Packing up and running away from home!

14 hours. That's how long I have to wait before I leave on my vacation. It can't get here soon enough. Leaving at 7 tomorrow morning and plan to be in Ft. Davis between 2 and 3 o'clock. It's a long drive but I'm looking forward to it. I remember the scenery from my last time going and it's pleasant. Yes, even the part along I-10 going west from Ozona on. Maybe some people would think it's boring because it's unchanging scenery. I enjoy it. It's a time to reflect and think, and is really peaceful. Plus I'll have some good tunes to listen to and some podcasts of CarTalk available for my listening pleasure.

I have a new program on my iPhone called motionx. I'm going to be using it to post to my facebook page. It's a GPS program and it tracks your route as you drive it. I'll probably post my trip every hour or so if I can remember and if I can do it safely. Don't want to drive off the side of the road just to post something. You can friend me on facebook, just search for czardastx and send a request. I'll approve it.

Now I have to think about packing and double and triple checking that I have everything I need. I said at the beginning of this post that I had 14 hours. I know me and I bet I leave earlier than that. I'm thinking I'll wake up at 4 am and hit the road at 5. I'll be too excited to be able to sleep and then if wake up at 4 to wait until 7. I don't particularly like to drive when it's dark, but the advantage is that I can do a lot of the driving while it's still cool. Driving a Ford Explorer, I'll take every bit of gas saving measures I can. I punched my start and finish into google maps and it wants me to go all the way south to San Antonio and pick up I-10 there. It's more miles but a little less time, about 40 minutes. I'm going Hwy 29 to Mason then to Junction and pick up I-10 there. Longer trip time wise, but about 70 miles shorter in distance.

Well, I'm ready to go. I have 95 percent of my stuff packed and in the Explorer. I hope I can get some sleep tonight. I hope the rain isn't too heavy. It's raining in this part of central TX now, and has been for the last 2 days. Well, next post will be from Fort Davis. See ya.

Well Crap

Alright, that's just perfect. I spent the last 20 minutes typing a summary of the last 5 days and now it's gone. I was using the Blogger gadget on my iGoogle page, switched to my iTunes to load some music on my iPhone and when I came back my post was gone. I know now thata I better hit the 'Save Draft' button more often.

To summarize, I worked overtime on Wednesday but got a hit on some latent prints I developed. We went to Walburg and had good food, great German beer and heard some fantastic music on Friday night. Saturday I had breakfast with my son, he's got his eye on 3 different women. Yesterday I prepped the SUV for the drive to Fort Davis next Sunday. All systems are operational and it's good to go.

Today went by quickly. I hope the next 3 days do the same. Sunday morning can't get here soon enough.

Time to relax?

Started a mini vacation today. I'm maxed out for my vacation time at work. In order to fix this problem I took today and Friday off to give myself a long holiday weekend. I'm getting Labor day off too, that's the nice thing about working a government job. Thursday, today, is vacation time. Tomorrow is a floating holiday. I'm also getting close to being maxed out on my comp time.

I got called out last night at 6 pm and didn't finish up until 11:30. So I added 5 1/2 hours to my comp time. And I also get 6.1 hours of vacation time every two weeks so I won't burn but 1.9 hours of vacation time. So, where am I going with this? I'm going to have to take more time off. Which I am going in another 10 days.

I'm taking a vacation and going to the Big Bend area. I'll be there for 5 days and 4 nights, starting on the 13th. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm going to be staying in Fort Davis at the wildflower cottages (www.wildflowercottages.net). I stayed there last year and really enjoyed it. I'm really looking forward to returning to stay there again.

I'm planning on going to the McDonald Observatory. I planned my time there to coincide as closely as possible to the new moon. Last time I went there was a full moon so I didn't get to see much through the telescopes. This visit should be better.

I'm going to grab breakfast at The Grub Shack when I take a day trip along the River Road (Ranch Road 170 from Terlingua to Presidio). Going to really work out my new camera that day. I am also going to try to stop by The Field Lab to see it and meet John Wells. I'm really impressed by what he's doing. Living his dream and doing it "off the grid". You can read his blog here; http://thefieldlab.blogspot.com/ .

I'm going to visit the museum on the campus of Sul Ross University. I was told last time that it's a really nice museum. I will probably roll some sightseeing in Alpine into that time while I'm there. Not too sure if I'll go to Marfa for sightseeing. I think I will though because I didn't do that last time either. And I do plan to go watch for the Marfa Lights at least once, again to give my camera a work out.

That, in a nutshell, is my vacation plans.

I mentioned my new camera. I sold my Canon XSi and used the money from that to buy a Canon T1i. I like the new camera. Google it for specs, I'm not going into them here. But, you can see some of the pictures I took with it here: http://czardastx.smugmug.com/Nature
I took these photos last weekend at the San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, TX. I'm really anxious to see how well my camera will work in the Big Bend environment in bright daylight and during the night. The nights there are really dark. That's one of the reasons I love going out there, they have so many stars in their sky and it's so quiet and slow. You just don't get that RUSH, RUSH, RUSH that is so typical of the Austin area of TX.

Keep an eye here and on my smugmug account for stories and photos from my vacation.

http://czardastx.smugmug.com