Settled in and oriented. North, south, east, and west. Dinner, billiards, and beers at the famed Holland Hotel led to a full night's sleep. Alpine is located at the center of the Texas Hook, it's a worthy unofficial capital. Natural beauty, higher education, rough elegance, striving people, railroads, beef.
Next morning, drove 25 miles to Marfa, through the Paisano volcanoes. Where James Dean was a Giant, where Mick Jagger had No Spare Parts, where McConaughey eats burritos. Popped the bike off the rack and rode the whole town. Colorful and rickety, transparent and remote, undertones of a clear class situation. Minor, incompleted renovations everywhere, odd and tidy, murals of various quality.
Took a thorn near Coffield City Park, got a flat tire and had to walk the bike back to Marfa Burrito. Without any spare parts, found Big Bend Cycles where Earnest patched the lifeless tube back to life. Retired from the Border Patrol after 23 years, he now works on motorcycles and helps the occasional pedaler. The shop smelled of oils and metals and years, blues was on the bluetooth. A sign read "Be sure to taste your words before you spit 'em out."