My Almost Alien Sighting....Beam me Up Scotty

Had a pretty fair storm last evening(7 Sept) but it was over in short order.....what came with it was a pleasant surprise..a temperature drop of 15 to 20 degrees.....woke up this morning with the temp. somewhere in the high 40’s....and windy....since I have only 90 or so miles to go, I was in no hurry to hitch up....did a little cleaning.....very little...and then had my first “speed bump” of the day...the frig. was off.....my tank was empty and I had forgotten to open both tanks....it was 60 degrees inside and stuff in the freezer compartment was just about defrosted......didn’t feel safe in keeping most of the stuff, except what had been in the freezer....which meant I had some cooking to do this evening....the positive side is now I know approximately how long a tank of propane lasts me for refrigerator use....ha

My Alien Landing Craft...Horst kelly photographer

Left around 1000 hours, gassed up and went south on Rt 90...not much going on that road.....only saw about half dozen cars the entire trip....only town of any size is Valentine ....about half way between Van Horn and Ft. Davis.....the landscape is flat with the mountains as a backdrop....did have 30+ MPH side wind, but with my sway bar and only going at most 50 mph..everything worked fine....

And there it was...in the middle of hundreds of acres of nondescript landscape...a “blimp”...or at least what I thought was a blimp...the closer I got, I knew it was not your regular “over the stadium” blimp.....maybe I found an alien landing site....seems to meet all the requirements of seclusion, miles of flat, open space, very little population , wow, getting a photo of an alien space craft will be right up there with my Bear Cub photos....

AF TARS Craft...Horst Kelly Photographer

My approach was the same as taking wildlife shots....start at a good distance and if I wasn’t noticed, then move closer.....this was working great...I haven’t been beamed up yet.....as it turns out it belongs to the Air Force and its called “TARS”, which stands for Tethered Aerostat Radar System, is used as a surveillance radar...there are 8 different sites around the United States.....oh, well no alien photo ops today.....there are always the Marfa mystery lights......

Got to the park around noon and decided to stay for a couple of days...got a pull through site at the end of one of the rows...nicely treed ..and the weather was perfect....went to Alpine to try to replace some of my lost frig items...by the time I got back, I put the pork loin in my toaster/convection oven...45 minutes later it was done...tender, juicy, and good...also had some pickled beets and asparagus....A great day....we’ll see what tomorrow brings..BTW, want to thank Barney (OFM Adventures)....am going up to the lodge today to get some wifi...my 3g on the smart phone is at about 0g..though my cell is working at my site...The Wilson Sleek Booster is doing a good job...so far....Happy Trails...Horst

My Camp-site Buds...Horst Kelly Photographer

 Its now 9 Sept...have not had an opportunity to go to the lodge so I thought I’d go ahead and write todays blog and get it on line all at one time...I am winding down...didn’t get up until about 0700...no early morning sunrise photo’s.....made coffee and called a friend that lived next door to us that moved here earlier this year...met for breakfast at a place called the “Drug Store”...great food and nice conversation....also went to Marfa and Alpine, just driving and some photo’s...came back and did some some reading, down loaded a couple pics...and its now time to eat...think I’ll pan fry my last trout.....may try to take some evening shots...then get my stuff together for tomorrows 200 mile trip to Seminole Canyon State Park....

My Prairie dog Buddy...Horst Kelly Photographer