Day 5: Las Cruces to Marfa, Texas - 248 miles
We left under sunny skies and continued on I-10 for the next leg of the trip. Less than an hour later, we left New Mexico and entered Texas, the Lone Star State, making our way through the sprawling city of El Paso.
There was major construction along the interstate and many new overpasses being built. I noticed that the bridge supports had stars on them. I also noticed that El Paso
seems to like fancy overpasses, of which there were many. A lot of thought and design goes into road construction here.
We continued traveling in a southeasterly direction for another 40 miles, the terrain arid, flat and dusty, with distant mountain ranges flanking us on either side. The highway ran alongside the international border with Mexico to the west.
Then the highway turned due east and crossed the Sierra Blanca Mountains.
On the other side, there was more varied vegetation. Yuccas seemed to dominate the landscape.
We crossed into Central Time Zone, losing one more hour.
We stopped in Van Horn at Pilot Flying J to fill up, then continued south along Rt 90 until we reached Marfa 73 miles later.
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| our view through the windshield |
We continued on to the Marfa Lights viewing area located about 9 miles east of town.
Eleven Alpines gathered here with great hopes of catching a glimpse of the famous Marfa lights that night. Marfa has become famous for its phenomenon of paranormal lights that appear on occasion along Rt 67. Here is a link to the Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights
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| Alpines with Marfa Lights viewing area specially constructed for folks to come and watch the show |
After it turned dark, we waited and watched. The Schierholtz and Figges who were staying in other RV Parks stopped by to say hello. We had a perfect viewing spot from inside our Alpine and also walked to the viewing area later, bundled up against the cold wind. Other cars had pulled in and hopeful couples were huddled under blankets on the benches gazing into the dark distance. But there were no lights, other than the headlights of distant cars, and they did not dance or morph into different colors.
We eventually headed back to the warmth of Alpine and to bed. It was pitch dark and quiet, except for the occasional rumble of trains passing by.
This plaque at the viewing center explains the Marfa Lights mystery, which to us will continue to remain a hidden mystery:
We left under sunny skies and continued on I-10 for the next leg of the trip. Less than an hour later, we left New Mexico and entered Texas, the Lone Star State, making our way through the sprawling city of El Paso. 
