Day 2, Friday - (Marathon, eastern loop through Big Bend, Ft. Davis, McDonald Observatory)

The day began relatively late (7:30 am) as we headed for breakfast 54 miles down the road from Sanderson to Marathon, Texas. We ate at the Gage Hotel, a restored structure originally built in the late 20's by Alfred Gage, a prominent rancher and banker. We enjoyed the food and atmosphere as we listened to German tourists converse (I see a lot of German tourists in the American west). Once finished, we climbed back on our trusty STeeds, gassed up and took the scenic route south on highway 385 to Big Bend.

The scenery was awesome and the weather was absolutely beautiful. I've been to Big Bend several times in my life but I never tire of the beauty. The ride was great, especially once we got into the park... lot's of great sweepers. Our first stop was the park headquarters. While there we confirmed that we weren't going to be able to go to Santa Elena canyon because of road construction. From there we proceeded up into the Chisos Basin, which is actually a depression in the mountains. The trip to the facilities in the basin was quite a thrill because of the very tight, 10 to 15 mph twisties that we had to navigate to get there. We had to really keep the concept of looking through the turn in mind while corkscrewing down from the rim of the basin.

Once we got off our rides in the basin, we met a couple from Dallas that had made the trip on their Harley. The wife was originally from British Columbia, Canada. I had to laugh when the guy mentioned that he had seen our "VFRs" in the parking lot. We had to explain that we were on ST1100's. Although they were the same color as the VFRs, the ST's engine was 300cc bigger than the VFR and built for sport riding and touring. You very rarely see ST's on the road because there are so few of them, so it was understandable that he would have our bikes confused for something else. After walking down one of the trails toward a rock formation called the "Window", we took a couple of pictures and decided to get back down the mountain and head for Study Butte (pronounced Stewdy Butte) and Terlingua.

Historical Tidbit:

Terlingua is an old mining town which dates back to the early part of the century when the whole Big Bend area was heavily mined for cinnabar, the ore from which mercury comes. None of the mines are operational any longer.

At Terlingua, we stopped at the Terlingua Trading Post to cool off and have a cold coke. The lady that ran the place told us all about the surrounding area, people and events. According to her, there is still a lot of bad blood over the two Chile Cookoffs that are held each year. There use to be one but somewhere along the line, a splinter group broke off and decided to hold their own Chile Cookoff. She claimed that there is not a bit of humor between the two camps and that they are very serious. Sounds like some folks need to get a life.

From Terlingua, we headed back to Study Butte, took highway 118 and made the 80 mile run to Alpine and then 23 more miles to Ft. Davis and the volcanic mountains that surround it. We pulled into the Ft. Davis Motel just as the bulk of the TexSTOCers were checking in. Rather than sniff each other like a pack of dogs trying to get to know one another, we instead visually sniffed each others bikes and compared farkles (accessories for those of you unfamiliar with the term). There were Piaa lights, corbin saddles, and the ubiquitous Helibars. The winner of the "farkle-off" had to be Ronnie, who's ST sported auxiliary horns mounted on the tip over wings that could have startled the dead out of their graves. A serious honorable mention has to go to David Bankhead from Houston whose ST sported an auxiliary gas tank mounted on the back and a giant, auxiliary headlight guaranteed to light up the entire county. While out in front of the motel kicking tires, Dave and Sherry from Corpus Christi pulled in with their travel trailer which contained their ST1100, two dirt bikes and a margarita machine! I knew right then that this was gonna' be an interesting weekend! After we tired of discussing farkles and telling war stories, we went back to our respective rooms to rest up for a bit.

At about 6:00pm we headed into town for supper and conversation at Tommy's seafood. It was surprisingly good food for being situated in such a small town in the middle of nowhere. If you didn't like fish or shrimp you were out of luck because that is all they sold. I had the fried fish and fixin's and chased it with a little Key Lime pie. While sitting at the table talking, Sam Terry, Ed Laster, Chuck Henderson and I made plans to go out as a group the next day and take the western loop around Big Bend. Around 8:15pm we (about 35 or so of us) hopped on our trusty STeeds and headed into the night for a ride into the surrounding mountains. Our destination was the McDonald Observatory where a "Star Party" was being held beginning at 9:00pm.

Just as we started our ascent toward the observatory, I did a double take at my odometer when it struck me that we had not stopped for gas since Marathon. It showed 225 miles on the current tank of gas and I did not know how far the observatory was from Ft. Davis. I knew that my ST should go at least 280 to 300 miles on a full tank but I wasn't sure how much beyond that it would go so I mentally calculated a "fail safe" point and proceed on with the group. We arrived at the observatory well shy of the point I had picked to turn around and go back (reminder: Always buy gas well before you need it!).

The night sky at the observatory was crystal clear. I can't remember the last time I saw so many stars. You could see the entire milky way from horizon to horizon. The incredibly clear sky and the knowledgeable folks that put the star party on made for a fascinating event. It was lead by some of the astronomers that work there. They spent probably forty five minutes pointing out the constellations. Also mentioned was the fact that with just a couple of exceptions, all the stars that we see in our night sky are in our own Milky Way Galaxy. One object not in our galaxy was just barley visible as a faint fuzziness. It was a globular star cluster 2.1 million light years away. They had a telescope aimed at the object and everybody was allowed to take a peak at it.

After the "party" was over, we headed back down the mountain to Ft. Davis. Some of the folks headed to Dave and Sherry's margarita machine to finish off the night. Not being a drinker, I headed instead to bed to crash and get rested for the next days ride along the western loop to Big Bend.

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