Tuesday March 24, 2015

A nice lie-in today as we only had a short ride to Marfa. Ralf keeps wanting to call it Martha, no it is actually Marfa. Even though we didn’t get out of bed until 8:00, we were still on the road by 9:15. We passed Janet and Stephen about 6 kms outside of Alpine on an uphill climb.

As we climbed the hill leaving Marfa I could smell  beer brewing.  Ralf wanted to stop in for a brewery tour.

It was a lovely ride, very steady uphills and long slow downhills. The road was fairly quiet today, not a lot of traffic and good shoulders. This is what I thought Texas would be like. I didn’t know how big Texas was when we started this ride, so it is very interesting to see the diverse landscapes which makes up Texas.

We crossed over the Paisano Pass and headed downhill to Marfa.

Marfa has an odd claim to fame and that is the Marfa lights. These are balls of light that hover just above the horizon, they have been seen as different colours red, green, white, sometimes they hover, other times they move across the horizon at great speeds. No one knows what causes them. Scientists have been trying to discover what causes them for years to no avail. There is a viewing centre about 9 miles outside of the Town where you can watch these odd lights.

I think it is a bit like the Loch Ness monster, people come in hopes of seeing them. Apparently there is a better chance of you seeing the lights than seeing the Loch Ness monster.

Consequently due to the phenomena of the lights the hotels in the area are really expensive. We had decided to camp tonight at an RV park and camp site just outside the Town. When we got there the manager told us there was no water, they might get it back on today but weren’t sure. I asked about another RV park and he told me about Phil’s place an RV park, but they do take tents. We headed to this little place and found a lovely little place with a nice shaded area big enough to put two small tents, hot showers, laundry facilities and a place to sit and eat. We texted Janet and Stephen to let them know about the other campsite and this place.

This little campsite also has trailers that are provided for the local Border Patrol Officers. Across the road is Border Patrol station, I think we should be quite safe here tonight.

Janet and Stephen arrived just as we were picking our spot and setting up the tent. We did a load of laundry and then Ralf and I headed back into Town for an ice-cream. We met Janet and Stephen for dinner, this time we had a sub at Subway.

Janet has become our resident meteorologist. Tomorrow it is supposed to be cool in the morning with headwinds ugh. It is going to be our longest day – 120 kms to Van Horn. I hope the weather forecast is wrong and we don’t get the strong winds forecasted. Ralf and I are going to head out fairly early as the stronger winds are not forecasted until later in the day.

Ralf went back into Town to take some photos.