Day 3947

It's time to get serious about packing. I really haven't started yet. I'm the absolute worst about travel planning. I wait till the last possible minute. I forget things. I can't even decide what to take. I'm still undecided about which cameras to bring with me and I have no idea where I'm going to eat breakfast. There were several restaurants that I tried to call, but nobody answers their phone anymore. I can't even get the ranch where I'm staying to answer their phone. They did send me a confirmation letter a few days ago, but I still have fears of arriving late and finding the entire place dark and locked up.

I did pick up my rental car, but even that was a little weird. When Janet dropped me off at the Enterprise office, I quickly discovered that the place was empty and locked up. What now? I wandered around aimlessly for a while, looking for an entrance and finally a maintenance guy pointed to the nearby Alamo office and told me, "You have to go in there." For reasons that were never explained to me, Alamo was renting cars for National and Enterprise too. There was a small staff that didn't know the available cars very well, but eventually I found something with in-dash GPS and blind spot warning lights on the mirrors. I never care what kind of car I get, but I always make sure it has GPS and blind spot indicators. Hopefully, this car has cruise control as well. There are very long stretches of flat uneventful roads in Texas.

We had another nice walk this morning. Dawn loves these cool Fall mornings. The temperature was in the high 50's when we left the house and didn't climb past the mid 60's for the rest of the morning. When the temperature remains low, Dawn is back to her old self. She didn't even seem that tired when we returned to the house. 

I wish ground fog was easier to photograph. There was lots of fog early this morning. It's very pretty visually, but it often seems to disappear in the camera. I did notice that all the Pelicans were back this morning. We haven't seen the female Muscovy duck in over a week though. Hopefully, we will never see the coyotes when Dawn is with us. I don't want to tangle with a pack of coyotes.

Now that I'm on the press list for both ULA and Space X, I'm starting to get lots of notices about upcoming launches. It's kind of an abundance of riches. I could never afford to go to all these launches, but it's nice to know I'm invited. I still plan to attend the Space X Crew 1 launch, but it hasn't been rescheduled yet. It was scheduled to launch on Halloween at one point. I hope the launch isn't pushed back to Thanksgiving now. Janet an I would still like to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. It's a shame that buffets have probably disappeared forever. A lavish buffet brunch on Thanksgiving is the best.

I might not have WiFi on my trip. Yikes. The observatory is still officially closed and the astrophotography workshop is being held outdoors. There will be no fast Internet at the Astronomer's Lodge this time. The remote ranch cabin where I'll be staying probably doesn't have WiFi either. This presents a real problem for a daily blogger like me. What do I do if I can't upload a post each evening? I might have to write my entries offline and then post them retroactively to the correct day when I return. I hope it doesn't come to this. I've gone a long, long time without missing a day.

We'll see what happens. I wish I was more of a free spirit and wasn't so apprehensive about travel. I usually enjoy myself after I have arrived at my destination, but getting there can be a bitch. Hopefully, this trip will go smoothly.

Abby is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day