Marfa, Texas is a very small city in west Texas, about 575 miles from our home. Much like the city of Nevada Texas, where we currently live, Marfa was founded as a railroad watering stop. Now while Nevada Texas was named after the Nevada Territories (even though it has taken the pronunciation of Niv-AY-da). Marfa was named after Marfa Strogoff, a character in  a Jules Verne novel.

Since Marfa is in a desert environment, the days are hot and the evenings are cold. We expect that in the first week of October when we will be there, the temperatures will be in the low 80’s during the day and the low 50’s at night.

Our first stop on the way to Marfa will be the Midland/Odessa RV park. This is 379 miles from home, and my guess is we will spend about 7.5 hours to get there. That will give us an easy 200 miles to go on the second day.

The Midland Odessa RV Park looks like it was once a KOA. It looks to be a very nice campground. We are there for only one night in order to break up the trip. I was going to book this stop for the trip home, but it was not available. So, on the trip home we will stay at the Abilene State Park.

Midland/Odessa RV Park

Our stay at Marfa will be at the Tumble-In RV Park. From what I can see in the pictures on their website, it’s very rustic. This is probably what you would expect from the desert environment. My interactions with the owner over making reservations seemed good. I must admit I am a bit curious on how the stay will go, we will be there for a week.

So, why Marfa? Well Tammy and I have watched a few shows on the Marfa Lights and always wanted to go and see them for ourselves. The Marfa Lights are visible on clear nights between Marfa and the Paisano Pass, when facing the southwest (facing the Chinati Mountains). The lights change colors, move, split apart, disappear and reappear. If you have heard that they are just car lights in the distance, that would be incorrect as they have been seen way before cars appeared in Texas. The first historical record of seeing the lights date all the way back to 1883. The following I took from Wikipedia:

“The first historical record of the Marfa lights was in 1883 when a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of the Apache. Other settlers told him they often saw the lights, but that when they investigated, they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.  Joe and Anne Humphreys next reported seeing the lights in 1885”.

It is also interesting to note that there has never been an explanation for these lights. Will we see them? You will be the first to know if we do.

There is also a viewing station 9 miles east of town on Hwy 90.

To the south of Marfa by 120 miles is Big Bend National Park. So that may very well be another stop while we are there.

I ordinarily will take my laptop with us on trips so I can edit videos while we camp. I have decided that I won’t do that this time. From what I have read the ability to even get a cellular connection is very spotty. Instead, I’ll just focus on trying to capture the most interesting moments and then get everything put together when we return. If, there is a lot to do, it may be multiple posts and videos.

So Standby for what could be an interesting trip.