth the experience (and expense $160). No kidding, the office has typewriters and turntables with a decent supply of vinyl, which they loan out. At breakfast I indulged on almond vanilla milk, organic granola, gluten-free bread with locally harvested honey from free range bees, and premium regionally roasted coffee (not your typical continental breakfast). 

The "Mystery Lights" are nothing but bogus apparitions seeable looking south over the open country a couple miles out of town. But since someone went to the trouble of creating this tacky sign, and since settlers as early as 1883 claim to have seen the mysterious illuminations glowing above the desert, we too had to seek these lights that defy scientific explanation. So after tapping a box of pinot noir followed but a couple pints at the only pub open on a Sunday night, we drove out into the desert in search of what we assumed to be the a step-child of our beloved aurora. But I'm not going to tell you what we saw.