Hiking with the new GPS and Fort Davis, TX (2-13-2011)



working with the GPS

     Our new GPS arrived while we were in El Paso, and we spent a day or so trying to become familiar with it.  Its going to take a lot longer to become proficient though.  It's not exactly user friendly, but we're hoping that by spending some time with it, it will  become easier to use.  We took it out to Franklin Mountain State Park and found our first geocache with it!  It was very exciting, although we did make a few rookie mistakes.  I also discovered that I can walk and I can look at the GPS, but it's much better for me if I don't do them both at the same time. 


Fort Davis



      After a great visit with Paul's mom, we left El Paso a couple of days ago, and have settled in Balmorhea, TX.  Yesterday was a full day of adventure for us.  We started with Fort Davis (National Monument), which was built and used from the mid to late 1800s as one of the forts along the road from San Antonio to El Paso, to protect travelers from Indian attacks.   The fort is slowly being restored and there were several very knowledgable volunteers there who knew the history well.  At certain intervals all day long, we would hear a bugle call, just as the soldiers would have heard it so many years ago.  We were given a cheat sheet listing all the calls and what they meant, and it was fun to listen and get a sense of the rhythm of their daily life in the fort.  I always like the personal stories- the ones about the Colonel's 4 kids and their lives in the fort.  Education was always an issue when someone was stationed at a remote outpost.  Many families sent their children back east to be educated, and didn't see them for years at a time.  No thanks.  They couldn't bring a governess, because after the cost of transporting someone out here, it usually took about a month for her to be married to someone, and no longer interested in being a governess. 

    Once we toured the fort, we went hiking for a couple of hours.  I had downloaded the location of several caches, but it turned out they were too far away from our location, and the gates are locked at 5 pm,  so we couldn't risk not being back in time.  I had fun using the GPS to hike anyway.  Since we still had time, we headed over to nearby Davis Mountain State Park, and drove the scenic drive.  This state park was built by the CCC back in the 1930s.  Throughout our travels we have marveled at the incredible work done by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) all over the country. It was a government program during the depression, that gave young men jobs creating infrastructure and protecting the natural resources in our nation's parks.
In this park they built a lodge from adobe that is still in use today.
    We ate dinner at the restaurant in the lodge, since there aren't too many options this far out in the country. It was just ok.  You would think that would be enough for one day, but we decided brave the predicted temperature of 22 degrees, and headed over to the McDonald Conservatory for the Star Party.  Luckily it only got to about 40 degrees out, because even that felt pretty cold.  At 7:30 one of the staff started pointing out the constellations in the sky, showing us some of the things that we would be able to see through their telescopes.  It was a clear night, although it was a half moon, so it wasn't as dark as it could have been.
    One of the things he pointed out to us was Polaris, the North Star.  We had always thought that it was the brightest star in the sky, but it's not even close.  It is always in the north though, because it's location is straight off the earth's rotational axis, so it doesn't appear to move much at all.

    There were 6 telescopes set up to view different objects, including the moon.. There was an awesome Nebula, but the only thing I got a picture of was the moon.  If I had had more time to play with the camera, without other people waiting in line, I might have been able to get the right setting, but I couldn't even play around with it because it would have been too much light polution to have in my face, so I just picked settings and did the best I could.