Fredericksburg, TX

Sat (10-7-09): We traveled from Alpine to Fredericksburg, TX via I10 today. Lovely warm weather and blue sky day. Fredericsburg was settled by German families. We are camped at the Oakwood RV Resort. Pete and Martha's friends cooked Axis Deer for dinner tonight. Very good tasting with NO fat.

Sun (10-8-09): Quiet day trying to update this blog, but didn't get too far with uploading pictures. We had dinner tonight at an authentic German restaurant--Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn. Great food.

Mon (10-9-09): Went to LBJs ranch and took a driving tour through the ranch. Beautiful day to be outdoors. We also stopped at Luckenbach, TX--quite a place. Heading to Boerne, TX tomorrow.

Big Bend TX Parks

(10-15-09): Today we drove down to the Big Bend National Park with the Halsteads and Mertz and then drove along the Rio Grande over to Presido, TX, which is a border town and crossing into Mexico. It was a very long day, but sunny and hot and dry! Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

Cactus


More Cactus and Landscape







Prickley Pear Cactus that has Turned Pink





Driving Up the Road to the Lodge



Landscape

Arid Landscape Looking Toward Mexico (High Ridge)

One of the Many Canyons that You Would Not Want to get Caught in if it Rained

Here's the Rio Grande [Ridge on Left is Mexico and on the Right the US; the river runs between them making an 8 mile canyon



Looks Like Wild Maze (Corn) Growing along the Rio Grande

Tepees Set up as Rest Area Along the Rio Grande

Muddy Rio Grande [left Mexico; right TX]

Our UFO turned out to be a Border Patrol Blimp when we zoomed in to see it on the camera!

McDonald Observatory

(10-13-09): Today we drove over to the Fort Davis area from Alpine, TX and up to the McDonald Observatory for a tour. We went on the 2:00 p.m. tour of two of the telescopes there. Our tour guide, Rachel, was just wonderful and you could tell that she loved her job. We drove back down the mountain for dinner at the Bear Den at the Indian Lodge and then back up the mountain for the 8:30 Star Party that evening. With no moon the sky was really dark in this part of the US. What a show the stars and Milky Way put on for us. We saw several satellites crossing the sky. They had set up 6 different telescopes and we carefully walked in the dark from one to another to gaze at several different stars and Jupiter. After, we sat in the dark outside and they pointed out different things in the night sky using a laser light. It is so dark in this part of the country and that is why the stars are so visible. We left there about 10:30 and got in bed just before midnight--tired but amazed with what we got to view tonight!

Looking Out from the Top of the Mountain where the McDonald Observatory is Located--No Man's Land

Beautiful Day With Beautiful Clouds Behind One of the Telescopes (5th Largest)

Inside the Silver Domed Building (Flat Array in Center Left in Pic)

Same Telescope from a Distance

Another Telescope that We Toured

Our Tour Guide, Rachel, and the Telescope that She was Demonstrating

Another Smaller Telescope that We did Not Tour

Roswell, NM

Sunday Oct 11, 2009: Today we traveled to Roswell, NM from Albuquerque. Long, grey sky day with not much scenery to look at--except a rest stop at a place that warned about rattlesnakes! I didn't get out of the coach. We "camped" at the Sam's Club there in Roswell, which was beside the Wal-Mart and all had dinner at Chili's Restaurant in front of the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Parked at the Rest Stop

Sign says "WATCH FOR RATTLESNAKES"!

Albuquerque, NM - And Even More Balloons!

Albuquerque, NM Balloon Fiesta

Thu (10-08-09): Special Shape Rodeo--Well we were up at 5:30 a.m. today to walk over to the balloon field to walk among all the special shape balloons as they were being rolled out and inflated about 7:00 a.m. Quite a sight to see. Chuck took about 300 pictures and I am wading thru them to pick out a FEW of the shapes that I haven't already posted! It was really alot of fun and I'd highly recommend it.

Zebra Patrol (Blonde) Clearing the Crowd Away

Woodrow C Greenleaf

Sahuard Grande Cacti

Police Were on Horseback

Orient Express

Nelly-B

Miss Daisy & Sunny Boy

Haunted House

Fire Engine

Dart Vader and the Crowd

Bradenburger Tor from Germany

Aero-Nut Being Inflated

And He's Up and Away!

Smokey Bear--The pilot of Smokey Bear, Bill Chapel, came to our camping area and talked to us for an hour about his experiences with flying a hot air balloon and he also answered alot of our questions.

Lois, Bill Chapel and Jim Campbell

Smokey Bear Hot Air Balloon

Special Shape Glowdeo and Fireworks--

(Glowdeo Pics to Come)

It's amazing what the camera eye sees! Chuck had it set on "Fireworks".

Albuquerque Natural History Museum

Wed Oct 7, 2009: Change of plans today, as it was raining and thundering this a.m. The bus trip to Old Town Albuquerque was cancelled today. JR and Betty Mertz suggested we go to the NM Museum of Natural History & Science, so that's what we did.

I did some research on the internet this a.m. to learn about "White Buffalo" Turquoise--it is not what we saw yesterday. What we saw was Howlite and is often confused with White Buffalo or Sacred BuffaloTourquoise, which is a very light blue tourquoise.