Getting back to where I left off

June 11, 2023

The pretext for the timing of this trip was an invitation to visit the Lightning Field, a land art work by sculptor Walter de Maria and sited in Catron County, NM. In order to experience the installation one needs to request a reservation by entering a lottery on February 1 at midnight Mountain Time. I luckily received a May 23 booking, and elected to link it to the conclusion of my Southern Tier bike tour. I booked a one way flight to El Paso, and Michele would join me for the Lightning Field portion of the trip.

We flew to El Paso on May 20th, with a stop in Dallas Ft Worth. For the first time I was using Apple Air Tags and could observe my bike and luggage locations. Our connecting flight to El Paso was delayed by ninety minutes, because our pilot hadn't yet arrived from Tulsa. While we were stuck on the tarmac, I saw my bike removed from the aircraft and the Air Tag showed it retuned to the terminal. I was braced for problems.

We arrived in El Paso two hours late, and my bike and luggage miraculously appeared on the luggage carousel. We picked up our rental car and began the three hour drive to Marfa, where I had been last spring on part two of my Southern Tier tour. At the time I had regretted not having enough time to visit the Donald Judd permanent sculptures, as well as a trip to Big Bend National Park. Michele and I would be doing both.

Margret’s restaurant was closed when we arrived in Marfa, but the Water Stop was still open. There was a mix-up at the Lincoln Hotel, where we had a reservation for room #10. The door was supposed to have been left unlocked with a key waiting inside. Another guest had mistaken our room for theirs. Meanwhile I walked into room #3 thinking it was the office. I was prepared to erect my tent in the courtyard, but the guests with our key soon arrived and everything worked out. The next morning we enjoyed breakfast next door at Aster.

We spent the morning visiting the Chinati Foundation's permanent collection of Donald Judd’s outdoor concrete sculptures and indoor aluminum structures. It had been the site of a World War Two era military base. From there we retraced my ride from last year towards Marathon, where we stopped at the French Grocr for burritos.

We drove down to Big Bend National Park and camped at Nugent Mountain. After sunset, in addition to the amazing star gazing, we noticed a string of over twenty Starlink satellites travel across the sky in tandem like a string of pearls.

The next morning we drove back to El Paso. We stopped at the roadside Giant art installation outside of Marfa and the Prada Marfa in Valentine. We later had lunch at the Rib Hut in El Paso. We then drove to Silver City, NM where we had a reservation at the wretched Motel 6. For dinner we went to the Little Toad Creek Brewery & Distillery, where I had been last year on day #2 of the Great Divide NOBO.

The following morning at Motel 6 Michele discovered bed bugs in our room, which was extremely upsetting. For breakfast we went to Tranquilbuzz Coffee House. From there we drove to the Lightning Field office in Quemado and I retraced some of my route from the Great Divide. Our driver, Davey, was waiting at the office to take us to the Lightning Field.

We were driven to a cabin in the middle of a large basin surrounded by distant mountains. The Lightning Field is a one mile by one kilometer array of 400 stainless steel poles. Michele and I walked the perimeter before enjoying a spectacular sunset. I later realized that I had ridden within five miles of the installation last year on the Great Divide.

The next morning we were picked up at 11 AM and driven back to Quemado. From there we drove back to El Paso. We got a room at the historic Hotel Gardner where John Dillinger had stayed days before his arrest. For dinner that evening we went to Elemi.