What to do in Alpine, Texas

Alpine is a somewhat interesting small town pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Or, at least 60 miles from the I10, and about 100 miles from the real middle of nowhere, Big Bend National Park. Unfortunately, I never made it to Big Bend, but I did spend some time in Alpine. I'll save my description of the town for a later post, but for now:

I stayed one night at the Pecan Grove RV Park. It's right in Alpine, which is a lot more convenient than the next tent camping area at the Davis Mountains State Park, twenty or so miles from any services. I camped in a repurposed RV spot, camping as far away from the sewer line as possible. There were no trees between me and the RVs, but at least it was fairly cheap. I used the Boingo WiFi access at the Lost Alaskan RV park, which is on the edge of town. When I got there, the office was closed and no one else was around. So, I put on a couple layers, set up the computer on a table outside the office and went to it. This was the strangest yet Boingo location, but it worked and it was quite surprising to find a WAP away out here in the middle of mostly nothing.

I visited the McDonald Observatory, which is located outside Fort Davis. It's got a pretty good view there, and they hold Star Parties there on a regular basis. The Star Parties let you view the nighttime sky through telescopes, but unfortunately you can't use the two large research telescopes. They do, however, let the general public look through the research telescopes occasionally, but you need to reserve months in advance according to their brochure.

More later...

BloggingAcrossAmerica · Wed, 12/03/2003 - 22:32 · · Importance: 1