Day 21: Wind, Hills, & Stars

Van Horn, TX to McDonald Observatory (Fort Davis, TX)
Date: 01/22/2013
Distance traveled: 75.74 miles (1180.37 miles total)
GPS tracks: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/265407592


Standing on the 118… so little traffic, so wide open, and pretty smooth.

The ride today was a hilly & gorgeous one. I got away later than I intended – somewhere round 11am – which made for a late arrival at my destination, the McDonald Observatory. It didn’t help that I took a couple of pretty long stops during the day.


Indeed! Thanks for the warning.

For the first half of the ride I had an amazing tailwind – it blew me all the way to Kent. I was glad to get to Kent. From this point forward I will not be doing any more interstate shoulder riding. (At the time I thought this was a great thing, but after 3 more days on Texas ‘chip seal’ I found myself longing for some good ‘ole interstate concrete.)

Kent is an abandoned town. The only activity is FedEx trucks that use the abandoned gas station to swap trailers & cargo. It’s a pretty striking example of how a town can just ‘disappear’. Boarded up houses. Decrepit schoolhouse. I climbed up to the top of the hill where the water tower used to be to have lunch. It was a pretty view if you looked past the town below.


The old school house at Kent. You can see my lunch perch in the background.


Nothing to see here in Kent.

From Kent I got on the TX 118. And, of course, now the wind is no longer at my back. This is where the real climbing of the day began. It was really pretty, though, which made for a nice ride. I’ll admit that this was harder than I expected… a theme that will come out in the next few days… as I’ve discovered that the elevation profiles don’t accurately describe how hard the up and down and up and down of it all that can really make for hard riding.


Officer Morris.

Today was the first day I got to talk to law enforcement of any kind, too. There was an unmarked truck patrolling the 118. At one point it stopped and the driver got out and walked a bit of the road and I caught up to him. He was a state trooper out looking for border crossers. We chatted for a while – he told me about patrolling the area via helicopter, about when he catches the “poor bastards” he shakes their hand for trying… it’s a 7-10 day walk from the boarder up here! He also showed me how they use trash along the side of the road as markers, signals for the drivers that are supposed to pick up the walkers to let the cars know where they’re hiding in the brush.


Looking down the 118… lots of hills ahead!


Wide open.


Rolling hills on 118.


That little spec of light in the middle is the McDonald Observatory, only a few short miles away!

When I finally got to the observatory, I found the home of John, Deb and their kids who live up at the observatory. They are warm showers hosts who open their doors to anyone who wants to stay up at the observatory. John works there as a research scientists (I think that was his title…). I swooped in, showered, and immediately turned around to head to the visitor’s center for the evening’s “star party”.

On select nights of the week the observatory holds star parties. They invite visitors out to come out and look at the stars via various telescopes. They had some high and low powered telescopes pointed at the moon. One at Polaris, Andromeda, and a few other things. It was beautiful, but didn’t last very long. I’ve never seen the moon through telescopes like that – it was absolutely stunning! I also went in to watch the film in the auditorium. That was a mistake… it was a lame ass film from the 80s attempting to teach metric powers of ten.

After the star party I went back up to the house. After a quick dinner & chatting with the family I settled in for a restless night of sleep. After many dire warnings about how the cats may piss on my stuff, my sleeping bag (they’ve done it before) I couldn’t sleep… every time the cats stirred I woke up for fear of being sprayed. Also the floor smelled like piss. Not the best conditions for a good night of sleep.


My stuff piled up on the chair to avoid the cat piss.

Good thing the tour the next day made it worthwhile. :)


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