Day 5, Part 1: Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
Marfa, Texas to El Paso, Texas
The first thing I do the next morning is get pictures of the Presidio County courthouse.
Buoyed by the tourist money that the Mystery Lights bring in, Marfa has also become something of an artist colony. One of the artists apparently created this rendition of the American flag shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
I have two destinations for the rest of the day. The first is the top of Guadalupe Peak, which is the highest mountain in Texas. The second is the home of Ana Schwarz, an old friend and colleague of mine from my first year at IU.
The mile-and-a-quarter long trains are back to keep me company on my way north from Marfa.
There is very little traffic to speak of and not much to see on either side of the road. I occasionally pass by a lonely windmill and see a few pronghorn antelope, grazing in small groups on the scrubby plains. At one point I even see a pack of wild horses, galloping off towards the mesas in the distance. Unfortunately, they run away from me too fast to get a picture.
In the bustling burg of Van Horn, Texas, the Neon stops to take a break at Frank's Super Market.
Van Horn is the seat of Culberson County. Right next to this courthouse, a group of convicts wearing black-and-white striped uniforms were painting a building under the watchful gaze of a sunglasses-wearing police officer.
