Marvelous Marfa and Her Lights

We headed north from Big Bend, and made a stop in Alpine, just 80 miles away.  We checked out Sul Ross University (since we have a weakness for colleges after working at one for so many years), and had a great lunch at La Casita.  That was followed by a raspa at Murphy's.  We learn new things every day, and today we learned that a raspa is a fancy name for a snow cone.

Then we headed about 15 miles west of Alpine to the Marfa lights viewing area.  We have heard about this phenomenon from several different sources, and the skeptics in us wanted to see them for ourselves.  The lights were first reported by a young cowboy in 1883, and they have been explained as being swamp gas, electrostatic discharge, moonlight shining on veins of mica, ghosts searching for gold . . .  Our favorite description is that they are similar to a miracle, where atmospheric conditions produced by the interaction of cold and warm layers of the air bend light so that it can be seen from afar, but not up close. The bronze sign describes them in the following way, "The lights may appear in various colors as they move about, split apart, melt together, disappear and reappear."

There is a very nice viewing deck and parking lot built on the side of the highway between Alpine and Marfa.  There was another bronze sign that pointed out that the viewing area was made possible by a generous donation of property from Clayton and Modesta Williams.  It's a small world, because we have a cousin that married the Williams's son.

We found out that RVs are welcome to park for the night in the parking lot next to the viewing area, and we were glad to see that two other RVs were there too.  This was our first time ever to park without electric hookups.  But it was a beautiful weather evening, and we needed to exercise the generator.  So it was a perfect night for boondocking.  You can see the viewing building with its deck behind our car.

Another couple that was parked there in their pickup and camper were coming from the west, while we were coming from the east.  They shared some of their travel brochures and advice from points west that we will be seeing, and we gave them maps and information about Big Bend.  It is so nice to make new friends on the road!  Thanks Ed and Jan, it was a pleasure meeting you!

In case you think we would be the only ones looking for these mysterious lights, the parking lot began to fill as the sun set.  At one time we counted, and there were 70 people outside on the viewing deck.  If the lights weren't amazing, the fact that so many people came out to see them was amazing to us!

We had heard rumors that the lights are only visible 30 nights of the year, so we weren't expecting much.  But as soon as it got dark, we started seeing lights.  We are still skeptical that they might be far away headlights, but there was a local that said there was no road in that direction.  They weren't spectacular, but it was a very interesting evening.  There is a permanent red light in the distance, but we saw periodic white lights that came and went throughout the evening.  The large crowd seemed to be happy with their sightings.  Mark tried a few pictures with his camera phone, but they aren't great.

Here is one bright light that appeared next to the permanent red light, and another fainter light to the right.  We are still skeptical about the Marfa lights, but we are sold on the parking lot camping at the viewing area.  After we tired of looking at lights, we had a short walk to our bed in the motorhome, it was a free night of camping, and we got to meet some new people.  Win, win, win!

The next morning we were off to view the sights of the town of Marfa.  We love the beautiful county courthouses across Texas, and this was a pretty one set off by the beautiful blue sky.

We climbed to the third floor, enjoying the pretty woodwork inside the building.

Denisa had read that you could climb to the fourth floor inside the dome for a great view.  But we were disappointed to see crime tape over the last stair case.  We found that they were having problems with a bee's nest in the dome, so our view was thwarted today.

Our next stop in this tiny town was the Hotel Paisona.

Built in 1930, it seems a little out of place to see such an elegant hotel in this tiny west Texas town.  It was elegant on the inside, as well as the outside.

It also had an indoor pool that was added in 1960.

But  its main claim to fame was its connection with the movie, "Giant," starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean.  The hotel Paisano served as headquarters for the filming of the movie in 1956, and the stars and many extras stayed here during part of the filming.  In fact, the movie is always showing in the lobby of the hotel.

 It was a fun stop and looks like a nice historical hotel for an overnight stay.  But now that we live in our rolling hotel, Denisa isn't even taking notes on hotels to stay in!