Today was so busy I need to divide it into three blog posts.

We started the day with breakfast at the dining room; it was, like all the meals here, over the top. After breakfast, Diane went off to feed animals while I visited DriveTanks, a living museum of 20th Century military machines, mostly guns and tanks.

You’re able to handle the guns (unloaded) and climb up onto and into the tanks; for an additional fee, you can shoot the guns and drive the tanks. I was happy with the basic package.

After the visit, they took us back to the Ox Ranch Lodge to wait for the eclipse; it was loaded with special eclipse delicacies and their usual open bar.

The weather forecast had been unfavorable for eclipse viewing all week, but we’d had some sunny intervals while I was at DriveTanks, so Diane and I headed up to the viewing site with hope and trepidation.

Today was a big bus day; we spent seven-and-a-half hours going from Big Bend to Ox Ranch near Uvalde. It’s a hunting ranch, but we have the place to ourselves for the next couple of days, so it should be peaceful.

Some memories from the road:

Persimmon Gap Visitor Center

Marathon

Sanderson (where we spent more than an hour, far more than our guides had planned)

Crossing the Pecos River and leaving West Texas

We even stopped at a Wal-Mart in Del Rio, but I didn’t take any pictures there. We also had to go through three Border Control checkpoints.

Finally, we reached our goal: Ox Ranch, where lunch awaited.

This sign shouldn’t have been a surprise since we’d had to sign a waiver agreeing to hold them harmless if something happened while we were on the ranch, but it was still a little jolting!

The ostriches outside the dining hall were curious about what we were eating.

After lunch, we had a short guided safari to see more of the animals roaming the property. Some of them:

We also visited their fossilized dinosaur tracks.

By then, it was time for dinner; we were able to do more wildlife viewing while we ate.

Rick Binzel gave his “Ready, Set, Eclipse” presentation after dinner; then it was time to return to our cabin to rest and prepare for the big day tomorrow.

We took three good hikes today, one on the Pinnacles Trail, one on the Chisos Basin Loop, and one on the Window View Trail (OK, that one’s not much of a hike – 0.3 miles, paved and level, but with great views anyway). Here are a few photos from the day.

Time to pack!

We left Marfa this morning and stopped at the Fort Davis National Historic Site en route to Big Bend National Park. Along the way, I discovered that T-Mobile uses a roaming partner here; I discovered this by using up my roaming allowance and losing Internet on my phone!

But we do have connectivity at the Visitor Center across the parking lot from our room at Chisos Mountain Lodge here at the park, so I can post tonight.

Here are a few photos from Fort Davis:

And a few from our first afternoon at Big Bend:

Professor Binzel is taking us star-gazing in a few minutes once it’s dark enough. We only have to walk a few hundred yards instead of driving up a mountain, but I’m still going to call it a night now!

We left El Paso right after breakfast and drove non-stop, arriving at the McDonald Observatory with mere minutes to spare before our 12:30 tour of the 107-inch Harlan J. Smith telescope.

Our guide showed us how the astronomers used hand controls to point the telescope and rotate the dome to the right place for the night’s observation. Of course, they don’t do that any more – they type their target into a computer (running Windows 98!) and it does the rest.

There are a lot of telescopes at the observatory besides the 107-inch; the Hobby-Eberly telescope is the largest, with an eleven-meter mirror.

After the tour, we drove to Marfa and our home for the night, the Paisano Hotel. Marfa began life as an railroad water stop, but today, it’s mostly known for art.

After dinner, we returned to the observatory for a Star Party; there were hundreds of people there to enjoy the dark sky, learn about the constellations, and peer through a telescope at distant galaxies and nebulae.

It’s been a long day, but worthwhile.