Day 4, Part 1: Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
Southlake, Texas to Marfa, Texas

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In the Dallas suburb of Southlake, I spend the night at the house of Karin Brazeau, an old family friend from our days in Arlington Heights, Illinois. We grab dinner at a restaurant that proudly displays a signed letter from President George W. Bush next to its cash register. Back at her home, I spend some quality time in the hot tub while playing with her dog, Bear, who runs around madly any time I turn up the bubbles in the jacuzzi.

Karin wouldn't let me take her picture, but this is what Bear looked like.

After I leave Karin and Bear behind, I strictly become a tourist for the first time on the trip. My destination for the day is west Texas and the world-famous mystery lights of Marfa, which I first learned about on a TV show that I saw back in 1996.

A few hours after leaving Dallas, I attempt to take a picture of my car's odometer as it hits 111,111 miles. The trip began on 109,873 and will end on 116,273, exactly 6,400 miles later.


The road through Texas is long, and I take the freeway all the way. The further I get from Dallas, the fewer cars I see. Cactus plants start appearing just east of Abilene, as do flat-topped mesas on the distant horizon. I am surprised by the absence of armadillos crossing the road but enjoy racing mile-and-a-quarter-long trains across the state, as they follow a track that rides beside I-20 most of the way.

Eventually, I make it to the far-flung cities of Midland and Odessa, and roll through the Permian Basin. The plains around me are populated by nothing but groaning oil wells, telephone poles and power lines. There's a forest of them, everywhere you look. Where they lead, it's impossible to say, as there is no visible sign of any human habitation.


On the western edge of the Permian Basin is the Pecos River, which I remember reading about as a child. It's true cowboy country in my mind, and I want to get out there and away from the power lines as soon as I can. My first encounter with the river is in the dilapidated town of Pecos, which is the seat of Reeves County.

Pecos' only claim to fame is that it's the home of the world's first rodeo, but, as far as I can tell, that hasn't brought a whole lot of tourist money into the town.

25 miles north of Pecos is the isolated town of Mentone, which I happen to know because it is the seat of Loving County--the least-populated county in the United States. There I get this picture of the Loving County courthouse.

Mentone turns out to be more lively than I expected. As I'm waiting to take the obligatory picture of myself in front of the courthouse, a lady comes out of the building and asks me if she can be of any assistance. In all my years of courthousing, that's never happened to me before. Hence the awkward expression on my face in this photo.

After my close brush with the local populace, I walk around town for a few minutes and take some photographs.

Apparently, they've got brine for sale.

This is the old school building in town.

In this part of west Texas, they stop kidding around with the bobbing oil pumps and go straight for the derricks, just like the ones you'd see on the side of a Houston Oilers football helmet.

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