Tuesday February 26

I'm writing this entry on Wed morning. When I got
back to the trailer last night it was too cold to do
anything but climb under the covers. More details
tomorrow.

Rode the bike into Fort Davis this morning and had
breakfast at a little burrito place. Ordered the
"trash can" (the works). Great.

Not far from the campground is a group of hills
covered with expensive houses. Looking through the
binos I thought I saw a castle on the top of one of
the hills. Drove up closer and took a pic,. I have
no idea what the story is.

In the afternoon drove to the McDonald Observatory.
Stardate on Public Radio with the lovely voice of
Sandy Wood is produced here. Took a tour of giant
telescopes, saw a video feed of live pics of sun
flares. The observatory is here because it is one of
the darkest places in the US. In the evening they set
up 5 large telescopes and focus them on interesting
things and you can stumble around in the dark from one
to another seeing nebulae, galaxies etc. And
something special last night. Some time in the last
20 years some entrepreneur launched 27 satellites
hoping to make killing in satellite telephone.
Unfortunately for him, people found cell phones
cheaper and more convenient. So, your tax dollars
bought the satellites from him and our government
keeps them flying just in case. Anyway, they are
powered by solar arrays, and reflect vast amounts of
sunlight. If you are in the right place at the right
time it looks like an explosion. There was an Iridium
flare predicted for 8:04PM. About 8:03 we could just
make out a moving spot and then all of a sudden it got
brighter than anything in the sky. In seconds it was
gone.

Spent the evening at the observatory with the musical
couple from Minnesota. They lived in Northern Alaska
for years providing health care to a small community
and have lots of kayaking experience.

____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.

http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping