Marathon, Texas

January 12, 2009

We left Van Horn at about eleven AM. South and east bound on Highway 90 we cruised through little towns that varied from “don't blink”, to picturesque, to clean and neat, to ones that may be gone after the next wind. Towns with names like Lobo, Valentine, Quebec, Ryan, Marfa, Nopal, Alpine, and Marathon.

Much of the scenery is classic west Texas high desert. Beautiful in its own right, but it has a sameness after a few days. Today was punctuated by some interesting scenes such as a most magnificent Brahma bull quietly owning a piece of prairie as far as the eye could see. A dot just above horizon grew for at least twenty minutes as we approached. When we got to it it was as a balloon as high as an aircraft – property of our Border Patrol. It appeared that no one was within the two acre fenced yard and buildings, but the place bristled with antennas. I surmise there is a high-tech monitoring facility somewhere that can do the dispatching.

We left Marfa without seeing any Marfa Lights. I think E.T. is actually a nocturnal fellow. We let him sleep.

The road wanders through the Glass Mountains via a pretty canyon of grasses, junipers, Texas walnut, yuccas and low growing prickly pear. The hills have rugged palisades of lava and limestone. Large white-breasted raptors claim high places. We were treated to a classic picture of about 30 antelope grazing in a grassy draw.

We claimed campsites early today – napped in the sunny light breeze and awoke bright-eyed just in time for happy-hour followed by dinner in town. We found two restaurants in Marathon. One a family style Mexican restaurant, the other is the dining room for the historic Gage Hotel. We were surprised by the menu. It included a vast array of truly special preparations. Pricey but fair, the meal was memorable (duck breast on a barley-cranberry rizotto with duck demi glace? Yum!). We're snug in the rig, dry-camped in an over full only-RV-park-in-town.

Sleep well!