THREE DAYS IN MARFA
{Last April JRF and I took a road trip to Marfa. It was magical. As we approach this holiday weekend, I am really ready to sit by a pool and enjoy a refreshing adult beverage but, alas, I have three papers to write, an exam, tons of reading, and a sermon to prepare. (All of which is wonderful and exciting so please don’t feel too sorry for me. Oh, you weren’t? Good. Anyway, I am taking a trip down memory lane. Come with me, won’t you?}
Our third annual girls’ trip couldn’t have come at a better time. I needed a breath of fresh air in the midst of wedding planning and Jenny needed a break from her busy and wonderful two year old. We are both city girls at heart but wanted something different. A road trip seemed like just the ticket—a few days to unplug, see some beautiful country, read, and soak up a little sun.
We knew we’d come to the right place as soon as we got there. The tables at Padre’s were full of people finishing beer and tacos and a few haphazard rows were set up in between. A makeshift screen had been set up and the lights were dimmed. And everyone was there for the same reason—to watch Marfa’s 60 Minutes segment airing that night. Morley Safer and his staff did a great job of capturing the crazy juxtaposition of quirky artists and hipsters with cattle ranchers, border patrol way stations, and dust storms. The best part was how everyone watching laughed at all the same lines and got excited together when a friend appeared onscreen. When the segment ended, everyone applauded, the lights came up, and two bartenders started closing out tabs.
Morley was right about Marfa. It has sparse beauty and small town charm. The sunsets and openness of the land somehow make it easier to take a deep breath here. And there’s something about the countryside that makes you want to create something beautiful. I can see why artists are drawn here. There’s a semi-permanent Andy Warhol exhibit, Donald Judd’s boxes are scattered like cattle in a field near the Chinati Foundation, and a growing number of wonderful small museum spaces are here, too. Ballroom Marfa is even building a drive-in movie theater and stage.
The food, when anyone feels like opening up, is surprisingly delicious. I might have had the best cocktail of my life at Cochineal. There are even some great places to stay. You can sleep in a real live teepee if the mood strikes and there’s not a hail, lightening, or dust storm. And, of course, the Marfa lights are mysterious and amazing. (My money’s on the aliens.*) The Davis Mountains, hot springs, and the MacDonald Observatory are all within an hour drive.
But in the end it’s the people that make Marfa. What we saw in those first moments was only reinforced the rest of the week. It was fun to see locals of all ages hanging out and catching up wherever we went. At Future Shark, old-fashioned (yet delicious) cafeteria food is served on long tables flanked with benches. And nearly every one of them was full of people with wrinkles and white hair meeting kids in their twenties or thirties for lunch. It made Jenny and I both realize how much we wish we saw that kind of thing everywhere. Everyone was glad to be there. And everyone we met, with the exception of one cranky store clerk, was super laid back and friendly.
I’d heard of Marfa before but couldn’t understand why anyone would want to make the eight-hour drive to get to a flat, dusty wasteland. Now I get it. Marfa is in the middle of nowhere but it’s full of people who love each other and their town. And how could anyone not fall in love with that?
**We met a cute couple from Austin who watched the Marfa lights with us. She was a pastry chef and he a PhD student at UT. We got to see the moon and JUPITER through his fancy telescope=WIN.
