Rest Day at Fort Davis 3/23

Covered wagons at Ft Davis

Commander's residence

Agave cactus at entrance to Ft Davis

Old, old trees at Ft Davis









View overlooking the campground far below

Rest Day - Only bike ride was about 8.5 miles round trip from the campground to Fort Davis.
Denise and Russ finally got to sleep in their tent last night. They apparently had several visitors. The Javelina (wild pigs) visitors snorting and very smelly. We had left peanut shells in the fire pit that attracted them. Later, when Russ was returning from the rest room, his flashlight shone upon a skunk. They told us the Javelina smell very much like a skunk.
We had breakfast at the Indian Lodge Resort at the SP. We rode the bikes to tour Ft Davis. This fort was famous for the group of enlisted referred to as the "Buffalo Soldiers". They were not treated well either by other soldiers or the locals, but they were the group that finally drove Victorio back to Mexico. Victorio was an Apache that attacked the fort constantly.
After dinner we drove to the McDonald Observatory for a lesson on stars and planets that lasted for about an hour. After our lesson we all went outside for a "star party". They had huge telescopes set up for viewing of the night skies. It was very windy and cold, but we managed to look thru each telescope. We saw the Sea of Tranquility where Apollo XV landed on the moon, Saturn and it's rings, the Nebulus(sp) on the sword of Orion, The Hunter. The road to and from the observatory was full of curves. We rounded one turn and there in the dark to the left of the car was the biggest Javelina (wild pig) - jet black - almost road kill! All in all a very full rest day.