McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, and Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, Alpine, TX

28 Feb, Saturday: Another day for the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Alpine, TX. I put a pork roast and potatoes in the crock pot for dinner and we took off. First stop was at the Museum of Big Bend at the Sul Ross State University. We attended more sessions of cowboy songs and poetry all afternoon with a break around 2:00 to 3:00 for a trip to the trailer to see how the roast was doing. It was done so we ate and went back for one more session. This was a really fun thing to do if you like cowboy songs and cowboy stuff. Tomorrow we move to Kerrville to spend a little time with fellow RV-Dreamers.

27 Feb, Friday: Reason for coming back to Alpine for a few days was to attend the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Opening session was held in the university auditorium at 10:00 a.m. Then there was a tribute to Marty Robbins performed by these two--Washtub Jerry and Jeff Gore. They were pretty good.

Then it was off to attend one of the many sessions of cowboy songs and poetry held at other locations on the campus. We attended a couple of the session and then made our way back to the trailer. Fun day!

26 Feb, Thursday: Several of the RV-Dreamers had recommended we visit the McDonald Observatory so that was on the agenda for today. This sign is at the top of the mountain where the observatory is. It was really beautiful up here but very windy today....our tour guide couldn' open the doors to the domes because of winds gusting.
This was taken from the road into the visitor centers.

This is up the hill to tour the telescopes.

This is the visitors center from the road that takes you to the telescopes.This is a picture of a controlled burn that was taking place at the Davis Mountain State Park. You could see forever up on top of the mountain by the telescopes!!!This is the building that houses the 107 inch telescope....the one the tour took us inside to see.

You can't really tell what this is because it's so big but this is inside the building that houses the telescope and a picture of the telescope. Was too close to get the whole thing in one picture!
The is the Hobby Eberle Telescope. One of the biggest in the world. We also went inside this building to see the telescope. A very good informative tour.

This is the historice site of Fort Davis....we decided it was too windy to pay the admission fee and walk around to all the buildings; but, we did drive close enough to see them from the truck.

Back at the trailer Nolan grilled some chicken and potatoes and I caught up on the blog!