The Trek- Pt. 3- Hello Marfa

A little outside of El Paso we decided to venture off highway 10 and jump on 90 which took us into Marfa.  You might recognize Marfa from such movies as Giant, No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood.  It's a bizarre little town, sort of like a little liberal enclave in the middle of the wild west.  One of the more hysterical things we saw driving in was a Prada store in the middle of nowhere, literally.  I'm not entirely sure it's a functional store (it might be some sort of artistic statement) but regardless it was amusing.  Once in Marfa we stopped in the El Paisano hotel to get a lunch recommendation since it was beginning to look more and more like Subway.  Fortunately we were sent to a little sandwich shop called Squeeze.  www.squeezemarfa.com  And as has begun to be the theme on this trip, we met quite the character here, storeowner Verena Vollenweider.  Not quite a Texan type name? Yep, you're correct. She hails from Switzerland. Not even she could really explain to us how she ended up in Marfa.  But she was a trip.  The restaurant is an adorable sandwich shop with fresh smoothies, hummus, baked goods and coffee.  Plus she has a wonderful selection of her brother's Swiss chocolate that he ships to her.  It was pretty comical that this existed in Marfa.  She made a point to tell us right off the bat that not all Texans like Bush and that in fact Bush is not a Texan; something she and the other workers in the store were very proud of.  She had wonderful stories of Daniel Day Lewis eating at the restaurant while filming "There Will Be Blood" and staying in character.  haha, which came as no surprise to us.  She also unfortunately told us that "No Country For Old Men" is a true story.  I say unfortunately bec. after watching that movie the only thing that stopped me from truly freaking out was that it was fake.  Now the bubble is burst and I will go back to being haunted by Javier Bardem and that freakish haircut.  Anyways, apparently that sort of things happens quite often in border towns such as Marfa.  Verena herself has had quite a few run-ins with border patrol when friends of hers from Italy, Holland and so on come to visit.  Yet none of this would deter her from staying in Marfa.  I think all in all we talked to her for about an hour on the subject of Texas, border patrol, politics, travel, chocolate, New York, etc.  I actually wanted to come back to Marfa after we left just to talk to her some more!  Now I don't know how you'd end up in Marfa really, but if you ever find yourself there you must go say hello to Verena.  She's a gem.