Balmorhea Trip Report April 4-6, 2008

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Debraw

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Location
Grand Prairie, Texas
# of dives
I just don't log dives
Troy and I headed out Friday around noon and made it into Balmorhea around 7pm. We unloaded our motorcycles and took a scenic sunset ride through the Davis mountains to Fort Davis and had dinner and a great mexican restaurant in town. We drove back into Balmorhea ( about 32 miles each way) around 9:30pm and it was the best motorcycle ( as a rider and a driver) EVER. The sky had a million stars, there was no wind, and no traffic. It was surreal and I swear I felt the earth spinning as the sky stood still. You just don't see stars like that in the city.
We woke up early Saturday morning and had breakfast at the local truck stop near the highway. We got our dive gear together in the late AM and did a 30 minute dive in the "pool". It was great, water temp was 75 and the sun was shining. Water was clear, fish were plentiful. We got some great video of the wild ducks diving to the bottom of the spring searching for food. That was pretty coo, I had never seen a duck underwater before, eating. They stay down a LONG time. There were lots of pup fish and minnows. It was a great dive and I will post pictures. We will also post a video on the new scuba video channel also and leave a link in this thread.
Later that afternoon we got back on the bikes and headed to the McDonald observatory. They have a new telescope and we took the tour of the smaller one but skiped the tour of the larger one. Troy and I hit the snack bar for water and ran into a very nice group of women who were driving and bike riding around the country since Feb 14 and were headed to San Diego. Once we cooled off we headed into Fort Davis for dinner at the The Chuck Wagon and ice cream at the Caboose next door. It's right across the street from Fort Davis historical site. We were treated to a DPS officer pulling over people one right after another, it's 30MPH in Fort Davis, they are not kidding. Another fantastic Motorcycle ride back down the mountain, through Wild Rose pass, into Balmorhea. The weather was great so we relaxed behind the San Soloman court motel and took in the sunset, cool evening air and chatted with a very nice couple from Canada who were really enjoying their tour of the SW. Today we got up packed up the scuba gear, the motorcycles and drove back home. It was a great weekend and Troy and I are really looking forward to more "ride and dives" over the next year.
 

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Thank you I have a few more that are really good but I need to take them down a size or two before i can post them here. I will get to that tomorrow. I am pretty tired tonight! Long Drive!!!!
 
Thanks for the update!

It brings back memories. I was raised in Marfa, (south of Ft. Davis) certified in Balmorhea in 89. In SoCal now, but I do miss West Texas. Next time you are in the "pool" bring a bag of cheese puffs and open them up. The fish love it.
Enjoy it out there, next time, take an extended weekend and take the bikes down to Terlingua and Lajitas, Via Presidio, I think you will enjoy the ride!
 
Wait for it.... :popcorn:
 
I think I just had an aneurysm ......
 
Cheese Whiz works great on those little pupfish, too.
 
AHHHHHHH You can't feed an endangered species cheese puffs and cheeze whiz!!!!! :no and if anyone says hot dogs I may have a certifiable fit!!!!!

Whew, that felt good.......

We never made it to Marfa. I did want to go but there just wasn't enough time. I may grab my mother one week and drive her out to Marfa. She is an artist and I think she will truly enjoy the community they have built there. Marfa is in the book " One Thousand Places to See Before You Die" . I have also always wanted to visit Terilingua, that's the big chili cookoff place. It was a really nice trip. Texas has a lot of treasures just waiting for us to uncover.
 
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