Day 2 - WASPs & Caverns

The WASP of the day

First stop of the day was the National WASP WWII museum.

To be honest, I thought Wasp Museum was referring to Air force plane that flies fast and “stings” the enemy. But of course I was totally wrong. It stands for Women Air Force Service Pilots.

While these brave women did not fight in combat air-to-air missions they did everything else from fueling and transportation runs.

The museum is based in Sweetwater Texas and that's where the pilot women were trained during WWII.

They also have a very cool flight simulator which I got to play with for 30 minutes. Definitely recommend visiting this museum if you get a chance.

Fort Chadbourne

Fort Chadbourne was a fort established by the United States Army on October 28, 1852, in what is now Coke County, Texas, to protect the western frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail route.

During the gold rush, the Butterfield coach was main method of transportation to San Francisco. Steele took me to the fort via this really rough barely passable road, right thru a cemetery. We did reach the fort but on the wrong side of the fence !!! So we back tracked and just 1000 feet ahead was the gated welcoming entrance.

There were two highlights during this guided tour.

The first being an amazing collection of hundreds of guns from all the eras. There were long guns, pistols, revolvers, water cooled machine gun and more.

The second interesting thing we learned was about the Butterfield overland stage route. For $200 (which is about 6,000 dollars in todays money) you could have the pleasure to travel for 23 days night and day, from fort Chadbourne all the way to San Francisco California. The stagecoach held nine people and when you look inside the pictures, only God knows how nine people sat in there for 23 days without showering or bathing. The picture I took from the outside makes it look MUCH LARGER but let me set things right.

The width of the benches were 48 inches and accommodated 3 adults on each side and another 3 sat on small square seats with 12 inches between the benches and cubes. The passengers needed to interlock their legs in order to fit.

Every 2 hours they would stop for a quick bathroom break and change out a fresh set of eight horses.

I can't even handle a Spirit Airlines on a 3-hour flight!!!

Yet these nine passengers rode this coach 23 days for 24 hours a day - - dear Lord have mercy !!

On this tour I met the tour guide Brent and 2 other tourists Brandon and his father Barry. Barry is from Sweetwater and Brandon was raised in Abilene but now lives in Netherlands ..where he serves our country in the military. THANK YOU for your service Brandon .

Training room are all saddle seats ;)

9 people, 23 days, 24 hours a day

Sonora Caverns

Last stop of the day were the Sonora caverns near Sonora, TX, where I was spending the night. I decided to see the caverns today instead of tomorrow morning, because tomorrow visiting the caverns would be tight as the eclipse begins at 1120 AM. It was a good decision as it turned out the caverns are closed tomorrow until 1:00 p.m. anyway – due to the eclipse. All the employees want to be free to see the eclipse.

There were only six of us on the 3:45 PM tour. It turned out all the 6 of us actually came to this area to see the eclipse and are visiting the caverns because it was nearby and was something to do.

I wasn't really expecting much from the Sorona caverns due to the fact I had recently visited Carlsbad caverns in New Mexico and you all know how beautiful that was !

Yet again I was wrong.

Everyone was totally blown away by the sights inside the Sorona caverns.

The main difference being -- at the Carlsbad caverns, you walk a heck of a lot and once in a while there's something spectacular to see.

The Sonora caverns are just wall to wall amazing mind blowing things to see. It's like you can't put the camera down because every step of the way all the walls and ceilings around you are 100% full of interesting forms and shapes and colors. Every inch was absolutely stunning.

Fact is I took way more pictures at Sonora caverns than I did at the Carlsbad caverns.

I highly recommend you make the effort and go and see these caverns. It was about a mile and a half hike with about 400 steps and the humidity was 98% so you will be sweating profusely.

Definitely give it a 12 out of 10 score for beauty and worth the visit.

Finished the day around 6:00 p.m. went to the supermarket got some food and started riding the blog.

Tomorrow - the big eclipse day so just pray there are no clouds in the sky...

Me signing off.