Marfa, Russian for Martha, could very well be the center of the Universe. Harry thinks so. I drove in on US 90 from Van Horn, frigid from the record cold and the wind. I needed some hot coffee in my veins, so I decided I couldn't afford my usual random walk. I stopped at the big blue Visitor Center sign, with the arrow pointing into a courtyard. I wandered in and found that for some reason it was not a public building, but a very up market coffee shop and restaurant called Cochineal (the name for a carmine dye). I ordered a coffee and a croissant, made on the premises and served warm... aaahh, my soul was ascending into heaven...
One of the patrons at the coffee house was a young artist from New York, who designed things -- playgrounds, greeting cards, and such
. He told me of a photo exhibit round the corner (where the Visitor Center actually lay). So I went over to check out the show and found a group of 5 young people making a movie. I Iooked up the wide empty main street and was shocked to see a huge Art Deco County Court-house. Alongside it an old fashioned luxury hotel and another coffee shop. All of this in a part of the world where a two story building is an anomaly. Apparently the town was named in the early 1880s after a character in the Brothers Karamazov, by the well-read wife of the Southern Pacific superintendent in charge of building the railroad. It appears to have kept its artistic roots.
The Border Patrol seems to be going to lighter than air technology in its surveillance systems. I thought that balloon sitting in the middle of the desert was weird, until I heard about the guy who owns Amazon.com. It turns out he is building the base for his own manned space travel center just North of Van Horn
. Do I sense a fixation with Outer Space and Aliens in this part of the country?
Yes Virginia, the Rio Grande does run fast and furious and white with silt through the canyons of SW Texas. I was so pleased to see it flowing. The road I followed from Presidio to Lajitas has got to be one of the best motorcycle rides in the country. Paved and narrow, it winds along the river's edge for 60 miles until it reaches the National Park. That was really fun !!
Entering Big Bend National Park one is drawn into a different world. The center of the park is a high rock massif. Unbelievably, the road to the lodge actually climbs three or four thousand feet into heart of that rocky mass. One eventually arrives at a hanging valley high over the dusty plain, all set about with cedar trees, Oh best beloved. And they even have internet.
Driving Round the Big Bend
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Big Bend National Park, Texas, United States
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1Into Hiding
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2Traveling to Tucson
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3Across Arizona to Lordsburg
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4Around to Van Horn
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5Driving Round the Big Bend
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6A Night in Gage
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7All the Way to San Antone
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8Winter (and I) come to Port Arthur
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12Up the Coast to Myrtle Beach
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Comments

2025-02-09
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Harry
2013-01-13
See, told ya so. Can't miss Marfa and Big Bend.
Harry
2013-01-13
Jim, now I am really starting to envy you, I would go back to big bend in a heart beat. From there it's easy to see why the Mexicans resent the Gringos for taking their land away. On this score I recommend the section of the much maligned US Grant' s memoires dealing with the Mexican-American war. It was his first assignment after West Point and, although he did his duty, and pretty well by all accounts, he was very much opposed to the war and taking the land from Mexico.
It's very perceptive and poignant, especially his observations about the various US generals involved and the Mexicans in general, if you don't mind more than one general.
Beth
2013-01-14
I'm on page 87 in the Brothers Karamazov and Marfa hasn't emerged as anyone worth naming a town after...but thanks for the foreshadowing.