Today we had our best average mph yet on this trip -- 17.12 mph!! Never mind that we only rode 57 minutes and 16.26 miles!!!! But yesterday's mileage turned out to be 80.41 in 6 hours, 54 minutes and it definitely took a toll on us. Besides, we dawdled around this morning and had a private tour of the McDonald Observatory, Telescope #107, with our host John. We had a great time at John and Debra's place; very easy people to be around with really nice and intelligent daughters. Also, a special treat: that area is host to Javelina's (look like a small mean pig) and we saw them roaming outside the house last evening. Nicest chihuahua's -- they even liked Rick! Lots of nice kitties too -- I got to cuddle a little one.
John, a geologist by education (very highly educated) was very knowledgeable. On the tour, he explained to us that #107 weighs 190,000 pounds (!!!) and the mirror alone weighs 8,600 pounds. . He told us that this telescope has been around since the 1960's, built by NASA, and among other things, was used for measuring the earth's distance from the moon. I didn't realize it, but the moon is getting farther away from the earth all the time. In 1970, some disgruntled employees at the observatory went crazy and shot up the telescope, putting 9 bullet holes in it as well as a hatchet slash. No person was injured, fortunately, and the telescope repaired. 107 is only one of the telescopes there at the Observatory; there are many smaller ones, and another that is one of the 5th largest in the world. We also learned about a solar versus a sidereal day, the elasticity of the earth (it expands out from it's core), Coriolis force (the deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame), and Mach's Principle (mass out there in the universe influences inertia here). Very, very interesting stuff, considering I never took physics!!!
So, we rolled out of the McDonald Observatory a little after noon today (we are now in the Central Time zone) and got down to Ft. Davis in less than an hour. We stopped for lunch, and then just stopped. We were both feeling the miles and the climbs from yesterday. There are two camping spots here in town; one was filled up (we found out later WHY), so we set up tent in the Overland Trail Campground and RV park. We have the tent camping area to ourselves. Turns out, the Adventure Cycling group is pulling into the other camping spot (actually, they just have "camping rooms") and taking a rest day here tomorrow. We ran into Kelly at the local store. She had hitched a ride into town and was getting supplies for the group. The group hadn't arrived yet; they were doing almost 100 miles from Van Horn to Ft. Davis today -- ouch!!!
Tomorrow we plan to forge onto Marathon, TX and check out a funky hippie 60-s-style hostel we've been hearing about from fellow riders coming from the east. Should be interesting....
Great downhill today, even without the drum brake. Rick is SO good at handling the bike!!!! We hit our highest speed on the trip today of 52.5 mph. Those 16" trailer wheels must have been spinning. We don't notice the trailer on the downhills, only the uphills. (Note: Rick says he has never understood how any stoker could do this (52.5 mph down a hill); he could not do it in the stoker position and those of you that know him and the things he has done, know he is fearless,) I tell him it's just blind faith.
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