Jupiter & Saturn at KPSPP Day 2

 Did I mention it was cold?  Friday morning it was 41 F outside.  The coach did well at 53F as it's usually only good for about 10 degrees over the outside when cold.

The 'outside' temp is actually the inside of the refrigerator and the inside is the temp in the coach just above the fridge.  I got up and started the coffee

While I was sipping my coffee and waiting for the kids to come in from the tent, this crew showed up for breakfast.

There were about 6 of them chomping away.  JT's tent is just out of frame on the left.  Probably a good thing it wasn't green lol.

Close up of the picture above.  I like this shot a lot.

Funny thing about site 22.  I never thought it one of the shady ones (less coverage = better for astronomy), but with it being only 2 days away from the shortest day of the year, the sun stayed low and kept the coach in the shade the entire day with only about an hour of sun on the front of the coach.

I had noticed this the day before and left the shades open to collect warmth as I would do later today.

We ate breakfast and waited for it to warm up a little, then decided to do a hike.  I had noticed two things on the drive in.  First, the road was in great shape and looked freshly graded (it was).  Secondly, it was very wet for this time of year out here.

Our site was in the Equestrian loop so we started off to make the Green loop.  I've done several times before and figured that one was quick and easy with the most variation without getting tiresome.  It was still pretty cold so we bundled up and set out.   

We got to where the green arrow is and it was wet.  Not super deep (ankle to shin), but it was about 50 degrees out and I didn't have a second pair of shoes.   We explored options to try and get around it on high ground, but looking at the trail map, we could see this area was slightly depressed and thus no way to get around the water. Photos from a previous trip 

We backtracked all of a hundred feet and set off on the Prairie Loop trail in red.  It's about a 2 hr walk so not horrible.  We set off and found it enjoyable as the sun was on us from the south and trees on the north of us were blocking the cold wind.   Not sure how far we got down this trail but it was probably a quarter to a half of mile before we encountered mud.   Thick gooey swamp mud.   We poked around looking for a way by and I thought I had one until I was sinking...I quickly retreated.   It was a smaller passage and we were looking for a way by, but I pulled the trail map and saw that even if we got past here, there was more rough going ahead.  Some pics of this trail are available here from a previous trip.

I announced that we could most likely be successful on the area in the oval above as it's a quick loop through a hammock so definitely on higher ground.  We picked up the bikes and headed over.   This was a quick and easy one and only one small spot of mud, which we got by by throwing some cabbage palm fronds down over the mud and stepped lively. Photos of that part are in the first link above as I was messing around with my GoPro (may have enough footage later) and didn't take any stills.

After the quick hike we went back to the site for lunch.   It was now in the mid 50s out and the temp in the coach was sloooooowy inching up.  In fact the warmest it got was 62 inside right around sunset.  After lunch the kids headed off to the gator hole on the bikes and let them have some alone time.

We got dinner going early as we were doing the telescope thing again that night.  Our one astronomy neighbor was still here as he was thwarted the night before by the wind buffeting his scope so he didn't get the pictures he wanted.

Notice the small amount of sun on the front of the coach.  JT is looking at the moon already and it's about half an hour before sunset.   It was actually really cool as the sky was blue next to the moon but then it was black through the telescope, but still blue to the naked eye.   

Got a text from my buddy who was bringing his RV up from Kendall, they were delayed and would make it up the following night :(

Tonight was a repeat of the first night, but with less wind.   My buddy Mike with the twinsie GMC bought a Roadmaster wagon and he drove it out to visit with us and look at the planets.  We packed it in a lot earlier this night as it was colder.  

Being courteous astronomy fans, we skipped on the fire again and went inside the coach.   I had batched a couple of cocktails before I left, so it was craft cocktail time in the coach.  We had a nice visit with Mike and we kept going until about 12 or so.  We went out and looked at the Milky Way and a few other things with our eyes as we packed up the scope around 9PM.   

It was 51F inside the coach when I went to bed, but tomorrow was going to be warmer!  I woke up in the middle of the night and put my hoodie on to use the bathroom.  I kept it on the rest of the night under a blanket and a comforter.

Lucy suggested I take a heater with, but if my son was sleeping outside in a tent, I could deal with it (I did invite them in but they wanted their privacy).