Friday 11th April, 1997 A & M Motel                                       Mc Donald Observatory                           Austin - Capitol Building                     Stats.: Route: Sierra Blanco 10118 10290 Austin Road Kill: Turkeys-1 Cats----1/9 UNKNOWN-3 Dear----2 Well, today was quite a day for road kill! I am putting this down to the number of miles covered. This is The Big Country. Mile upon mile of nothing other than the occasional gas station. At the start of the day, I took the time to look around Sierra Blanca. The town's old train station is now a museum which houses the remains of this once important and prosperous town. Picture postcards from the 1920s, show men and women dressed up for a night at the State Cinema. Others show trains in the station and stage coaches at what is now the A&M Motel. So, it appears that my home for the night was originally a stage coach inn. I had wondered why a motel was build with a large court yard area between two rows of rooms. These are build from natural rock. Each row is made up of a sequence of two rooms and then what I discovered are two converted stables. It really is a beautiful structure. I hope it survives the test of time. Back on the 10 I drove until I saw signs for the McDonald Observatory. When I saw that it was some thirty miles down the 118, I almost did not bother. But I am glad that I did. The 118 winds through grass and trees, over hills and down into gorges. The air was cool and clean. It was almost a meditative experience. I was quite shocked when I arrived. There was another telescope. I remembered seeing two in my school text books and one of a series of antennas that make up the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). But I saw three telescopes. Apparently the new one is still under construction. It is called the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). When complete it will be the largest, publicly accessible, telescope in the world. McDonald Observatory has been helping us answer questions (and pose new ones) about the universe since 1939. This is one of those things that probably bores the hell out of anyone that has no interest in space and its exploration. But to me, seeing some of humanities eyes on the universe, marked the realisation of one of those little dreams that I had as child. I vividly remember marveling at the images from space craft - such as Voyager - that were only able to make their epic trips, because of the maps of the heavens, provided by these very earthly artifacts. To see those very same telescopes myself ... well, I had a smile on my face that went from ear to ear and did not leave me for the rest of the day. As I was already thirty-two miles off the I10, I drove the additional seventeen to Fort Davis. Here wooden buildings surround a central drill area. Every hour a recorded bugle sounds over the site, while the US flag flies in the center. The ruins of older mud-brick structures lie beyond this. I can not imagine how so few of these forts - in a time when the fastest thing was a horse - could have adequately maintained the border. Back on the Interstage the yellow and purple flowers continued at the road side and now they were joined by clusters of oil pumps, drilling stations, storage tanks and pipe-lines. I could no longer find anything on the FM radio band and AM only had one Country and Western station. A pain in my belly built into the relisation that I had not eaten yet and now it was mid-afternoon. Half an hour later I was driving down the 285, through Fort Stockton. Something court my eye, and the stupid grin on my face got ever so slightly broader. On my right was a Sonic Drive-in Diner. I had been noticing this chain of outlets since I entered New Mexico. To the best of my knowledge, none exist in Northern California. I had never eaten at a drive-in. So, I pulled into one of the booths, briefly browsed over the menu and pressed the little red button under it, before ordering my burger, fries and shake. Drive-ins differ from drive-thrus in so much as each booth has its own menu and the food is brought to you on a tray, which is clipped over the window-sill of the car. This all happened in due course. The only let-down was that I honestly expected to be served by some college girl, dressed like a cheer leader. The teenaged male, just didn't cut it! He was very good, but that just never happened in the movies I saw. Naturally, Fort Stockton has its fort. This was much like Fort Davis. Just not quite as well maintained, without as many outlying ruins and in a dilapidated old down town area. Which was a shame, because Fort Stockton looked like a popular place for people to stop off and the 285 had busy businesses on each side. I did not stay for too long. I studied my map and figured that if I only stopped for fuel, I could be in Austin before 11 pm. The only things of interest between me and Austin were other forts, caverns at Ozona and an attractive old town called Fredericksburg. I also figured that I had seen enough of these things today to miss them out. Though I am sure that they would be interesting. The information that I have did not point to anything that would make them stand out from the rest. Besides, it was already after five and most things would be shut for the day. So, I did just that. I got coffee, chocolate and gas, as I switched from Interstage 10 to Route 290. This junction town is imaginatively named Junction. At 11pm I was driving through Austin. It took me another half an hour to find a home for the night. This turned out to be an historical hotel called The Driskill. It has to be the best hotel stay of my life. The only rooms left were suits. But the fantastic staff took pity and gave me a really good rate. My room is in the original part of the hotel and has windows which look out on 6th Street with its crowded clubs, bars and restaurants. ------