Saturday, March 05, 2011

A major mystery!!

New places. New faces.

We headed out this morning about 9am. Our destination for the day is Marfa, Tx. A long 5 hour drive. I never realized just how big El Paso, TX is. The congestion on I-10 goes on forever. Once we got to Van Horn we were able to take US 90 south to Marfa. No more I-10 in Texas.
Hwy 90 goes through cattle country. Huge ranches & feed lots. There was a very small town of Valentine; population of just over 200. Valentine has seen better days. Over the years, we've driven through hundreds of towns all over America much like Valentine. We wonder what they must have been like during their heyday. Wonder who owned the HiWay Cafe & when it thrived and when it closed. One of the exterior walls and roof collapsed many years ago. No open stores in Valentine but there was a library. Interesting.





When we got to Marfa, Carol spotted the DQ sign. We got one small Blizzard and split it three ways. We're trying to get better. The last time I took Gopher to the vets I got yelled at. She's not supposed to weigh one pound over 50#. Of course Dr. Gill could stand to loose 25# or more. I always wonder why some doctors are fat nd why some smoke.
At any rate, we drove around Marfa looking at the old buildings, courthouse, etc and then continued on to our "campground" for the night. The Marfa Mystery Lights Viewing Center located about 8 miles south of Marfa on Hwy 90.




http://www.astronomycafe.net/weird/lights/marfa.htm

The website and attached photograph, explain it all in detail but in a nutshell "Since the beginning of recorded history strange luminous phenomena have been observed frolicking low above the desert west of Marfa in a region known as Mitchell Flat,". Marfa has built a cottage industry around these lights. The State built a very nice viewing area with two large parking areas, bathrooms, telescopes, benches, etc. Overnight parking is permitted to allow viewing of the lights. It's just us once again. Nice after being "camped" in "resorts" for the last week. We swapped the Casino airport noise for the I-10 noise at the "resort" we just left for train noise. Tomorrow we should be camped along a nice lake. Quieter I should hope.
I might have gotten a picture of the Mystery Light, but it may also have been the Visitor Center bathroom window. Can't be sure. The Chamber of Commerce wants it to be the lights.:-)
Another most interesting day.




1 comment:

Donna K said...

Hmmmm, mysterious lights. Are you sure you aren't in Nevada LOL??