Pecos County

The alarm woke us up at 8.00am. We got ready for an easy day having decided we wouldn’t take a 160 mile detour to drive through Big Ben National Park. After breakfast, we headed out instead for McDonald Observatory on top of the Davis Mountains.

We parked up & went to the Frank N. Bash Visitors Centre to enquire what we could do. The receptionist advised us that we could join the 11.00am Guided Tour for $8 each, which would take us to all the telescopes to view live feeds from the sun. She told us it was a special day because the tour would also include the 82” Otto Struve Telescope, which was not normally open to the public. That sounded good until I asked how long the tour took. Just 2.5 hours, it finishes at 1.30. Jackie nearly fainted .

We politely declined & bought the $1 self guided tour. We watched the 18 minute film about the history of the McDonald Observatory, then jumped in the car & drove up to the large telescopes on top of Mount Locke. The 82” Otto Struve Telescope was closed to us. We walked around the outside then found an open door into the lobby of the 107” Harlan J. Smith Telescope, but there was not a huge amount to see. There were however some nice views from here.

We then drove up Mount Fowlkes to view the 390” Hobby-Eberly Telescope. We were able to go in & actually see it through a glass screen. It was quite impressive. It is fact the 2nd largest Telescope in the world, the 1st being in Chile.

After, I must have been seeing stars, because I encouraged Jackie to drive ‘Doodle’. Jackie drove down the mountain, mainly in the verge, then back through Fort Davis. I considered stopping at Fort Davis itself, because it was a National Park, but Jackie was now getting a taste for driving. Luckily, Fort Davis was quiet, because at one point we were driving on the left hand side of the road.

Jackie drove to a town called Marfa, famous for it’s Lights (not Harbour). We had brief drive round, but there was not a great deal to see. We debated visiting Prada Marfa, a Prada Shop Art Instillation in the middle of the desert, but it was 37 miles from Marfa & in the wrong direction.

We continued our journey eastwards on Highway 67, stopping at the Marfa Lights Viewing Area. A proper viewing area has been constructed to view Mystery Lights, described as basketball sized lights hovering above the ground. It is an unexplained phenomenon. Unfortunately for us it was daytime.

We ventured on to a town called Alpine, which was pretty quiet, so we pushed on to the town of Marathon, where we due to stay that night. It was 2.00pm as we drove into Marathon, I was expecting a big town, but if we blinked we would have missed it. The town had a couple of cafes & a French Grocery Store. We weren’t due to arrive at our new Airbnb until after 3.00pm, but we contacted them anyway & they said come over.

We are staying at Marathon Morning Glory La Casita, a little homestead set in a couple of acres. Our hosts are Kelly & Lola, a lovely true Texan couple, who up until recently ran a Ranch down near Big Bend National Park. We have our own en-suite room in what used to be a Military barracks with a big verandah. They have 4 dogs that all stink, because they caught a skunk the previous night that sprayed them all.

We discussed our food options with Lola & it was either the expensive Gage Hotel or the French Grocery. We chose the latter & bought a bottle of wine, a microwave mac ‘n’ cheese, crackers, cheese, tin of tuna & inexplicably a packet of processed meat, which turned out to be like slimy floppy salami.

We returned, met Kelly, then sat on the verandah in the muggy stifling heat, drinking beer. It was too hot, not to be in the shade. By 5.00pm we both felt shattered & had a siesta. 45 minutes later we were awoken by the wind blowing a hoolie. We looked out & the sky was dark grey turning black.

Within seconds all hell broke loose, rain, then hailstones the size of large marbles started pelting down. I went out on to the verandah to photo & video the spectacle. Lola appeared & ran through the developing lake outside & across to the barn opposite where the door had been torn open. Kelly then appeared & started to run to help her, but he tripped & fell head first into a stony puddle with a loud thud. It looked & sounded painful, but he got up & ran on, probably a bit embarrassed.

We were really worried about the damage to ‘Doodle’ & Jackie even made me go & check on it mid storm. It seemed ok, but I’m not sure what I could have done if it wasn’t.

Less than 10 minutes after it started it was all over & a nice sunset followed. Apart from the cheese, the rest of the food was pretty rank, even the wine. That all said, we had a lovely evening in the middle of nowhere in West Texas watching the sunset & getting back to nature, listening to the sounds of dusk. Another great experience!

Song of the Day - Riders on the Storm by The Doors.Read more