Sun, Mar 20 (El Paso TX)

03.20.05

We woke up around 9, had breakfast at the restaurant next door, and were on the road by 11:30.

We took I-10 to US 17 toward Ft. Davis, and just before Ft. Davis we took 118 to the McDonald Observatory. We got there too late to do much, but the nice lady at the information desk told us lots of things to do in the area, including visiting Imperial Texas, which sits on top of a salt-water aquifer and they are using that water to grow really good shrimp (she was from New Orleans and knows her shrimp), taking 17 farther south to Marfa, seeing the “Marfa Lights”, taking County Road 2810 SW out of Marfa as far as it goes (the first half is paved, the last half is not) and visiting the border areas around there before heading SE to Big Bend National Park. She said that when we return to the Observatory we should get there on a Tuesday afternoon at 1:30, as there were things to do there until pretty much 9pm on Tuesdays.

We didn’t get to do the 166 portion of the scenic drive that would take us back to Fort Davis, but just stayed on 118 back to I-10. Brenda really liked the road, it was well-paved with no traffic and very nice views. We even thought that heading north of I-10 on 118 would be interesting.

Brenda arranged for a free night (reward points) at a Comfort Suites NW of El Paso (for the usual number of points), and about 45 minutes before we hit El Paso Harlan asked what we should do for Dinner, so Brenda opened up the AAA guide book, and noticed the Cattleman’s Steak House and had the recollection that this was one of the places Jarrett suggested we visit when we were here. Brenda had the best ribeye she has ever had (and Harlan thought it was tops, too, as if that mattered). They have an a mushroom appetizer where the mushrooms are cooked in some white wine and herbs and stuff, and they were also amazing. Definitely a place to visit again.

Tonight we’re checking out the maps for New Mexico and Arizona to figure out where we are going next.

Oh, I’ve uploaded more pictures to the Austin gallery.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 20th, 2005 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Early 2005 Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Sun, Mar 20 (El Paso TX)”

  1. gary gerber says on March 20th, 2005 at 10:54 pm :

    hey guys, your not in austin any more. i hope you have an opportunity to see the desert wild flowers in California before they are gone. doug, rick, and i went into the anza-borrego dessert park today (sunday.) Brenda, this is the park we spent Christmas in several years ago. At 600,000 acres it is the largest state park in California. The flowers and views were spectacular. it apparently rained some friday and saturday.The hiking was great. we didn’t make it to the waterfalls (Rick was too lazy!) but they are supposed to be great this year. I hear reports that the wildflowers in death valley are some of the best in the last 30 years. That appears to be the case in borrego. please check out the the desert wildflower watch on desertusa.com. Gary

  2. site admin says on March 21st, 2005 at 10:04 am :

    thanks, gary for the comment and information

    we were aware of the website desertusa.com

    we will probably be in death valley at the beginning of April and according to the park rangers the wildflowers will still be there if the park continues to have rain…we are hoping they will continue to have some rain…

    however, we are heading into arizona and utah desserts and there should be some nice wildflowers there as well

    thanks again honey bunny