johnboystravelblog

May 26, 2017

(Photo credit: lonelyplanet.com)

The day I left Alpine to head further west I first drove up to the McDonald Observatory, drove the scenic loop west of it back to Fort Davis, then proceeded southwest to the little town of Marfa. This trip was pre-blog and I was sending some of the pictures I am now posting to friends back home in real time. When my friend Kathy learned I would be in Marfa she told be to be sure to check out Prada Marfa, without explaining any details.

For those of you who don’t know, Prada is a very high-end women’s apparel and accessories retailer with locations in many shi-shi places around the world. Silly me assumed it would be in the town of Marfa and while I was there I drove around looking for it. I didn’t ask anyone and just assumed it didn’t cut it in little Marfa (all the while wondering why in the world they would have one out here in the first place).

Today was a travel day and I was heading west to El Paso, Texas and ultimately Las Cruces, New Mexico where I would be spending the next few nights. Lo and behold, as I traveled west on Route 90, there it was – all by it’s lonesome out in the desert (actually closer to the town of Valentine than Marfa).

Like any real Prada store there are actual Prada shoes (right shoes only, mind you) and handbags within this locked facility.

It was created in 2005 and has been robbed or vandalized several times since then.

It’s actually quite a hoot.

May 26, 2017

Earlier in the week I drove up to McDonald Observatory, a little over an hour north of where I was staying in Alpine, and the day I left the area to head further west towards El Paso I had time to make another trip up there to take some day photos and drive the scenic loop again, in the opposite direction from the way I had driven it earlier.  When time permits I’ve learned that traversing a road in a different direction and perhaps a different time of day affords me the opportunity to see different things.

First, the Observatory.  McDonald has optical telescopes so it is only used at night.  It sits at an elevation of over 6,000 feet and benefits from the usually clear Texas night sky.  Since it is in a less populated part of the state it also enjoys a low level of light “pollution”.

Below is the outdoor amphitheater, where the host explained what we’d be seeing during the “star party” Tuesday night before we made the rounds of the telescopes themselves.  While he was speaking the International Space Station passed overhead (talk about perfect timing!) and he also pointed out an abandoned Chinese space station which, as it turns out, was de-orbited under controlled circumstances and brought back to Earth in 2018.

Here is a model of what an older technology telescope looks like inside the “shell”.

The shell can rotate to observe different areas of the sky and helps protect the instruments from the elements.  Here is a photo of a photo of one of the actual telescopes at McDonald:

This facility owns and operates one of the largest optical telescopes in the world.

The night I attended the “star party” we looked through about a dozen telescopes, including several of the ones pictured closest to the Visitor Center, as well as several free-standing ones which volunteers had set up in the area.  We saw mainly clusters of stars (the volunteers explained specifically what we were looking at) and one of the large scopes was pointed toward the planet Jupiter, and I could clearly see the planet and several of it’s moons.  One thing I did not see was the great “red spot” which was on the opposite side of the planet.  As big as it is, Jupiter rotates once every 10 hours or so.

After getting pictures at the Observatory I made another lap around my scenic road, drove southwest to Marfa and started heading west towards El Paso.

While making the scenic loop I saw this sign:

This was one of the first times I encountered this but would experience it many times during my trips out west (of which this was the first).  Many large ranches let their cattle roam free-range.  While there is a long fence perimeter to keep them on the property they can walk around pretty much where they want, which of course means they must from time to time cross the road (to get to the other side).  To prevent them from making a run for it there are cattle guards to prevent them from sneaking out on the driveways or other roads on the ranch or, if they are on the paved road, from wandering past the fenced-in perimeter.

When driving in these zones, however, you must always be vigilant for cattle, horses or bison on the road.  They are generally reluctant to move and if you hit one it will probably ruin both of your days.

I will say that of my three major trips out west I saw far more cows in the road than anything else.

May 25 & 26, 2017

Despite my fairly extensive pre-trip research I didn’t learn about this phenomenon until I arrived in Alpine and studied a tourist map of the area and saw something showing as “Marfa Lights Viewing area”.

(Photo credit: nps.gov)

On Thursday May 25 I did quite a bit of driving on scenic roads in the area and ended up in Marfa, a small town about 26 miles west of where I was staying in Alpine. Having now read about the Marfa Lights online I thought I’d head out there after dinner to check it out for myself. I had stopped at the facility along highway 90 during the day and spoke with someone who had his Jeep parked there and was planning to be there after nightfall. There is actually a well-marked Marfa Lights Viewing Center (MLVC) a little more than halfway between Alpine and Marfa.
I broke my “no driving after dark” rule for the second time in three days – really letting my hair down out here in rural Texas – and when I arrived at MLVC after dark there were already quite a few people there (around 40, as I recall).

Here are photos I took the next day:

The structure at MLVC actually only houses restrooms, built in a yin and yang shape when seen from overhead. Behind the building is a paved viewing area with a low stone wall around it (to keep critters like snakes and scorpions out – hopefully…).

From the MLVC humans are supposed to look out over the desert southwest, towards Route 67, which runs north to south, and the Chinati mountains on the other side of that highway. If you look very closely you’ll see a Chinati mountain peak between the two utility poles in the photo above. After dark there is a telephone tower in the distance with a red light on top of it which spectators are informed is a good reference for seeing the lights, generally to it’s right.

Reports have said people often see lights flashing on and off or remaining stationary, and on occasion zipping from side to side or traveling in “packs”.

I stood there for over an hour (well after dark) and yes, I did see stationary or slightly moving blinking lights, generally in the same area. Most times it was a short burst but on occasion it lasted a little longer. There were oohs and ahhs from the crowd when the lights first appeared. I didn’t see any “zipping” along the horizon, nor did I see anything which I would remotely consider extraterrestrial. Information online seems to indicate that the lights are usually very low, near and below the horizon. Color me skeptical but now that I’ve seen at least an hour’s worth of “Marfa Lights” I don’t think you need to be a rocket scientist to surmise that what you are seeing is probably lights from vehicles on a highway (Route 67, duh) perhaps being caused to flash by passing behind trees or other roadside obstacles. I think it’s all a bunch of hooey.

As I was driving out to the MLVC that night I got excited when I did see three bright lights coming towards me. Turns out it was a train on tracks parallel to the highway!

Move along, folks – nothing here to see…

May 25, 2017

I started the day driving north from Alpine towards Fort Davis to stop at a facility I had seen the day I arrived in the area but didn’t have time to visit – the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center:

Here is a map of the total area covered by the Chihuahuan Desert:

Fort Davis is located in Texas,  west southwest of Fort Stockton.

The Nature Center and Botanical Gardens had a wide variety of full sized plants outdoors on a nice walking path.  What intrigued me even more (and provided better photos) were the wide variety of young plants located inside the greenhouse.  All the plants you are about to see are native to the Chihuahuan Desert.

When I was finished at the Nature Center (more photos in Post 2) I returned to Alpine, then continued south to make a large clockwise loop on a series of scenic roads.

Yesterday I drove to and through Big Bend National Park before returning to Alpine (335 miles total for the day). Today I traveled south on Route 138 (which I had driven north on the previous afternoon) to Terlingua, then west through Big Bend State Park to the town of Presidio (on one of my primary scenic roads), then north on Route  67 to Marfa.  What I did there will appear in another post.

 

Total mileage for the day – 326 miles.

May 25, 2017

Here are more photos of cactus plants taken at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center near Ft. Davis, Texas.

May 24, 2017

(Photo credit: nps.gov)

As you may have guessed from this map of the vicinity where I was staying (in Alpine in the upper left hand corner) one of the places I wanted to visit during my stay was Big Bend National Park along the US border with Mexico.  At 1,252 square miles Big Bend is bigger than the entire state of Rhode Island (“only” 1,212 square miles).

From Alpine I drove 31 miles east to Marathon, then 69 miles south to the Park.  Just before I entered the Park a bobcat trotted across the road about 70 feet in front of my car, not in any particular hurry but too quick for me to get the camera on my phone activated.

Once in the Park I drove to the Panther Junction Visitor Center.

(Photo credit: desertsportstx.com)

From the Visitor Center you have the option to go east towards Boquillas or west to Castolon.  I headed east first.  Later in the day I went west and after getting to Castolon (the road was closed there because of damage from flooding earlier in the year) I backtracked and exited the Park towards Study Butte.  From there I took Route 118 back to Alpine.

I took a gravel side road at one point which would take me down very close to the Rio Grande River and got these photos.  Later in the day I saw a truck hauling a big trailer ignore the warning signs and try to enter the same, narrow road.  I doubt if he got very far and I have no idea how he would have gotten out.  Those signs are there for a reason, folks….

The road looked plenty wide there but got narrow very quickly.  That’s part of it in the distance.

You can see a vehicle on the road ahead of me.

We finally came to a parking area near this abandoned building.

In the parking lot was a small area where someone was selling handmade crafts (supposedly from the Mexico side).

There were lots more than that.  I bought 2.  There was no one there but there was a coffee can with a slot in the lid (honor system).  I bought two items, a peacock (about 9 inches from nose to tail) and a scorpion (only about 4 inches long).

I put my $16 in the slot and was on my way.

 

May 24, 2017

Here are more photos from my visit to Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas.  Posts 2 and 3 will just contain photos.  Post 1 will provide some insight on the Park and my visit there.

The photo above is of the Boquillas Crossing Port of Entry station at the far end of the east branch of the road in the Park.  The photo below is of the Rio Grande River, directly behind the station.  It separates the United States from Mexico along the entire border with Texas.

May 24, 2017

Here are more photos from my visit to Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas.  Posts 2 and 3 will just contain photos.  Post 1 will provide some insight on the Park and my visit there.

May 23, 2017

After spending a full week in the Austin/San Antonio area it was time to move on.  Next stop, the little town of Alpine, 426 miles and 6 1/2 hours to the west.  I headed towards San Antonio on the dreaded interstate, took the bypass around the west side of town and got on state highway 90 which would carry me west.  If you do the math you’ll learn about something else which is bigger in Texas – speed limits! I was shocked when I entered the state on highway 21, and today when I got on highway 90, at how high the speed limits were.  Open roads (not interstates) were often 70 or 75 and when you got to a small town it might drop to 50 or 55.  In North Carolina you’re lucky to do 55 on a state road and usually 35 through towns.

After driving around San Antonio (where I saw a multi-level golf driving range pointed directly towards a Mercedes-Benz car dealership next to it) state highway 90 took me west through the towns on Hondo, Uvalde and eventually to Del Rio, right at the Mexican border.  Call me crazy (believe me, you won’t be the first…) but I’ve always wanted to go to Del Rio, the home of one of shock-jock Don Imus’ fictional characters on his WNBC radio show back in the early 70’s.- The Right Reverend Billy Sol Hargis. That character was a radio evangelist from the First Church of the Gooey Death and Discount House of Worship in Del Rio, Texas.  Every time Imus did his schtick as Rev. Hargis gospel singers sung his theme:

I don’t care if it rains or freezes,

long as I got my plastic Jesus,

riding on the dashboard of my car…

I can go a hundred miles an hour,

long as I got the Almighty power,

glued up there by my pair of fuzzy dice….

(to hear it for yourself there is an audio clip on YouTube)

But enough reminiscing….

After Del Rio it was a very long drive further west to Alpine.

 

(photo credit: nps.gov)

The map above picks up Route 90 at Dryden.  About halfway between Marathon and Alpine I almost drove off the road laughing when I saw this just off the highway to my left.  I turned around and stopped to check it out…

There is a set of railroad tracks right behind this structure and evidently some enterprising artist decided to transform an abandoned railroad equipment shed into the “Marathon Target”.  The signage is made of wood but the scale and letter font is right on the mark (on target, if you will…).  I think it’s hysterical.

Once in Alpine I checked in to my little “casita with the red door”:

There were other casitas (small houses) on the property, each with a brightly colored door of a different color.  I would be here for 3 nights and chose Alpine for it’s strategic location to several of the things I wanted to see while in this part of the state. Here’s another map which shows where most of these destinations are in relation to Alpine.

(Photo credit: lonelyplanet.com)

I arrived in Alpine on a Tuesday.  One of my destinations was McDonald Observatory, in the upper left corner of the map above.  They hold “star parties” for the public on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights.  I would be traveling further west Friday morning so Tuesday was my only opportunity to attend.  I broke my rule of not driving in unfamiliar areas at night and headed an hour and 15 minutes north to the Observatory.  Most of the day I was traveling in flat, desert conditions but this journey north would take me up into the mountains.

You can see two of the telescope “shells” in the photo above.

I will be making an entire post about the Observatory, and will be returning to this area in the coming days so you’ll be seeing and reading more about the area.

Another of the things I wanted to do in this area was one of my primary scenic roads, the white loop west of Fort Davis on the map above.  I drove it clockwise Tuesday afternoon, while killing time for nightfall and the “star party”.

It was a long but very rewarding day.  All told, 624 miles added to the odometer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 21 and 22, 2017

I visited Austin two more times while I was in the area, to eat at a few more recommended venues and see one or two more sites.

First, some clouds I saw in the sky while driving back downtown from a great tamale restaurant on the northwest side of town.  I don’t recall ever seeing clouds with “waves” on the bottom of them.  I hope the pictures do them justice:

Back in town I visited a few funky stores on a commercial strip south of town.  I saw them earlier in the week while I was in town and wanted to walk up and down that street and stop in a few of them.  That is where I saw this colorful man making balloon animals for kids:

And I saw this t-shirt in one of the more unusual toy stores:

And I saw this large piece of art on one of the side streets:

The last day I was in Austin I visited the Congress Avenue Bridge (now named for Ann Richards, a Texas politician perhaps best known for her witty jab at President George H. W. Bush). This bridge is famous for the roughly million and a half Mexican free-tailed bats who live underneath it during the day and come out to hunt for food at night.  The nightly (March through early Fall) ritual is viewed by thousands of people each year.

This sculpture was up at street level approaching the bridge from the south:

I knew about the bat flights but chose not to stick around to see it happen at sunset and then have to drive back to where I was staying.  Here are some photos of the nightly ritual I found in a park under the bridge.  If you are interested in seeing video of the bats in flight there are several of them on YouTube.

Part of my final day was also dedicated to doing more mundane tasks such as laundry and having some routine car maintenance performed.