February 18 - 21, 2015 Hondo Texas

On Wednesday, 18th, we were up before the sun rose and on the road east as the sun was rising.

It turned out to be a beautiful day for traveling.  We took US-90 most of the way.  It is this nice two lane road with little towns sprinkled here and there. 

Not sure if this was smoke, dust, or fog:

We went thru very flat areas:

And some not so flat:

US-90 is very close to the Mexican border in some areas.  On the above two pictures, you can see the dirt road alongside the paved road.  In a couple areas, we saw the Border Patrol dragging tires like those below, along that dirt road.  They were checking for footprints and then smoothing it again.  Very interesting.

We went across the Pecos River, which was very green:

Thru parts of the Amistad National Recreation Area, where the water was very blue:

More greenery than before:

We arrived at the Alamo Escape Co-op Park in Hondo, set up, and spent the next few days with our dear friends Carolyn and Pete.  It was so good to see them and get caught up with each other.  Lots of food, beverages, laughter, crying, hugging, and talking.  How wonderful!

Please keep Carolyn in your prayers.  She is going for a back operation on Thursday and hopefully all will be well. 

Tomorrow we continue our journey east so stay tuned and enjoy today.

Stats for the 18th:

Miles Traveled: 332 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Texas:  SR-17; SR-118; US-90; CR-422; CR-5216

 

February 17, 2015 McDonald Observatory

Getting a tour at the McDonald Observatory has been on my bucket list for a long time.  Yesterday I made reservations for the day tour and solar viewing since the weather forecast was “sunny”.  Well we woke this morning and it was very wet, icy, and foggy.  OH NO!  We decided to head up the mountain anyway and were glad we did.  Our tour consisted of four of us – so it was like a private tour.

This was in their parking lot – notice the ice on the trees and grass:

Very thick fog:

Sundial – too foggy to work:

We started in their classroom with our tour guide who took us thru information on the sun, solar flares, stars, and so much more.  Since it was so cloudy, we did not see the sun real time from the observatory, however, he did show us the sun from other observatories in real time.

Here is a great site to see lots of that information – some in real time: http://www.spaceweather.com/

From there we headed up the summit of Mount Locke to the Harlan J. Smith telescope.

http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/research/telescopes/HJSmith

We first took a walk around the building- it was soupy out there – :

The Superintendent’s house:

More ice (it was very cold and windy up there):

We first went into the lobby where we were told the history of McDonald Observatory and the telescopes there.

In 1968, when this telescope was finished, it was the third largest in the world.

“For almost a decade, the telescope also reflected a laser off mirrors left on the Moon by Apollo astronauts, in a program called “lunar laser ranging.” These results have helped refine the distance to the Moon and enabled a better understanding of its interior, and provided a test of Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity. That program has since moved to a dedicated laser ranging telescope on neighboring Mount Fowlkes.”

From the lobby, we walked down a long hallway into an elevator.  The lights went out in the elevator right before the doors opened and this is what we saw when they opened – I was in AWE!

Our guide took us the thru all the details of the telescope and the instruments around the room.  In order to have the researcher get closer to the telescope, the floor moves up:

The telescope moves and the dome moves:

Here are two videos on the movement – THIS WAS AWESOME!

Telescope Moving

Building Moving

Can I continue to say WOW!!!!!!!

And the tour continues.  We walked out the back door and the sun was out – YEA!  The shutter doors that open to the outside:

Our next stop was the top of Mount Fowlkes to see the Hobby- Eberly Telescope.  It was housed in this building:

Dan Weedman and Larry Ramsey of Pennsylvania State University were the inventors of this telescope.  More information can be found here: http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/research/telescopes/HET

The telescope is currently being retrofitted to do a study on dark energy.  Astronomers all over the world are finding that the universe is expanding faster as it gets older.  This study is to determine why (how cool is that!).  More info can be found here:  http://hetdex.org/

We were taken into the HET visitor center for a background of this telescope and then we were able to see some of the work being done:

From the outside:

We were taken to the visitor center for the end of our tour where we had lunch and explored the museum.  Notice the clear skies:

The HET Telescope Building:

The sundial now working:

After lunch, Andy and I explored that area. The telescopes on Mount Locke:

The views from Mount Locke:

Heading toward Mount Fowlkes and the HET building:

Views from that area:

We slowly made our way down the mountain and to our spot in Fort Davis.  If you are ever in this area, please put this on your list and take the guided tour instead of the self tour.  The guided tour will take you places where the others do not.  (And plan to spend a few hours there too.)

We were back by late afternoon, put some things away, and relaxed.  Tomorrow we continue our journeys into east Texas so stay tuned and enjoy today.

February 16, 2015 Fort Davis National Historic Park

We woke to rain and cold and the high today was 48 – BRRRR!!  (Said with apologies to my east coast friends who are really freezing.)

We decided to dress warm and head to Fort Davis National Historic Park.  More information on the fort can be found here:

http://www.nps.gov/foda/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Davis_National_Historic_Site

Between 1849 and 1882, the San Antonio-El Paso Road also known as the Lower Emigrant Road or Military Road was an economically important trade route between the Texas cities of San Antonio and El Paso.  This route was used by the military, gold seekers, Overland Mail, cattle drives, stagecoach travelers and Beale’s camels.  In order to protect the people and supplies along the roads, a series of forts were established – one of which is Fort Davis.

Here is a map of the Military Road:

Our first stop was the Visitor Center where we watched a movie, walked thru the museum and chatted with the ranger.  Here is the visitor center that is located in one of the enlisted men’s barracks.

A schematic of the fort:

Very interesting facts from the museum:

The ranger told us what buildings have been remodeled and are open so we decided to walk the fort grounds and see what we could.

There were four enlisted men’s barracks: the first one houses the visitor center, the second houses some displays, the third is a replica of how the interior may have looked, and the fourth has not been restored.

From the second barracks:

The third barracks:

Looking across the parade grounds is the officer’s quarters:

Looking beyond the parade grounds, notice the mountains.  Those mountains surrounded the fort on three sides:

Officer’s Quarters:

The Commissary:

We were able to go into the commissary and look around.  I found this interesting.  This person had to be correct all the time, otherwise, people would starve – no grocery stores around the corner:

Right outside the commissary was the road:

Ruins of the bakery and one of the modes of transportation on the road:

From there we walked to officer’s row.  Each building had a separate kitchen from the main quarters in order to keep food odors and heat from the wood burning stove out of the home.  Also if the kitchen caught on fire, the house might be saved.

Right next to the kitchen in the same building:

Here you can see the ruins of each kitchen behind each building:

After the kitchen, we walked to the hospital which is set back from all the other buildings:

We made our way back to officer’s row – this one is the Commanding Officer’s House:

Our last stop was Shared Lieutenants Quarters. These quarters were split down the center with the foyer/entrance being the common/sitting room.

This side was probably for a married couple:

And this side for a single person:

What a wonderful day.  If the temperature were higher and no wind, we may have taken the nature trail and even packed a lunch.  But at 40 degrees, that was not happening.  Oh well.

We stopped at the little grocery store/deli/bakery in town and picked up home made soup and home made bread – Yummy!  Just the right meal for a day like today.

After settling in our warm home with our bellies full, we decided that we did not just want to sit here so off we went for a road trip.  Our travels took us southeast to Alpine, west to Marfa, and then north to Fort Davis.  I don’t have many pictures – sorry – but the views were so different from what we had thought of Texas.  There were many mountainous areas.

We did make a stop at the Marfa Lights Viewing Area.  See the links below on the Marfa Mystery Lights.  The viewing area is located at the old Marfa Army Air Field (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_Army_Air_Field):

The viewing area:

This is where they have been seen:

More information can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marfa_lights

http://www.marfatxlights.com/

If it is clear tomorrow, we may try to go at sunset and watch.  There is an RV area so that may be a future overnight trip. 

Back home, we paid for another night and made reservations for the McDonald Observatory Tour for tomorrow.  So stay tuned and enjoy today.

One last picture from today: