Marfa Lights Viewing Area

A monument to superstition, credulity, willful ignorance and tourism.

Okay, so it's mostly restrooms, and a patio with telescopes. If you need to pee between Marfa and Alpine, this is the place.

But it's not all hokum and bladder relief. There are educational plaques, too.

And you can peek at the peaks over in Big Bend National Park. (Yes, Texas has mountains.)

Local flora

  

Strolling around Marfa

Good wine, beer, organic produce, natural and ethnic foods, chocolate & snacks,

eco-friendly housewares and locally-made items, according to the brochure

Outside the Wrong Store, which sells very expensive art, making it the wrong store for me

Now a studio

Being rehabbed

High fashion ain't what it used to be

The original plan for Prada Marfa was that it should never be repaired, that it should slowly deteriorate into the landscape. Well, it's at the shabby looking phase now, thanks to vandals who slashed and cut out part of the awning. The overcast day seems appropriate.

Well, good morning to you, too

Don't let the corny name fool you

On the east side of Marfa

I much prefer to camp free. And just the phrase "RV park" usually makes me cringe. But this one has tent sites and is fairly cheap. Most of the RVs are on the small end of the scale. It's not a glamorous place, but there are showers and flush toilets. And a nice, friendly, group of young people who want to feed me.

The office

Who doesn't love an Airstream?

Made it to Marfa

Long drive. Reports to come.

I must be in Texas

Van Horn, Texas

ZAP!

Once every 28 days my solar charge controller automatically runs an "equalization" program. That means it charges my batteries with 15+ volts for a while rather than the usual 14.4V for the absorption cycle and 13.7V for the float cycle. It helps keep the batteries healthy. It gives me that contented feeling I get when I have a fresh oil change, a full tank of gas and good meal.

In the wind tunnel

I had a bit of a brain fart when I took off for the 20-mile drive up the interstate to Truth or Consequences. I had left the solar panel tilted up.

Evidently, my mounting and tilting mechanism can withstand 70 mile per hour blasts.

A plan. Maybe.

So, here I am at Caballo Lake State Park, 20 miles south of Truth or Consequences, 60 miles north of Las Cruces. Where to go next?

The other night, as I was dozing off, I thought, "Well, as long as I'm in New Mexico, what about Carlsbad Caverns? I know it's not on the way to anywhere, but..."

So I got up, fired up the computer, and checked Google Maps and the New Mexico State Parks site. No, I wouldn't particularly want to make the five-ish hour drive in one chunk. Oh, look, there's a state park a little south of Alamogordo. That wouldn't be bad. And there's another state park a little north of Carlsbad. Totally doable. Then I could bite the bullet and do the long slog west, through Texas, to El Paso. It's a plan.

Then, the next night, as I was dozing off, I thought, "Hey, isn't Marfa, Texas, sort of, kind of, not too far out of the way? I know it's in the middle of nowhere, but it has become quite the arts community. And there are the mysterious/hokey Marfa Lights. And the mansion behind James Dean in the Giant poster. And Texas barbecue, of course." It's a new plan.

Then, the next night..., "Big Bend National Park! I mean, as long as I'm half way there and all." But maybe that's too much to bite off. That's a tentative plan. Maybe it all is. Definitely Marfa, though.

Minimal sunset

Not boots

When I started out van dwelling a little over a year ago, I loaded up some of my sneakers and a pair of rarely worn medium height Hi-Tec boots. When I put on those boots this past winter I remembered why I hadn't worn them much before. They didn't fit correctly. The toe box was too small. The sides of my little toes and the tops of my big toes rubbed. The boots ended up in a donation bin. With luck, someone else is happy with them now.

While I was building out the Rolling Steel Tent, and for the first few months on the road, my every-day shoes were some old Nike ACG running shoes. There was little tread left. There were paint and adhesive spills on them. I tossed them when the soles started to come off.

I found some cheap, fake Keens at Rack Room Shoes. (I saw an identical pair, with a different brand name, at Bass Pro Shops. Some off-shore factory must have had a your-name-here deal going.) They fit great! Nice roomy toe boxes. They became my new everyday shoes. But $27 shoes aren't necessarily the best made. The soles have worn down surprisingly quickly and parts have started to come unstitched. I still wear them time to time, especially in hot springs—which might be hastening their demise.

This eleven-year-old pair of Nike ACG shoes became my everyday shoes when I put the faux Keens in semiretirement. I had bought them in 2003 while freelancing in Southern California and are probably the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned. I placed them on standby duty last month after the soles started separating and had gotten so thin I could feel individual pebbles. They'll be good for some sort of sloppy, muddy conditions.

Meanwhile, these Asics have been acting as my "dress shoes" for those times I don't want to look so much like a desert rat. And, besides, lime! Though I had worn Nike's for decades because of the way they fit me, Asics fit just as perfectly.

These Nikes took their turn as my daily shoes. Then, as you can see, the sole immediately started to peel off.

I started thinking, "You know, maybe running shoes aren't the best thing to be wearing all the time. I should probably get some proper hiking shoes. Low tops, because I can't stand shoes rubbing my ankles."

So I went on a quest. I drove to Las Cruces yesterday. First stop, Dick's Sporting Goods. There was a big selection, but the first problem was a shortage of size 11 shoes. Plenty of 10.5s and 11.5s, but not 11s. Either there are a lot of size 11 guys in Las Cruces buying up shoes, or there are so few size 11 men in the area that stores don't bother stocking that size.

The second problem was the old toe box thing, and the fact my feet aren't perfectly symmetrical. The top of my right big toe kept rubbing—with Keens, Merrels, Solomons, Timberlands, Hi-Tecs... Some had internal seams that rubbed the sides and/or tops of my feet.

So it was off to Big 5. All their hiking shoes were suspiciously cheap—$15 to $29. I know what happens with cheap shoes. Besides, there was no sign of a clerk in the shoe department. Bye-bye.

But, surprise, there was a Rack Room Shoes in the same strip mall. I didn't know they had stores in the west. I tried on all the hiking shoes they had. None fit properly. I even tried some steel-toed work shoes (hey, at least the thick soles would last, right?). No luck. No happiness.

But, over among the running shoes, these off-road Asics were calling my name.

They fit beautifully. No rubbing anywhere. It was a sign. And the orange-and-black would be appropriate for Halloween.

I'll still keep search for hiking shoes. Maybe in Phoenix, where there's a Cabela's and a Bass Pro Shop. Or maybe I just need to become a cowboy boot guy. It's a good look with cargo shorts.

Local flora

Meet the neighbors

Oops, sorry to interrupt