Marfa, Texas

Marfa was our main reason for coming to the area, so I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t as close to the mountains as Alpine and Marathon. But soon we learned that it’s the people and the culture that make Marfa special. That and the mysterious ghost lights sometimes seen on the horizon.

We walked around and visited some beautiful galleries and saw art and photographs. There are many beautiful buildings in Marfa – even the bookstore has a modern minimalist kind of feel.

We stopped in one little shop and found lovely sheets of coloured felt made from recycled pop bottles. Morgane bought some to make more clothes for her stuffed animal friends. We talked with the owner and found out that she and her husband travelled all around in a van, too, and that they ended up staying in Marfa.

We drove around to look at a few more things including a house that someone had told Ghis about. It looked like a box piled on top of another box and Ghis wondered if it had been made out of shipping containers (something he is interested in). We stopped and he went to talk to the owner. That’s how we met Candid who lives there when he is working as an architect in San Antonio or teaching in Barcelona, Spain. He let us tour the house and take pictures.

The house has windows that are like slits, like when you wake up and your eyes are barely open. But because these slits are at just the right height, you see everything when you are seated on the sofa or sitting at the desk.

We hung out and had a drink with these friendly folks and then left, promising to see them again at a free show in town that night. A musician (who has played with Beck) was going to be providing a live musical soundtrack for a silent movie from 1928. We decided it would be worth keeping Morgane up for.

One last stop – we checked out the bar owned by friends of the other VW travelling family – The Bodeswells.

We cooked in the van outside the public library (internet!) and then went to the show. It was held at the Ballroom, a beautiful venue. We were treated to an opening act which was a cowboy reading poetry. This was the best part of the show for Ghis and me. Morgane wasn’t so sure. Then the movie started. The Wind was about a woman moving to Texas from Virginia and how the wind was always blowing. Supposedly it would drive her crazy.

We didn’t stay to find out. After maybe thirty minutes, the music started to give us a headache, so we left and went to bed.