Marfa, Texas to Tucson, Arizona

Marfa is an art community in the middle of the Texan desert. We stayed at the hotel El Paisano, where the film Giant, with James Dean, was filmed. A nice place, but actually the most expensive place we'd stayed (the last room in the cheaper place in town was taken just before we got there). The art was interesting (The Chinati Foundation), but not spectacular. Mostly it was weird to come across such an international crowd, and east coast food, in the middle of the Texan desert. Oh, and then there were the weird Marfa Lights. I have to admit, they didn't seem to be cars or houses, but I definitely wouldn't be surprised if they turned out to be some local's kids with flashlights.

From Marfa we drove down to Shafter, a supposed ghost town, which was a total disappointment. Let me say, we'd had in our head this old wild west kind of image, where the saloon and bank are on the same street, and the whole thing was deserted but left as is. Well that wasn't Shafter. Later on we stopped by Shakespeare Ghost Town and Stein's Ghost Town. Both looked more like what we'd imagined, but the former was fenced in and ran tours only on weekends, while the latter was closed for the filming of some low budget movie.


More exciting was the McDonald Observatory. I won't bore you with the details, but just check out this awesome telescope. It was a nice break from the art.

We spent the next couple days at the Carlsbad and White Sands. What to say? If you haven't seen them, go. They're really cool. Of course, if you've been in an unmaintained cave, where you get only the light of your own helmet, it's a totally different experience, but the sheer size is outstanding. Unfortunately, the more rugged tours were all booked. At White Sands - yes it really is white sand - we actually camped out on the dunes, and let me tell you, that was definitely the way to see them, alone through both sunset and sunrise. In between the two are a lot of desert, and though the surrounding mountains sometimes made for interesting views, the spaces in New Mexico and on through Arizona felt much bigger than in Texas, at least to me.


We took a detour through unpaved mountain roads in the south east part of Arizona, through the Coronado National Forest, on our way to Tucson to visit Sarah's maternal grandparents. I would have very much liked to camp at Coronado, as the sites were very remote and primitive, not RV campground hell. But with only six weeks, we can't see it all. It was great to see Ed and Eve again, who are in surprisingly good health for 85 years. They've been married for 63 years, and always seem to work so well together, rather like Sarah and me. Tomorrow morning we make the long drive to LA, where we'll visit with Sarah's brother Peter.