Leaving Alpine we ventured north on TX-118 to Fort Davis, a pleasant ride with low 20’s temperatures, clear blue skies and a fun road. At Fort Davis we veered to the Southwest following TX-166. This was a straight patch of rode providing with us with clear views to the southwest.
A Cloudless sky except for a stationary blob of white. What could it be? As we were only 300 km south of Roswell New Mexico, there was the obvious connection as a UFO (at least as far as we were concerned it was). We did find out later that it was a fixe balloon with instruments used for border patrol. From it’s vantage it had a clear view of the Mexican border to the south.
Continuing on TX-166 the road became more hilly and twisty, as we wound through the mountains and buttes that filled this part of Texas. The great roads continues as we rejoined TX-118 and headed towards the McDonald Observatory.
The observatory is owned and operated by the University of Texas. It was not always so; the original benefactor left a $1,000,000 endowment to set up an astronomical observatory on the summit of Mount Locke. However, UofT had no Astronomy department at the time, so the University of Chicago stepped in for a while. However, that has been remedied and UofT is back in charge.
The loop of TX-166 and TX-118 was another ‘Destination Highway’ worthy route with great twists, turns and scenery. So it was with great sadness that we left it behind as we ventured north on TX-17. From there on the roads became flat and fast and otherwise uninteresting.
The remaining stretch of road to Lamesa took us through the heart of the ‘West Texas Oil Patch’. We passed countless pump jacks, oil batteries and a few straddle plants (that extract LPG liquids from the natural gas coming in from the fields) We had to endure a long section of roadwork from Kermit to Andrews. For much of the trip we saw nothing but trucks and pickup trucks. We saw our first SUV only as we entered Lamesa.
