Yes, It's Still Texas!

Sunsets in Pecos were a treat, but just as pretty was this sunrise as we left the following morning. This is what we saw looking out our "bedroom" window in the early morning. The good thing about winter sunrises is that early is not so early.

For the first part of the day, something like these few trees were an event in the landscape!

Heading southwest toward El Paso, the Davis Mountains finally come into view. There is a state park here that one day we will visit. It's very close to the McDonald Observatory, with some of the largest telescopes in the world. The observatory provides "StarDate" to NPR (or PRI, Public Radio International). StarDate informs me that the brightest star in the sky that I can see tonight is Sirius, which will rise in the southeast not long after dark and climb across the southern sky.

We are driving into a strong headwind today and so early in the afternoon we stopped at an RV Park in Van Horn, Texas. Here's our little campsite.

Stopping early gave us (Chorro and me) an opportunity for a hike in the fields nearby. We have this fine view of the Van Horn mountains.

And look at these little yellow gourd-like fruits we found. Maybe a wild squash? They grew on vines and were all over a field we walked through. They were dry, hard, and hollow inside, looking like yellow tennis balls scattered through the field.

Here's our best find though. A watering tower that steam engines used to fill their boilers as they chugged across the Union Pacific tracks here. I remember as a child that we lived close to a water tower where it was fascinating to watch the great locomotives noisily slow down and fill up with water. Then came the day when the first steam locomotive on those tracks was replaced by a sleek-looking, diesel locomotive, howling with its plaintive whistle. We children loved those "modern" trains and ran to catch a glimpse! And, all these years later, I am excited to find a remembrance of the steam locomotives instead.

The evening was capped off with another stunning sunset.

And the after-sunset was pretty spectacular too.

Today was a good day.