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.

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Monday February 25

Drove into Fort Davis this morning to visit the
historic site. Fort Davis was staffed by buffalo
soldiers (mostly freed black slaves) after the civil
war to protect settlers and mail carriers from
Indians. Interesting idea if you think about it.
The video at the visitor's center was narrated by
Kareem Abdul-Jabaar (former college and pro basketball
star for all you athletically challenged types) who is
very interested in the history of the buffalo soldier.
The first black graduate of West Point chose to
command the Fort Davis troops. He was court-martialed
in a kangaroo trial by white officers about a year
after he got there. And the Fort Davis Buffalo
soldiers were themselves successful in destroying one
of the last tribes of Apache holdouts who refused to
go to a reservation. Confusing thing, history.

I was going to continue on today but a 30 mph wind
was blowing from the west and I didn't think I would
make much progress with the trailer and everything up
on the roof. So I unloaded the car and went back to
Alpine to buy a new camera. Found a cheapie Olympus.
It takes good pictures but has no viewfinder, only the
screen on the back. That will take some getting used
to. Tried to get into the tomato growing operation on
the way back but they don't give tours.

The couple that went on the tour of Turlingha Abajo
are here. Stopped to talk to them. He is a retired
physician, she a nurse, from Minnesota. He plays the
nykelharpe, a 13 string Swedish instrument, a cross
between a violin, autoharp and accordian. You bow it
but change string length with buttons. There are four
strings and a drone that are bowed and 9 resonating
strings. It has an eerie sound. He belongs to a
nykelharpe band in Minneapolis and they get gigs.
She plays violin but a swedish style one: the standard
4 strings but with two added resonators.

A warning for those of delicate sensitivities, the
following is a little clinical. As many of you may
know, men of a certain age begin to need a trip or two
to the john during the night. At home this is no
problem, just sleepwalk to the bathroom and back. But
in a campground there are some challenges that require
deliberation and planning. Of course, you could get
dressed and hike to the toilet, but after a few nights
of two dark voyages you've become a daytime zombie.
So, here are step by step directions for how to solve
this highly personal yet desperately vital problem:
1. Choose a campsite as far from others as possible.
2. Orient the door of the trailer away from the
closest neighbor.
3. Place the trailer so the door opens onto the most
absorbent surface: grass better than gravel, gravel
better than asphalt.
Now I think further description is unneccessary.
However, let's say a) that no amount of trailer
placement provides sufficient privacy or b) there is
no adequately absorbent surface. Then one must revert
to the tried and true pee bottle. And this has it's
own set of considerations:
1. Bottle must have an opening of sufficient size.
2. Bottle must have a very tight fitting top.
3. Bottle must not be opaque as carrying it to the
camp restroom in the morning in full sight of other
campers could be embarrasing if it looks like you're
delivering a urine sample.
I think I've about covered it. But if any of you (of
either sex) has any suggestions or other thoughts,
please let me know. This is important stuff.

The wind has died down this evening and the temp is
fine. I've got the trailer door open. I'll make my
nightly cup of decaf and sip it out under the stars.

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Sunday February 24

Drove to Marfa, a budding Santa Fe. The reason is
Donald Judd, the 60's, 70's minimalist sculptor. He
bought a property in Marfa that was a cavalry fort in
the 20's and a POW camp for captured Germans in WW2.
There are some major installations in the refurbished
hangars, mess halls etc. In the building where the
prisoners worked are 100 shiny aluminum boxes, each
nominally 4ft x 4ft x 8ft. Each has different
openings and inserts. With tall windows facing both
north and south, the sunlight created endless shadows
and reflections. The guide was a sultry and blasé
college age woman who, when she said she had graduated
from Sarah Lawrence I had a hard time keeping a
straight face. There was also a crowd of young female
grad students and some professors who had driven over
from Dallas after attending the national convention
for art historians. They had the same energy and
insider's knowledge that I remember from my Columbia
SLP days.

So Marfa has a lot of art galleries and fancy shops.
And a lot of film people. I was invited to the local
cine palace to watch the Oscars tonight with a bunch
that worked on "No Country for Old Men" which was shot
here. For lunch I went to Mondo's, a down home
Mexican joint. Local people and Texas state police.
I wanted to ask them what they made of the changes in
Marfa.

Lots of people moving to the area because of the
climate. Lots of real estate signs. One said "We
sell tranquility one acre at a time."

On the way to Fort Davis, 21 miles of desert, there
was a hawk dead in the middle of the road. I stopped
and pulled some feathers off it. It's talons were
enormous. In the distance I could see what looked
like a warehouse that stretched out for a half mile.
It was a greenhouse that grows tomatos. Up close it
was about 40 feet high. The tomato plants grew up
cages that stretched floor to ceiling. I'm going to
try to get a tour tomorrow.

Staying tonight in Davis Mountains State Park.
Beautiful, shady, and the bird people from NH are here
as well as a guy from Missouri I got talking to in Rio
Grande village 3 days ago. Cooked up another pot of
dinners for the week. I've been adding chorizo the
last couple times. Very nice kick. Went for a bike
ride and saw bunches of fancy houses built on all the
hills.

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Saturday February23

Packed up this morning and went on a Ranger walk to an
abandoned agricultural village. People lived in
Terlinghua Abajo from the late 1800's until the early
1930's. Mostly Mexicans who had lived in other areas
of Northern Mexico. Pretty much subsistence farming.
The guide has interviewed people who lived there.
There are some broken down adobe structures,
foundations, a cemetary, and whats left of a complex
irrigation system. What is particularly interesting
is that the population of this village was about 80%
of the people who lived in the western Big Bend area
but there is almost no documentation or history. The
history of this area, as of most others in the US has
been written by Europeans.

Left the park and drove through Terlinghua/Study
Butte: barren land, very dusty. Motels, restaurants
and tour guide businesses that cater to people coming
and going from Big Bend. Everything looks windblown
and out of business, except they're not. But there is
almost no pavement other than the roads. Parking
lots, driveways, side streets are all just sand. And
it was very, very hot.

Drove about 80 miles in a might wind to Alpine, TX, a
town about the size of Rutland but with a good size
university. I'm staying in an RV park behind a
Quickmart. But cheap and it's got great showers and
wifi.

My camera has died so I won't have any more pics until
I can get another.

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Friday February 22

A beautiful drive to Cottonwoods campground at the
other end of Big Bend and back on the Rio Grande.
Heard a great Ranger speak about the military history
of Big Bend. TRUE FACT ALERT: In the 1859 camels
were brought to the Big Bend area to provide support
for the military, under the command of Robert E. Lee,
who were here to fight the bad Indians and even worse
Mexicans. The Civil War interrupted things and
afterwards, the government wanted nothing to do with
anything Bob was involved with. So the camels just
roamed the area. Some were caught and sold to
circuses.

Someone at the talk asked the Ranger about the
infamous wall that is going to protect us from all the
horrible things that might cross the Rio Grande in the
night. He said the wall will not extend through the
National Park. There will be a series of high towers
that will have some exotic electronics that can
distinguish between animals and humans and even
between humans carrying backpacks and those not. He
did his best to keep a straight face.

I kayaked upstream into the Santa Elena Canyon. Had
to get out and drag it through some shallow water and
rapids but it was worth it. The canyon rises 1500 ft
on both sides and narrows to 50 feet in places. I
paddled as far as Fern Canyon. It's on the Mexican
side but is ok to explore (explain that, Homeland
Security). Also very tall, but no water and even
narrower that Santa Elena. The float back downstream
was a breeze.

Cottonwoods Campground is so called because it is full
of cottonwood trees. The campsites are on raised
areas of ground between the trees and the area is
regularly irrigated to feed the trees. It was a
little like Venice today as they had turned on the
taps last night.

Met a couple of serious birdwatchers from New
Hampshire who travel around the world trying to nail
birds for their lifelist. They are in this area
looking for the elusive rock wren. Mrs. BW told me
she took a trip to Newfoundland with the VINS bird guy
specifically to see a grouse that lives on top of Gros
Morne.

I'm really tired of men, generally within 10 years of
my age, who need to tell me all the things they've
accomplished, the places they've been and whatever
else they can fit into a monologue before I can find
some pretense upon which to escape. Are these all
lonely guys? Do they think they're accomplishments
are so interesting? I've been spoiled by the PCC boy
staff.

A very nice couple from Missouri almost has me
convinced there are great things to do there in
addition to eating BBQ in Kansas City.

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Thursday February 21

Not a big activity day. A day for ruminating. I
treated myself to breakfast at the Chisos Basin Lodge.
Buffet style, including biscuits and gravy. Came back
to the campground and hiked down into a canyon where
the water treatment system used to be, was told there
was big bird action there. It was pretty but no new
birds. Spent the afternoon sitting at the campsite
enjoying the view, the sun and the breeze. Once
again I was reminded how primal feeling the wind is
for me. My earliest memory is a sensation more than a
movie. My family was camping and I was lying under a
tree. I can still feel the breeze and the contentment
of that moment. There is some combination of wind,
temperature and sunlight which evokes that memory.

Went back to the lodge to buy some groceries. Met
Bruce Hill who started a yacht sales business in
Shelburne now run by his son. On the way out the
door, an odd looking young man in kitchen clothes
pointed at my car and said that was his home state.
He then regaled me with a tale that involved high
property taxes, selling his house in Burlington and
being bored working in Big Bend. I finally got away.

Later in the aftenoon a lovely British accent asked if
it could disturb me. A relatively young retired
couple from the UK traveling in the US for a year.
Big time sailors who instead of yachting around the
world, fell in love with our fair country when they
came to visit a daughter in college. They want to buy
kayaks and seeing mine figured me for an expert. They
are on their way to Alaska.

Finished reading "Freedomland". Another in the best
thrillers of all time. Sort of a slog. A semigood
story involving black/white relations in what sounds
like Newark, NJ, a mom who claims her car and young
child were stolen a young black man, etc. No more
thrillers for a while, so:

ATTENTION PCC PEOPLE: I've started reading "Travels
with Charlie" that came with my lantern. Did you know
that the intro was written by Jay Perini of Middlebury College?

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Wednesday February20

Went this morning to do laundry and got talking to a
couple from Michigan, Tony and Pam, who were bemoaning
having brought their kayaks and not doing any
kayaking. We said goodbye and I went back to my
laundry. About ½ hour later they came back and Pam
offered to drop me and Tony 8 miles up the Rio Grande
so we could float back to the campground. Went
through groves of bamboo, two small canyons and
dragged our bottoms (of the kayaks) through very
shallow rapids, floated down long stretches of calm
water and saw lots of birds and turtles. What a
treat.

Caught up with the Big Bend bird guy, Ranger Mark, who
convinced me that I had not seen a Flame colored
tanager, as they have been sighted in Big Bend only 4
times in his memory. It was probably a vermillion
flycatcher that wasn't fully breeding plumaged. I
also saw some spotted sandpipers. They have no spots
in the winter. In Vermont we only see them with
spots. Also saw today, white-throated swift, black
phoebe, tricolored heron, canyon towhee, pink-sided
junco.

Drove to Chisos Basin in the middle of Big Bend. You
climb steeply for about 5 miles then drop into a basin
surrounded by high craggy mountains. It was the first
big tug for the Suby and trailer and it did fine,
slowly, but fine. There's a very fancy lodge and
restaurant here, a small store that carries Splenda (I
was running very short) and Folgers coffee (I bought
some of that too, I was desperate). The campground is
below the little village and out of sight. As I drove
in there was a small herd of eight or nine Javelinas
including two babies grazing on some grass. I stopped
the car to take a picture just as a person walking a
dog came around the corner. The dog started barking
and the Javelinas took off. It amazes me how many RVs
travel with a little shit dog. Many have two. There
are all kinds of signs confining dogs to paved areas
only. I want to drown every one of them.

My campsite is at the edge of a cliff and looks west.
The sunset through the sharply outlined peaks was very
fine. The moon came up full and I could just see the
beginning of the lunar eclipse. It was about ¾ in
shadow when clouds rolled in.

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