This place really felt like an oasis, after driving for over sixteen hours—the last three in a raging West-Texas lightning storm—to get here. When the Tailor and I pulled in after one in the morning (an interesting quirk about Van Horn, TX: it’s lies about one mile inside the Central time zone, so we lost yet another hour at the finish line) and collapsed face-down in our room, we didn’t get a chance to really appreciate the “Capitan.” But in the morning, in the cool shade of the courtyard, surrounded by blazing desert color and the understated 1930s opulence of the hotel, I realized we’d found a real gem. Maybe a grueling trek is required to gain admittance to (or at least appreciate) a place so lovely as this.