#131 Davis Mountain State Park, Mcdonald observatory Fort Davis,Texas

When we had been visiting the McCallum’s, they mentioned when were near Big Bend it would be to our advantage to go by the McDonald Observatory. After that Balmorhea and so we took their advice. As we left Big Bend we went to Davis Mountains State Park for our visit to the observatory.

I kind of had a little bit of an attitude because it was named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy. I don't believe in what Davis believed in as I'm more of a blue coat so dang man. I felt weird but we still want to see it all so we went there. I had the conflict at AP Stevens state park. He was the vice president of the confederacy. The same feeling at Stone Mountain Georgia which was a haven for the KKK and where Robert E Lee is a god. Every time it happens it bothers me but it’s a place to park. It makes me face the more evil part of our country.

We got there and got settled in. It was a nice extremely dark sky. We went to the observatory that evening and it had been a hundred degrees that day. As we got closer it became cooler and cooler. A cold front came through and it was like 35 degrees that night, which was unbelievable. We went on to Observatory at 9 p.m. and enjoyed the presentation and learned a lot more about constellations and all. It was hard standing out there outdoors listening to a presentation in 35 to 40 degrees. I didn't last that long maybe an hour and then I went on down and watched a movie and stuff inside the heated area. I hadn’t seen the girls much and I just assumed they were across the way as it was so dark I couldn’t see anybody. Later India and Savannah said they stayed inside the whole time. I thought youse guys are a bunch of lightweights. While I was wandering around I looked into a telescope that was supposed to be aimed at the dishwasher galaxy and I didn't see anything but they kept insisting that it was there. I was probably just looking through the eyepiece wrong but I didn't see anything.

The next day India and I went to a church service and then to lunch. It was very nice. It was like a 1950 soda fountain.

We went to Fort Davis and it was considered one of the best-preserved forts in the nation because all of these buildings are the original buildings even though they've been remodeled. They have new roofs but the stonework is all original. I came to realize that the purpose of these forts was really to provide safety stations for travelers going west during the gold rush. Of course, we were at war with the Native Americans all the time killing them and them killing us. When you were going to the west you needed a place to kind of get behind a wall and feel safe get supplies and such as that.

When we weren't being tourists I decided it was time to fix the fender on my dually truck. I had gouged a big hole in it all the way back in Naples Florida. I bought some Bondo from Walmart that had fiberglass imbedded stuff in it so this is what it looks like before you finish the sanding it out process