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Published: March 4th 2019
We hooked up the rig pretty early and we’re once more on the road. We headed south for a bit on I35, then jumped off onto some of those great West Texas two lanes. It’s a bit shocking for us Northerners to see 70mph speed limits on such roads, but it’s the norm here.
We had the option of going a bit north first and catching I10, but that’s just not our style. And at the speed we run (V-max 62mph towing) we find that we get there just as fast on the old roads. Soon we were on US90, a road that seems like an old friend now, leading us westward and upward as we gradually climbed up toward the continental divide.
As we climbed, the scenery got drier and browner,
not dessert, but not anything like our green East either. We had been bothered by a balky stoplight bulb on Moby, so this gave us an excuse to stop and shop at our favorite crazy mercantile store in Sanderson TX. A big old building, it is literally crammed with just about anything you can imagine. It’s really something, aisles so narrow and crammed that any vacationing Eastern
fire marshal would be struck dead if he entered.
Please, don’t even try to find anything, just ask the dude at the counter, he knows! Sure enough, he had it, and we were soon on our way with only a slight injury. Cathy had managed to knock a headboard over in the “Antiques” department, badly banging her shin.
From there it was on to Alpine TX, then a turn north to Fort Davis Mountains State Park. This park is close to the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, and we had secured tickets to the Friday night “Star Party” event. We had heard great things about this, and we were really looking forward to it.
We were not disappointed, it was a fantastic experience. First, the commentator gives a lazer-pointer talk to the audience, who are seated around him on circular benches under that starry Texas sky. After that, all could take turns at the eyepieces of six different telescopes. It was all amazing, but my favorite was the one set up to show two galaxies at once, one edge-on, and one at an angle. That was a thrill for me.
They go to great lengths there
to protect the dark sky. There are no phones or other devices allowed, no outside lights except for some low, red ones along the walkways. After the show, all attendees are asked to leave in the cars in a certain way in order to keep there headlights from pointing up where the big serious telescopes are doing their work.
The dark skies of the West Texas were the whole rationale for building this Observatory here in the first place. Now though, that is being threatened. New oil fields are being developed in the Davis Mountains at a fast pace. We could see the glow coming up in the northwest sky, the result of the flares burning off the waste methane from the wells. What a shame.
We will be spending another day here, and we’ll give you the story of some hikes and other features of this park next.
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