It’s not Tuxedo…
I’ve got myself a perch on the Hotel Limpia verandah overlooking a craggy sided mountain and The Old Texas Inn. Desk clerk said to use password “Tuxedo†for the cat who lies sleeping in a basket. We saw him last night as we sneaked in after midnight… He’s huge, but all rolled up in that cat ball, he looks more like a regular cat! Password doesn’t work, so, I’ll use good old Word and copy it over to the blog later. I’m sure everyone is OK and I don’t need to check emails until I can find out what the password to the ‘net really is… Sip of coffee and remember yesterday… Chuck complained as I made a reservation for 11 this morning at the Observatory, “I haven’t opened my book since we started.†It’s true. If we thought we would sit and veg out we made a mistake. We got up yesterday in Sonora, ate eggs fried to order, and drove into Main street. Chuck dropped me at the nature preserve while he went off in search of Friends of Sonora Bill who was in his office on Main Street. I walked up to the top of the preserve and looked over the town. A family donated that land for the preserve so we have some very generous families donating land in Sonora. Found a little camp with a teepee-hut, a place to dry skins and meat, and a bonfire, like it might have been 100 years ago.  Walked back down a different way than I entered and walked over to the Prayer Garden. Took some more pictures… How beautiful. Maybe Kathy and I can get George and Chuck and Dave to help us build a little garden like that in the back yards… … I talked some with Bill who was drinking coffee with Chuck and then we headed west to Alpine. It is low in the desert and wasn’t appealing to me. Has a lot of galleries, but in that hot deserty valley without any inspiring mountains I breathed a sigh that I didn’t pick Alpine to stay. Drove on to Fort Davis:  “YES!†hills surround the town. The sides of the hills look like raggedy lady fingers standing on end. And the tops are flat. Checked in at the Hotel Limpia built in 1912 but remodeled to our modern standards with bathrooms…  but didn’t sit on the front porch as it was pretty sunny. Then we drove past the real Fort Davis up to the Observatory to make reservations for star party and for today to see the telescope. Wow and wow on the Observatory. It has 4 big telescopes that are owned in cahoots between the Univ. of Texas at Austin and several other universities in Germany and other countries. Back to town and walked across the street to the Old Texas Inn. It was so cool with pictures of John Wayne all over the place and established back in the old days by the same family that owns it today and a ranch with accommodations. Made a reservation for Thursday night. This is “the town†for now and they will have to kick the Peabodys out. Went next door to The Fort Davis Drug Store Hotel and Restaurant with a real soda fountain and lots of art on the walls. I left Chuck at the soda fountain and I walked upstairs to the hotel and art museum and found an artist at work. Chatted with Patricia and got inspired. She is painting lovely desert cactus flowers right now. Went back to the Limpia to open wine and perch on the porch in white rocking chairs. I drew some trees and the big courthouse with 4 clocks that don’t work. It seems the birds got in there and ate the clock works and the town hasn’t been able to get the clocks working again. We got this information because if you sit on a porch for long enough, people come along to chat and sure enough, the gentleman we met at the Old Texas Inn came to perch and share a glass. He told us about the clock and the town and actually the town and fort are named after Jefferson Davis who was Secretary of War before the Civil War, before he ran off to be the President of the Confederacy. He is the one who had the idea for the soldiers to ride camels out here in the heat, but the ground is too rocky for camels. A townie came by and the boys talked about motorcycling over to California – it’s a long way west to California. As a matter of fact, Sonora is half way between east and west coasts. Chuck wants to ride the motorcycle next year to the submarine convention in San Diego… I’m thinking of the heat (please remind me of 100 degree heat if I sound like I’m thinking of riding ‘cross country next year.) We went back up the hill to the Observatory for a Star Party, but it was totally clouded over. Darn. Today is bright and clear. They showed us a lot of amazing pictures in an auditorium and classroom. Our galaxy is falling into the Andromeda galaxy and they will dance and merge (fall into each other) in billions of years. Our sun will die in billions of years. Other galaxies exist – you got it… billions of light years away…. With all the talk of billions of light years in distance and billions of years until our sun dies… I felt rather insignificant. We drove back down at midnight in pitch darkness as the town and surrounding ranches keep night lights to a minimum in agreement with the Observatory. Greeted by the cat who waited up for us on the porch, we climbed up the stairs over an old carpet, and slept and dreamed of Butch Cassidy and Sundance. Finally got on the ‘net in the lobby and picked up a news item about salad mix causing illness. I really try not to use those bagged mixes… be careful and wash everything or try to use fresh lettuce heads.  All is well. Love Sue   Â