A few details about our travels

There were a few things that we both noticed along the way. I thought I would mention them as we headed through the last stretch of the drive home.  First, we have to talk about the car.  

Turbo Wagon:

Cas went on a trip when he was still a single man.  He flew to South Dakota and rented a Nissan Versa to drive around.  It was silver in color, and he had fond memories of the trip.  When we got to the car rental place, they told us the car we would enjoy would be a black Nissan Versa.  Cas said he nicknamed his car in South Dakota the Turbo Wagon.  He said it was a reasonable mode of transportation, and our car for the last week has been perfectly fine.  It’s nothing great, nor is it awful.  We named our rental: Turbo Wagon 2: Electric Bugaloo.  

It’s comfortable enough, and the gas mileage is good. The man at the rental counter wanted to up sell us on everything- a car upgrade, added insurance and so on.  We just stuck with the turbo wagon.  It’s been pretty comfortable.  

The Javelina

When Cas and I were at the McDonald Observatory, the person who taught our last class of the day before the star party was a really spectacular teacher named Marc.  In spite of the fact that I have been taught my whole life to spell Mark with a k, this man was a very, very good teacher.  He was so good with the kids in the room- it was like he was a child whisperer.  As the class drew to a close, he cautioned everyone who was headed to the star party that it was awfully cloudy.  As he was discussing the arguments for and against sticking around.  He talked about how to leave so headlights won’t shine in the faces of the star partiers.  In this same speech, he warned about the probability of hitting deer in the dark- or what he called “Suicide Pigs.”  

Cas and I spent the rest of the trip looking for the famed Suicide Pigs of West Texas.  Everywhere we went after that, there were stuffed javelina toys in shops, books about them, We looked everywhere for a javelinas.  We looked on roadsides, during hikes, while floating down the river- no javelinas.  We struck out.

Why Cas can’t have nice things in national parks.  

Cas has apparently done the exact same frustrating thing twice in his life.  He went to Big Bend once many years ago.  When he was hiking there in his 30s, he managed to shred and destroy a pair of hiking boots.  Apparently, he spent time in that adventure waking around in duct-taped footwear.  

This time, I was walking behind Cas at the Chihuahua Desert Research Center hike, and I saw that the soles of his current boots were flopping about a little.  He has totally killed off two pairs of hiking boots in or around Big Bend.  Cas can’t have nice things, I’ve decided- not in national parks.  

Anyhow, we’re almost home.  It’s time to hang up the blog until this summer when we head to Canada.  I’ll get back on here then.  Until that, here is that link to Cas’ photos again.  A few of them are mine, but they’re mostly his: https://photos.app.goo.gl/l8PlrGxUhLMOcgi22

See you back home!

Checking out- room 214

The Chisos Mountain Lodge assigned Cas and me to room 214.  We handed the keys back in this morning and headed out to see if we could finally park the car close enough to the Lost Mine Trail and get one last hike in on our trip.

When we arrived just before 9 am, there were actually a few parking spaces open.  It was a miracle.  We took the fourth one from the trailhead entrance.  

We had no intention of making it all the way up and back down the whole trail, since we want to get home sometime when it is still Sunday, but we got to a spot with a really pretty view.  

If that’s not good enough, then I don’t know what is.  

We walked back down with considerably more comfort and ease than we had walking up.  Turns out walking down with the sun at your back is the way to go.  It was a perfect way to end our time in Big Bend National Park, and when we were walking down the last few feet of the path, I caught the eye of a passenger in a car that had just about given up its search for trail-adjacent parking.  I waved to signal that they should back up- we were about to vacate a space.  The couple was very happy to learn that a space would be vacant very soon, and even happier that I waved them down.  

Once we surrendered our parking spot, we headed on to the park exit.  It’s just lots and lots of driving from here to the rental car company, and we’re trying to make it in for dinner time.  We shall see...  Now that we’ve left room 214, I suppose it’s time to head back to area code 214.  

The $5,000 question

On the US side of the border, we call the river that separates the US from Mexico Rio Grande.  In Mexico, they call that same river Rio Bravo.  As a result of this name difference, we weren’t sure which river we were visiting today.  When we got in on the US side, it was probably grand.  When we stepped out in Mexico and got back in, I suppose it was bravo. Hard to say.

Today started with a really nice breakfast at the lodge resturant.  When we wrapped that up, we took a second shot at the Lost Mine Trail.  It apppears that it hasn’t been lost in quite some time, because whenever we arrive at the trailhead, the parking lot is full.  Somebody found it.  Our plan was to try parking at Lost Mine and hiking that.  If we couldn’t do it, we would go on the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive.  When we slowly rolled past the totally full parking area, I looked at Cas and said, “Scenic Drive?”  He said, “Yep.”  

It’s a pretty great scenic drive, actually.  We pulled off the road and looked at things, walked out, took photos and saw lots of beautiful stuff.  We did that on the way to Terlingua.  We had a reservation at 1 pm to do a river float.  I called the company that does this while we were in  Marathon and booked the last two spots in their tour this afternoon.  We got to a place called Far Flung Adventures for our trip down the Rio Grande.  They do it with kayaks when the water level is good, which it was today.  I was initially a little worried about having to pilot a kayak.  I use the rowing machine at the gym, but I usually tap out after about 15 minutes.  The woman on the phone to whom I was expressing this concern let me know that 10 year old kids do this trip all the time.  I think she was trying to tell me that I was being a little too concerned about my rowing abilities.  

Cas and I had a really great time.  I am so glad we did that- we pulled up with our group on the Mexico side for a moment to have a mid-trip snack, then we got back in and headed downstream a little more for the return to the US.  Nobody even asked me for my passport.  I hadn’t planned to make it to Mexico on spring break, but there I was.  I guess there are lots of stories people have about accidentally ending up in Mexico during Spring Break, but none of them are probably this tame.  

When we got back to the point where the tour company was set to retrieve the kayaks and hoist them all onto a trailer for return to their facility, there was a sign on the side of the water that said unauthorized crossing of the border at other than a point of entry would result in a $5,000 fine.  I hope they don’t know where to send the bill, and I hope that ignorance of the law is a proper excuse, because I wasn’t entirely sure we were in Mexico until I asked the person from the tour company who directed us to step on foireign soil.  

Tomorrow ends our adventure.  I think we will take one more stab at the Lost Mine Trail- hopefully, it will be a little more lost to all the other visitors on a Sunday morning.  After that, we head back to Dallas.  Nothing like hanging out in a beautiful National Park to remind you how flat and dull Dallas is.  I love home, but it’s not exactly brimming with the splendor of nature or anything.  

Anyhow, I had yet another fantastic day with Cas.  He’s a whole lot of fun to travel with.  Here’s what he looks like when kayaking in International Waters, by the way:

See you back home.  

Always looking up

*I’m writing this on Friday night, but I will not get a chance to post it until Saturday morning.  I have no urge to walk across the parking lot in my pajamas just for the WiFi.*

The first time I ever really hiked, I was looking down most of the time.  I had to.  The terrain was pretty treacherous, and I was the slowest one in our group.  That was when Cas and I were making our way through the Samaria Gorge in Crete.  It was part of our trip to Greece, and I was in no way prepared to do it.  

I had a pretty negative view of the whole idea of hiking after that.  Apparently, that is a really tough hike.  It’s the kind of thing avid hikers put on their hiking bucket list.  I was just learning how to do it.  Talk about the deep end of the pool.  

Today, we went on something called the Window Trail.  It was so much better that I can actually see why people would get into hiking in the first place.  I could look up.  I didn’t need to stare at the ground to be sure of my footing in each individual step- instead, I could see what there was to see.  Even the other day at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Center, the path was uneven, requiring a great deal of my focus.  This was my best hike yet.  

Today, I could look up at the “window.”  This is what they were talking about:

The gap between the two mountains is a lovely window to the world on the other side of them.  It was pretty great.  

After we did that trek, Cas in his infinite wisdom recommended we check out the lodge for its bar and restaurant.  We had a few drinks and a really nice meal, though we kind of dragged the meal out so we could stay at our table near the window throughout sunset.  Again, I had to stop and look up.  It was a gorgeous sunset.  

After that, I had the infinite wisdom.  I suggested we take a post-dinner nap until it was totally dark out so we could bring Cas’ telescope out into the grass in front of our room and look up yet again.  Since our cloudy night at the observatory was still pretty thick with stars to my untrained city eyes, tonight’s sky was practically blanketed with stars.  The sky was so black and the stars were so bright- I think it’s a new moon right now, or something pretty close.  

Cas delighted in finding the things we had spotted in professional astronomers’ telescopes just the other day.  He did a pretty good job with his binoculars and his small telescope.  I wouldn’t have done nearly as well.  Then again, he is pretty good at most everything he tries.  

We have a plan to do a scenic drive tomorrow.  It apparently features lots and lots of places to stop the car and hike around.  We have a river float in the afternoon.  I hope we continue looking up all day tomorrow.  It’s pretty great to always be looking up.  

Room with a view

*I wrote this a few hours ago- just found some WiFi*

We’re in.  We got to Big Bend National Park and stopped along the road about a half dozen times to take it all in and snap a photo.  

When we arrived at the welcome center, we got some trail maps and a little advice, then we went to the Chisos Mountain Lodge restaurant.  They had indoor and outdoor options, and we chose to sit outside.  By the time we finished our meal, our room was ready.  It’s pretty rustic- I think that’s the word I want.  The walls are made from cinder blocks, the chair I am sitting in is wobbly and the whole place has a summer camp feel to it.  Still, it has one heck of a view.  

My definition of ‘roughing it” is probably not truly correct.  I am confused as to how I will proceed in a room with no WiFi.  If I want to connect and post this very sentence to the Internet, I have to go all the way across the parking lot to a different building where I can use the WiFi.  So tough!  

Anyhow, now that Cas and I are checked into our “rustic” room, we’re just about ready to gear up, slather ourselves in sunscreen and head out on an adventure.  We’ll be hiking a bit today, and we have a whole day in the park tomorrow before we head home on Sunday.    I think he’s even got a plan to be in a sunset-friendly spot when that time comes this evening.  After that, it’s back to the rustic room with a view, I suppose.  Talk about roughing it.

Heads I win

The Gage Hotel is so Texas that I think you can use the word Texas as a verb when you describe the hotel.  It Texas-es so hard.  When you first walk in the door of any building here, you will see some kind of animal head poking out of a wall in that room.  I had a theory that the hotel owner married into a family of taxedermists, and this place was the perfect opportunity to blend those talents.  

There are heads in every space.  Indoors, the heads are carefully preserved to look as they may have in life.  Outdoors, the heads are reduced to skulls and posted as exterior decor on buildings.  There are chandeliers made of antlers.  There are paintings of skulls when no actual skulls are present, but sometimes, there are skulls arranged in the shape of a head,  and that’s pretty entertaining.  

The part of the hotel we’re staying in has lots of common space for guests to use downstairs.  There is also about a half of an animal seemingly walking out of the wall at the top of the stairs.  Each room seems to be adorned with an animal head, but the strangest one of all is the horse head.  Until that moment, I thought displayed animal heads were hunting trophies, but a horse head would suggest that any animal who passes away for any reason is subject to stuffing and putting on a wall.  The horse got a spot just above a fireplace, and there were reins that hung down toward the mantle of the fireplace.  Poor guy has to stay ready for a rider eternally.  Can’t let it’s disembodied head be free from reins.  

Our guest room has only an antler-laden light fixture.  West Texas minimalist, I suppose.  Make no mistake, the hotel is beautiful, and our room is gorgeous, but the decor just Texas-es so hard.  

Needless to say, when we check out of here, I think I will have had my fill of heads poking out of walls for a while.  Maybe I just don’t Texas hard enough.  

Arthur

When you go to the White Buffalo Bar at the Gage Hotel, please be prepared to overpay.  We had some very good drinks, but they were nowhere good enough to warrant the prices the place charged.  The staff was efficient, and the drinks were good, but for a $15 old fashioned, you want a friendly, effusive staff and a spectacular drink.  We got prettty darn good.  For a $30 tab on two drinks, they needed to be oh-my-gosh great.  

Instead of a second round of drinks that would have had me unfavorably comparing our bar tab to our mortgage, we decided to take a walk through the Gage Gardens.  The hotel is pretty much the only game in town.  It’s a nice hotel with several buildings of guest rooms.  There is a fitness center on the other side of the railroad tracks, as well as a cluster of rooms.  There is also a garden.  I was skeptical- probably because I had been in a desolate desert botanical center earlier today.  This was a beautiful garden. It was clearly designed to look like a European garden.  It was really stunning and supernaturally green when you got there, but when you turned your head to the left, you saw a cow. 

It was completely goofy.  It didn’t go.  Here’s what the cow sees every day:

No logic to that at all.  It makes no sense.  I immediately asked Cas when I saw it if he thought it would support my weight and if he thought I could jump up on there.  He was so supportive... what a guy.  He said of course I should pose atop the cow statue for a photo.  When I got up to it, the cow featured a sign that said, “FRAGILE Do not stand or sit on art cow thanks.”  

A few things to unpack, there.  First, I was disappointed.  Second, I had no idea the cow was named Art.  Third, I did not know Art was a girl name, now.  Stranger things have happened.  Plenty of boys-only names have crossed over.  Arthur T. Cow could be a girl cow name.  I thought all male members of that species were bulls.  

Cas and I experimented with middle names.  We settled on T as the initial.  Guess the name as you go along.  It’s not Arthur Thomas.  

Anyhow, we spent enough time at the botanical garden with Arthur (Not Taylor), and we had it go back to the main drag where the restaurant was.  We got there in time for our reservation.  When we were seated, there was only one other person in the small room.  She paid and left, and eventually was replaced by another couple.  It was pretty much semi-private dining all night.  (Not Travis)

The place is pretty proud of their food, but the food is just that good.  In fact, it’s great.  It’s not Tantalizing, though. Nice try on Arthur T. Cow’s middle name.  It’s also not Trevor.  We had a filet and the quail. I’ve never had quail before, and we shared both dishes. Spectacular. (Also not Timothy) 

After dinner, we went back to our room and took a few things outside.  We grabbed a pair of binoculars, a bottle of wine and some plastic cups.  

We looked at a few stars, made a few new friends and drink some wine.  Tomorrow, we leave here and head to the park.  Finally, we are headed to Big Bend.  No more chatting with Arthur Tiberius Cow.  That’s the name, you know. 

Take a hike

This morning started quite a bit earlier than I had hoped.  At about 6:30 am, the people in the hotel room just next door to us turned on their television to a news program.  They also began a great philosophical debate about American Presidents, past and currrent.  They had lots of things to disagree about- and they were not shy to vehemently defend their opposing views.  I assume it was a married couple, based on the practiced rythym of their arguments.  I had planned to wake up a little later, but they decided for me.  Cas was only up to hear a little bit of the conversation.  

But no matter, that was all done when we checked out of the hotel in Alpine and headed down the road.  We went to that research center we’d scoped out yesterday, and when we got there, we went on a nice hike.  Given that my first hike was a less than pleasant experience, I have to psych myself up for this sort of thing.  I mostly enjoyed this one, though there were a few moments when I wondered why this activity is so popular with people.  Probably because everything is so darn pretty: 

It wasn’t the easiest walk I have been on, but this time, I had hiking boots and hiking socks.  It really made a difference.  I felt bad for Cas, though, because his boots had apparently decided to start shredding themselves on this particular walkabout.  I guess he’s adding a new pair of hiking boots to the old birthday list, because the ones he brought on this trip are not worthy of packing back in the bag and taking home.  I’m honestly not sure how they held together as long as they did when we were walking around.  

After the hike, we left and headed to Fort Davis for lunch.  After the multiple places we had tried to eat, only to find that the world grinds to a halt in spring break in a college town, we decided to try a different tactic.  Fort Davis was happy to feed us.  In addition to that, we stopped by an old fashioned soda fountain on the way out of town.  I had a proper root beer, and Cas had an old fashioned Vanilla Coke.  It was pretty cool.  We sat at the counter, and drank our sodas, just to have that experience.  When we went to pay for the drinks, they had homemade fudge for sale.  It’s like they saw us coming.  We’ll be enjoying that after dinner.  

After that, we went back to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute for a stroll through their mining exhibit and their botanical garden.  The mining exhibit was cool, and the botanical garden was full of things that were not having a great season.  There were few green things, and of those, the really interesting ones were few and far between.  At the end of the botanical garden, there was a greenhouse absolutely full of cacti.  That was pretty great.  

Anyhow, we took off from there and headed to Marathon.  We have checked in to our room at the Gage Hotel.  It’s several buildings, now, having been opened at first in 1927.  We’re in the Captain Shepherd house this evening,  and it’s pretty nice.  I can’t see much else to do in Marathon, but we have reservations at their fancy restaurant later on and we plan to check out some of the cool features of this sprawling complex.  There is an outdoor heated pool, a game lot, some walking trails and a bunch of other stuff.  I think we’re headed to the White Buffalo Bar in a few moments, actually.  It’s only a short walk, not a hike.  

In case you need it again, here is a link to the photos: 

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPO8ikKHEHPkImSA77sqhgs7050rEyuaN9SnT523PxkZGx08FXdMvIu396fu-7VAA?key=d1N1RmplaVUxX0FFcElfOWpvUlhfTXZaR1U4X0F3

Ain’t no party like a science nerd party

We started our day with a pretty good free breakfast at our hotel, and after that, we were on to the Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross University.  It was a pretty good museum, and we got a lot out of it.  I specifically liked the maps, though the whole thing was pretty good.  Cas specifically was fond of the photography exhibit.  Apparently, a guy named Jim Bones has been to every beautiful place in this country, and he had a camera everywhere he went.  From a Star Trek perspective (since it is pi day, after all, and we did go to a pretty cool observatory), I would be remiss if I didn’t note that on the original series, Bones was the doctor, and he always called the captain Jim.  Jim Bones sounds like a made up name to me.  A made up name from a Trekkie.  But what do I know?

After we left the museum, we went in search of food.  We started at a grocery store to get a few things for our next bit of travel.  It’s nice to pick up fruit for a hike or some kind of chips for a road trip.  We took a moment to head to a grocery store.  The one we went to had really small pies for 79 cents, and I was almost required to purchase one for later consumption.  It is pi day, after all, and I am married to a math guy.  

From there, we went to the restaurant we had researched- the one we were sure would be open.  It was closed.  I am starting to think that the towns of Alpine and Pecos are trying to tell me and my husband something about our eating habits.  

We wandered a bit, did a quick Internet search and decided on a food truck option- Cow Dog: 

Having never eaten a Cow Dog before, I didn’t know what to expect, entirely.  The place did get really good online reviews, though, so I did expect good things.  

Mission accomplished.  Cas and I enjoyed our Cow Dogs and moved on to a park bench to eat our store-bought, tiny apple pie.  We headed in the direction of the observatory with a quick aside on the way at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute.  It’s got a lot of really neat walking trails and botanical garden features.  We stood in their visitor center for about ten minutes before we decided that we really ought to return in the morning.  In fact, the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute figures heavily into our plan for tomorrow.  We’re going to go there after breakfast, then head to Fort Davis for lunch.  Maybe we’ll have better luck finding open restaurants in that town.  

Anyhow, after our exploratory misssion to the research institute, we made our way up the mountain to the McDonald Observatory.  We had a whole day planned.  Cas booked tickets to four different things quite some time ago, and as it turns out, all four of the things were booked solid.  Spring break- who knew? 

Oh- here’s the view from the observatory: 

We started with a solar viewing.  It was a whole presentation about solar events and phenomena.  Since the live shot was pretty dull today (apparently, the sun isn’t doing much at this time), we got to look at years worth of solar footage, all condensed down to the really interesting bits.  

After that, we had tickets to a guided tour, done by the same astronomer as we had ding the first event.  He (Tom) was a super charismatic guy- quite the ambassador for the obeservatory, and quite the interesting person.  He took us through a little classroom work before we went up a little more of the mountain and into one of the buildings that houses a very large telescope.  It was extremely cool.  The telescope is mounted on two concrete pillars that have very deep foundation in the mountain, and are in no way attached to the building.  This keeps the scope steady.  Neat thing, too.  Tom moved the dome around, and it shook the building, but the scope stayed still.  

The twilight program was a classroom lesson again, this time headed up by a man named Marc.  He was about as good with kids as I have ever seen a person be.  He talked about the night sky in a way that was kid friendly to the point of being kid-centric, but it wasn’t dumbed down or insulting to their intelligence. He was a really, really good teacher.  

The final event of the evening was a star party.  That is supposed to feature some really great telescope time, a few indoor presentations and a big spiel out in in amphitheater.  It turned out to be very cloudy and a bit cold right at the beginning of the star party this evening, so I think a lot of people chickened out.  It was cold, but the clouds cleared for a pretty good chunk of time, and we dressed in layers.  Besides, one of the things we picked up at the grocery store was a package of single-serving wine bottles.  We had those in the midst of the star party.  I’m still not sure if we were supposed to do that, but my cousin Holly calls a glass of red her “wine jacket,” and any jacket would be welcome on a night like we were having.  Cas wanted to look through telescopes, and to do so, we needed all the jackets we could get.  

Anyhow, the scientist party with all the stars went on for a while.  A lot of the parents with small kids took off early, but it’s never good to be the last one out the door, so Cas and I took off after 10 but before midnight.  It’s pretty much time to get to sleep so we can get to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute tomorrow.  After that, it’s on to Marathon and the Gage Hotel.  Have a lovely evening, and be careful if you find yourself partying up with a bunch of science nerds.  They stay up entirely too late.  

Where is David Duchovny when you need him?

Cas and I arrived yesterday in Alpine, Texas just in time for the whole place to apparently be closed.  

We did find exceptions- our hotel had a staff at the front desk, though there was no one at the hotel bar.  There was a restaurant in town that seemed to be up and running- it was or of the more high end places, and we didn’t have a reservation, but we had a nice meal at the bar there.  I got from the bartender that Sul Ross, the university in town, was out on spring break, too.  Seems like everyone out this way shuts off their businesses when we have an opportunity to visit.  No matter, there are more places open today than yesterday, and we have a pretty good plan for our activities.  

What we did after dinner last night, though was we went to the Marfa Lights viewing area.  I am not sure what I really expected, but to my untrained eye, it looked like a few people far out on the horizon were playing with halogen lamps.  It was also really, really cold out there.  It felt 20 degrees cooler at the viewing area than it felt when we returned to our hotel 15 minutes away and got back out of the car.  All I know is that the great and mysterious lights in Marfa were a pretty big disappointment.  I expected something more beautiful with more diffuse light maybe some color.  I guess I should have Google searched it before we left.  

Cas said that he had been out to see the lights in the past, and they moved when he was here.  I theorized that the people with the halogen lamps out on the horizon were on motorcycles or bicycles when he last came this way.  

I watched the entire X Files series a few summers ago on Netflix.  I was kind of a late adopter of science fiction in my life.  I always dismissed the shows as having goofy plots and bad acting, based on a few poor representations of the genre I saw in my early teen years.  What turned the page for me was a very cute show on the Sci-Fi network (before they changed the spelling to that horrible SyFy) called Eureka.  They had a pretty handsome guy playing a sheriff.  He tried to keep order in a town where everyone was a super-genius working on some seriously next-level science.  So many mishaps.  I was hooked.  So I watched all the Star Trek series after that.  Every one of them.  I got into a few other pieces of science fiction, eventually leading to the show most likely to have an episode about the Marfa Lights- The X Files.  David Duchovny spends the whole series, it seems, convincing Gillian Anderson that there are supernatural things, alien things and inexplicable things worthy of our attention, our study and our blind faith.  I could have used a little Duchovny blind faith last night.  It was cold, and as far as I could tell, there were a pair of people off in the distance holding some flashlights.  Occasionally, they had a friend turn on a third flashlight.  An X Files premise, it was not.

But we move on.  Today, Cas and I head to the McDonald Observatory.  It’s 3/14, or as some call it, Pi Day.  I woke this morning to discover in my news feed that Stephen Hawking passed away early this morning, so it will be an especially bittersweet Pi Day upon which to go look at the stars.  Perhaps later, if anyone has a restaurant or a bar open, we can order a cocktail and raise a glass to Stephen Hawking and Pi Day.  I’d rather drink to him than David Duchovny anyhow.  

Museums

We took off from Odessa this morning and headed for Pecos.  It’s on the way to Alpine, and The West of the Pecos Museum sounded interesting,  We headed that direction, and along the way, I saw a sign that said there was a meteor impact site off of the highway.  What the heck, right?  We stopped off and saw what I am pretty sure they said was the second largest meteor crater in the US,  It had a walking trail along the crater, so we took a stroll.  It was different, and the sign warning us about snakes on the path made me glad I wore long pants today.

All in all, it was pretty neat, and only about a mile off the highway.  

When we wrapped up our crater stroll, we got back into the car and headed to Pecos.  We had planned to go to a local barbecue restaurant.  Turns out, restaurants in small towns close for spring break.  No dice on the barbecue, so we tried the place that was supposed to have the good tamales.  Closed.  What’s the deal?  Do all the owners, waiters and staff go on vacation?  I guess so.  We settled in on a place that I still haven’t caught the name of.  It looked like a house that had become a restaurant. The food was spectacular once we finally got it.  It was the slowest meal I had been served in a while, but I don’t remember really enjoying rice and beans that much before.  If all of that extra time was spent making the food more delicious, it was worth the wait.  Still, I would rather have been in and out for lunch in under an hour.  

When we left the restaurant with no name, we went to The West of the Pecos Museum.  it was pretty cool- built in an old hotel complete with a first floor saloon, it had a lot of rooms, each dedicated to a different exhibit about the area around Pecos.  

There were saddles, hats, boots and rodeo equipment in a lot of the space, but there were rooms dedicated to medical doctors, music, the volunteer fire department, a local beauty pageant- you name it, there was a room to explain it in this hotel-turned-museum.  It was pretty neat, but by the time we got to the last hallway on the third floor, it was getting to be a bit much. We both wanted to get in the car and get on the way.  We’re headed to Alpine, now.  I drove to Pecos, so it’s Cas’ turn to drive.  We should be there is under an hour, unless another museum looks cool along the way.  We shall see...  

Which henge was that again?

I have actually been close to Stonehenge- like the real one- but the person who was driving the car didn’t want to stop or get out.  Prickly English people...  

I know there is a car-henge somewhere.  I can’t remember the details.  But today, we went to the UTPB campus.  That’s Permian Basin- I actually knew that, but only because a student I once taught got a scholarship there.  UTPB has a replica of the original English Stonehenge.  It was worth a look, and it was pretty strange.  I don’t know what to make of it, really. Cas thought it was cool.  He thought it was interesting how they changed the arrangement just slightly so it would still work at this latitude to predict astronomical events.  

I just thought it was weird.  It’s the kind of thing that can only be imagined and constructed in a place where land is abundant.  Any sufficiently large city that is growing at any rate of speed would use the land some other way,  

Still, I love this photo: 

We were there before sundown.  We’ve had a good day one of the trip.  Between getting out of town on time, making our way to the Abeline Zoo and the strange Stonehenge copy, it was definitely interesting.  When it came time for dinner, we tried to opt for something with a little more local flavor than a Chili’s. We found a spot called Mamasita’s- I could swear it was supposed to be spelled Mamacita.  What do I know, though?  

The place was great, but we arrived at that decision after a Google search of local food. One restaurant was trashed online by someone who complained that the waitress he had was unattractive and the uniforms were not revealing enough.  I find that authentic, funny and horrible all at the same time.  I guess the guy knew what he was after, and it wasn’t fine dining.  We opted out.  We didn’t want to sit next to anyone like him.  Besides, Mamasita’s was good.  

We’re in for the night at our hotel.  Tomorrow, we go to Alpine, Texas. It’s about as close to Marfa as we’ll get, and maybe we will get a chance to see the legendary Marfa Lights.  We have reservations Wednesday for several events at the McDonald observatory, too. The whole thing is interesting, and I am with someone who is fun to explore with.  

Oh- I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it here- Cas is doing another photo album of our travels.  He posts more photos than I do.  Here’s the link: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/l8PlrGxUhLMOcgi22

Swan Boats

Check this one off the list of things I have never done before:

Cas took the first shift driving when we picked up the rental car, and I took the second one,  I picked up the driving responsibilities after we stopped for lunch.This freed him up to do a little research and find that the city of Abeline has a really neat zoo.  

For most of my life, a road trip has been about the destination rather than the journey, but Cas has this great attitude about stopping for interesting stuff along the way.  I haven’t been in the habit of doing that, but I am glad I am with someone who sees interesting things and stops to take a look.  

The Abeline zoo is very nice, in fact.  They have plenty of monkeys, some camels, a bunch of giraffes, lots of big cats, a bear and tons of birds, reptiles and other things.  With the notable exception of a nearly immobile crocodile and a lazy rhinoceros, the animals at this zoo were much more lively than those I have encountered at other zoos.  The reptiles in the glass cages slithered around more than any I have seen in such an enclosure, and the monkeys were playing like teenagers after school lunch on the Friday before spring break.  

When we wrapped up our walk through the animals, we spent 30 minutes on a swan boat.  Like I said, check that off the list.  I have always kind of wanted to try it out, and today, we did.  It was cool, and if it wasn’t for the bright orange life jacket, I would have thought it downright romantic.  

We’re back on the road again.  Cas is driving while I write, and we are on the way to Odessa.  Apparently, there is a great Stonehenge replica in town.  I’m intrigued.  Jeanne had a solid joke about it this morning when we told her about it, actually.  She wondered aloud if the people of Odessa had to move the rocks around for daylight saving time last weekend.  We’ll be sure to ask.  

Sprang Brake! Woo!

Cas has noticed over time that there is a tendency in some of the younger people of the country to mispronounce the words spring and break when placed together.  Somehow, both words have a very long A sound in the middle.  Spring becomes sprang.  Break is braaaake.  Typically, those who pronounce it this way follow up with a loud and proud WOO!  

So, here we are, on Sprang Brake Woo.  We spent the first weekend getting all of our work done.  I am all caught up in the college class I am taking, and the lessons for my classroom I’ll be using a week from today are already in place.  Cas graded a mountain of tests or some such misery.  We are totally ready to play, now that all of the work is done.  

Jeanne and Dave bought us a gift.  There are these educational DVD sets called The Great Courses, and they picked up the one on national parks.  We haven’t had a ton of time to delve into the set, but we did make a point to watch the piece about Big Bend National Park last night.  It was very informative.  

Today, we pick up a rental car and drive to Odessa.  By the weekend, we will be at the National park. We have stops along the way, of course, and I am looking forward to them.  

It will be good to get away for a week. I’m all packed, and so is Cas.  We have a bag of road trip food ready to go.  We just need to pick up a rental car so someone else’s vehicle can have all of those miles.  

So, here we go- Sprang Brake!  Woo!