Tailgate The Nation

At this point, we’ve decided that getting to Tallahassee for the Miami – FSU game is out of the question. We’ve spent the last couple of days planning the revised itinerary (which you can peruse at your leisure on the new, improved “Follow Us” page), but I digress.

After being hit with a hefty bill in Benson and having lost a couple days of travel time, we decided it was time to take action. We hit the road with a vengeance and spent the night driving along the I-10 along the U.S. Mexico border. It was about 2am when we finally hit the US-90 that crosses down South towards Marfa, TX. This highway is probably one of the most deserted areas in the U.S. – there is literally nothing around for at least 100 miles. In our sleep-deprived state we took the opportunity to try to capture this horror movie quality on tape (teaser trailer 2 soon to come).

A couple more hours and we were at the German Prada installation about 35 miles outside Marfa. This little alien building about 10 foot square lit up in the desert night. More procrastination and filming. Finally came to a rest area outside the town and passed out for the night/morning at 5am. In case you weren’t aware, Marfa is the town where they filmed “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” among other great films. It is somewhat of an artistic oasis in the middle of west Texas attracting photographers, the avante garde and filmmakers. It is no surprise – the vast, flat landscape is unspeakably beautiful. It is impossible to truly capture the vastness of the sky here.

We excitedly snapped up about a thousand photos and then headed into town for lunch. The choice was easy – right across the railroad tracks there was a battered little “rat-can” blaring Lou Reed out of an 8-track player. This place goes by the name of Food shark, offering Mediterranean food with all the fixin’s (appropriate for the middle of a desert). I got the “Marfalafel” with a Mexican coke and JM got the Fatoush – delicious. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, we ran into Chase and Rachel – the only active Couchsurfing hosts in Marfa. We enjoyed a bit of conversation – they let us know what its really like to live in Marfa as a young professional and told us stories of the Couchsurfing folks that they had hosted before. We parted ways – us to go nap, them to go back to work – and made plans to head out that night for a drink.

We met up later at the local watering hole, Padres, for 2-dollar Lonestars (the PBR of Texas, which also happens to be brewed by the same company). Padre’s was built in an old funeral home – you enter in a big dance hall with a bar and stage. You can make your way through the building, past the pool tables, shuffleboard, and pinball machines and emerge on the patio where everyone casually shares conversation. There is a very diverse crowd here – everyone from ranchers to shopkeepers to artists and photographers. Everyone was friendly and supportive of our project. Before we knew it midnight had come around and it was time to say our goodbyes and head to Austin for our first game.