Good evening, Campers! It’s Silver Cliche’ here with you again. This time from Hueco Tanks State Historic Site just outside of El Paso. Our last stop in Texas!
What can I say about the “Marfa Mystery Lights”? I wish I knew. As darkness approached, a throng of people descended on the site we had occupied alone in the heat of the afternoon. We decided to remain distant and set up the “Silver Cliche’ Marfa Mystery Lights Observatory”. We talked about the need to be resourceful when traveling long and light! This is actually a recreation in the light of morning. When in operation, the SCMMLO (pronounced “schmo”... the “L” is silent) included a bag of camera gear and cold drinks.
Did we see lights? Yes we did! We’re they a mystery? Yes they were! We’re they paranormal... or distant headlights... or swamp gas rising... or a guy from Alpine pranking the people of Marfa with a military surplus spot light? I have no idea. Here’s my best pic. Maybe you can figure it out!
A common step in planning our day is to identify a town near the middle of our drive and see what it offers. Dining, shopping, even a historic site might do. There are lots of online services to help. I frequently consult Trip Advisor. Today’s midpoint looked like Van Horn, Texas (population 2,500) where we would pick up I-10 again to head toward El Paso to position ourselves for our Texas exit tomorrow. I saw that Trip Advisor already had a category for “best shopping destinations in Van Horn”. I was in luck! My research had been done and assembled! I opened the link. Instead of the usual “top 10”, there was one destination... “Rio Grande Arms” which proudly declares on its shop window that it is the source for all of your AR rifle parts needs. I’m knew instantly that Van Horn would not be the stop to please me and my traveling companions.
There is an expression “Texas goes on forever”. For us, it feels like that is true. Here’s a map of our ride from Louisiana to here on the verge of New Mexico.
That’s 11 days and about 1,400 miles of Texas. We chatted about that as we drove today. That’s a lot of Texas. We’re full. We won’t need to come back soon.
That thing about Texas going on forever is deeper than that. It’s not just about the length of the road. You see, Texas always wins. Texas will outlast everything. The last things on Earth will be cockroaches... in Texas. That was evident today in the efforts man has made to occupy this land. Efforts that appear to always end up with the land winning. All morning and into the afternoon we drove across west Texas. Much of the trip the land was featureless.
Anything that tried to get a grip had been scraped off. Where there were signs of human occupation they were generally failed attempts. Collapsing houses, dilapidated billboards, rusting hulks of cars, trucks and busses, and failed businesses. There are a few places where the battle is being fought and humanity appears to be gaining ground. The past evidence suggests that is fleeting. The heat and drought are incompatible with human life.
As we moved farther west the signs of desert actually increased. We paralleled the Rio Grande and could see signs on the river plain that the water was being drawn to make the desert green. Away from that, the vegetation grew more sparse and the ground turned from grey and chunky to classic Sahara color and pure sand. The wind whipped up dust devils. We saw horses dusted up as if in camouflage.
This part of Texas has a clear winner in the “Primary Industry” category: patrolling the border. The U.S. Border Patrol are visible and active. Their white vehicles with distinctive green accents are seen parked n the roadside, rolling through town, observing from a distance, parked inside of nondescript compounds (some with heavy wire fences and gates). We saw a huge compound in Persidio yesterday, were stopped at a checkpoint on the way to Marfa and saw a checkpoint that stopped all eastbound traffic on I-10 today (we were westbound). I made sure to wear a Hawaiian shirt and ball cap and say “y’all” to the agent at the checkpoint. It worked. They didn’t suspect a thing!
As for illegal immigrants... I mean “oppressed-persons-seeking-enhanced-employment-prospects-for-familial-wellbeing” ... that’s this weeks woke-spoke, isn’t it?... we didn’t see any. Well, we didn’t see anyone who we knew was a new arrival. Heck, half the people in this part of Texas look like the could be fresh from the south including the Border Patrol agent who was inspecting us for legality. That’s kind of the problem judging people by the way the look... it’s not an accurate measure of much of anything.
We closed in on our destination after 3 1/2 hours rolling along. Our final obstacle was El Paso. Actually, not El Paso itself, but the eastern and northern outskirts of El Paso. Oh - My - God! I had no idea that those unsavory trading post towns on dusty planets in Star Wars had a very earthly inspiration. “Welcome to ‘planet El Paso’ Master Luke. Can I show you to the speeder-bike junk yard?” I didn’t see the emblem of the City anywhere but if it’s authentic I’m sure it features a truck stop, junk yard, mesquite bush with tattered plastic shopping bags stuck in its limbs and a layer of dust. Perhaps most impressive was the character of the community created by the urban planning and code enforcement. THERE IS NO URBAN PLANNING OR CODE ENFORCEMENT! We literally saw an upscale residential neighborhood (they use water to grow plants and keep the dust clouds away... classy!) next to a truck salvage yard (of which there are too many to count!). I literally saw a church (in a windowless corrugated steel building) next to a store that boldly advertised... uh... well... I have always promised this blog to be family friendly... oh well... I have to be honest... here goes... marital aids! Except their sign used a much more descriptive term. I think I know why the church dropped the traditional idea of windows. We saw a crematorium next to a school and two of every type of fast food chain (the lines were longest at Chic-fil-A). Dusty empty lots and the parking lots of strip malls were indistinguishable. And everywhere? Activity. Things being built, things being serviced, things being recycled, things being moved, people going this way and that. I literally did not know there was such a place in these United States. These people are getting things done! They don’t have time to ponder legislation that would warn their fellow citizens that coffee could kill you. Someone is waiting for them to finish the next job and they act like they know it. Their proposition is GET TO WORK!
Recycled school bus parts, anyone? Or a peek at the heavens?
Another 20 minutes and we were at Hueco Tanks. Fascinating! It is the only park we have ever been to where they require that you receive a 20 minute briefing before you enter the campground. In brief, this area (roughly a mile square) has four stone mountains rising 300-400’ above the flat valley floor. These are not just any rocks. They are volcanic (igneous) rock in an otherwise sandstone region. 100 million or so years ago the molten stuff down deep tried to break through a layer of seabed and failed. Precisely here. Clock forward. The sea dried up, the seabed turned to dust, settled on the El Paso city seal then blew to Oklahoma and the wind couldn’t touch the hard volcanic rock so it appeared to grow out of the desert floor. It also formed caves, pits and other oddities. Those held rain in protected pools even in the dry season. Pools (huecos) of water in the desert attracted animals, early people, settlers and tourists. There are glyphs here from two different sets of pre-Columbian people. The oldest at least 6,000 but maybe 10,000 years old. Are you kidding me? Sherwin Williams can’t make a pigment that will stick to my house for 10 years but some twig-chomping hunter-gatherer made a 10,000-year paint! We need to get Q-Anon on this... after they figure out where the government is hiding the cars that run on tap water.
Here’s us settled in for the night. Not, that’s not the volcanic rock. It was behind me when I took this.
More on Hueco Tanks tomorrow. I have to go stalk the wily Aoudad and Javelina.
Later...
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