Day 1: On the Road to Marfa

The day has come! I hit the road in Dallas just before 9 AM and set course for Marfa, TX. By some stroke of divine intervention, I was able to avoid almost all traffic in the metroplex. Clearly the traffic gods were looking favorably upon me.

For those of you unfamiliar with Marfa, it’s a small town in the big bend area of far-west Texas. I had been told that this was supposed to be a nice little artsy town with a cool amount of tourist-y activities. What I was NOT told, unfortunately, was that on Tuesdays the town resembles a ghost town straight out of an old western film. I ended up getting a nice meal and some local beer at a hotel bar so not all was lost. All in all though, I was bit disappointed with my visit. Maybe someday I’ll go back when things are actually happening.

The good news though is that the drive immediately in to Marfa is quite nice. As far as I’m concerned I was driving through the real-life Kalimari Desert level of Mario Kart 64; there were train tracks and cacti and desert mountains and everything. I can thankfully report that there were no blue shells or rogue banana peels to ruin my day.

Classic Video Game or Far-West Texas?

Depending on how I’m feeling tonight, I might venture out to a viewing area to check out the fabled Marfa Lights (Aliens!). Since I had a bunch of time to kill earlier I went to the site during day to see what was around. Answer: not much. It was a former Army site where they trained pilots in Cessna’s which basically means it’s just a big wide open area. Good news though, I got to take some more glamour shots of my car!

I imagine that the excitement of the trip will start to pick up tomorrow. Next stop: Big Bend National Park!