May 1 to May 2, 2010

Saturday, May 1, 2010
Last night in Terlingua the wind was blowing and pounding so hard bringing in a cold front, that I thought the camper might turn over, but Charlie says that even in a 70 plus mph wind, only a wall might be pushed in. That would be bad enough for me, especially if it were the wall over my head with all my books and other stuff on the shelves! I think tonight I will sleep with my head at the other end, at least there is nothing hanging on that wall. There is a sticker on the outside of the camper that says not to erect or take it down in high winds. We were glad when the winds let up this morning so we could pack up. It has really cooled down in this part of Texas. We went shopping in Alpine and the temperature was 46 degrees there. We drove about 150 miles north from Big Bend on Rt 118 to the Davis Mountains State Park. Here we have views all around, and a very nice campsite with a big tree. Now that we have shade, I want sun! It is very cool here. Right after we setup, there were three mule deer grazing on the bushes about 30 feet from the camper, so we sat inside and watched. It is much greener here than it was just a few miles to the south. We drove up to the top of a nearby mountain within the park. It was cold and windy there, but there were beautiful views. Joey is so funny. He is different from our dog Toby in so many ways. When we traveled with Toby we had to practically drag him into the camper every night. He wanted to lay outside and wallow and dig in the dirt. Joey is all about “Where is my cushion? Where is my blanket?” “Isn't it time to go inside yet?” The last few days he actually laid down on the ground in the sun a couple of times. He does enjoy the heat. So I thought he might be adapting to the camping life. But now that we are in cooler climes....forget it! Now it is “Carry me!” For dinner we ate inside the camper since the temperature was dropping and it was raining a little bit. We had a couple of more crates inside because of the rain, so it was hard to move around, but we managed. The clouds all cleared out and it was a beautiful evening so we drove about 14 miles up to the McDonald Observatory for a Star Gazer Party. The observatory is at 6,500 feet, and is part of the University of Texas at Austin. They have public viewings three times a week, so our timing was good. The 'party' started at 9:30 and we didn't get back to camp until about 11:30. Late night for me! It was really cold up there. In fact they said they had lots of snow this morning. All the outside lights are low to the ground and they are red. We walked a good way through the observation area to a big circular outdoor theater for lessons on the constellations. There were no lights around for miles and the night sky was stunning. The presenter had a kind of lazer pointer that seemed to go all the way to the star he was pointing at. That was really cool. He told us all about the constellations, reminding us of what we learned years ago but had mostly forgotten. After that, we went back to the observation area to look through the telescopes. There were about six telescopes set up, three were inside round buildings open to the sky. We saw Saturn, and a bunch of numbered clusters, and I really don't know what all. It was fun though. There was a video that we could have watched but we both probably would have slept through it. Besides, Joey was waiting for us in the car. We were not far from him, he was warm in his fleece sweater, and out of the wind. We had a fun ride down the mountain in the dark, but it was well marked with reflectors.

Sunday, May 2, 2010
Last night was so cold. We didn't have the heater ready to use. So, without heat we slept in our clothes and used lots of blankets. Joey cuddled up to me and he was under three blankets. I don't know if he was warm enough or not. Charlie got the heater working this morning, so we are hoping it will do the job. We went back to the McDonald Observatory and had lunch there and went to a presentation about the Sun. It included a look at the Sun through a remote telescope. Then we were taken up the highest road in Texas to the Hobby and Eberty telescope. The University of Texas at Austin and some Pennsylvania Astronomers built the telescope with a single 107 inch mirror in the 60s with help from NASA Then we went to the much larger and newer Harlan J. Smith telescope, made with many mirrors and measuring over 300 inches. It didn't really look like a telescope but a huge mirror in a frame. It was all very interesting and if you like to know all the technical details, you will get them if you visit here. Charlie liked it alot. Afterward we drove up to the mountain in the park again, and then went to dinner in the town of Fort Davis. We went to a good BBQ place, and we talked a little bit about how this trip is working out. We are having a good time but the camper is giving us a struggle. We are eating out too much because water and the fridge are hard to deal with. Now we have found that keeping the camper cool or warm in very hot or cold weather may not be possible. Plus my hip has been hurting more all the time, quite a lot today. Don't know how much longer we will stick it out. It is so pretty out here, we don't want to give up. Charlie fell behind posting pictures so he gave them to me and I will try to get caught up. We have wifi here so I am going to get to work.