Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Alpine Trip / Memorial for Tim Benner

Got back from Alpine, but it wasn't a normal supply run trip. When I got to the legion to pick up Dave for the run a car owned by a man and his three sons that moved down here recently was in the parking lot with a blow out. They were coming back from Alpine about 3:00 this morning when they had the blow out. They didn't have a spare so shredded the tire the rest of the way limping to the legion from about 5 miles out. They spent the rest of the night sleeping in the car. Anyway one of the sons rode in to Alpine with us to get a new tire so we dropped the rim off at the tire store in Alpine and did our shopping before coming back. We picked up the new tire on a rim and when we got back to the legion it was the right tire on the wrong rim! :roll: (Wouldn't even fit on their car) I don't know what they are going to do, but I refused to go back to Alpine because they have just re gravelled 118 and I now have 5 new dings in the windshield from on coming traffic throwing up gravel. I was going to get a windshield repair kit at AutoZone while I was there, but forgot it since it wasn't on my list. Hopefully I can get one and repair the windshield before it starts cracking out and can't be repaired.

Memorial for Tim Benner
A message from Just Me:
"
I've just posted this to several of the Yahoo Groups where Terlingua Ranch stuff is discussed.  I know some of you don't follow those, but didn't want you to miss out.
Julianne"
Susi asked me to post that there will be a pot-luck memorial for Tim this Saturday at 6:00pm at their Quonset hut (formerly known as Susi's Snak Shack) 1 mile in from the highway on Terlingua Ranch Rd.
Tim & Susi were both long-time residents out here and had both worked at Terlingua Ranch for many years.  They moved to Big Spring about a year and a half ago to be closer to family and healthcare.
Here's the post from this week's Terlingua Moon...
Long-time local, Tim Benner, passed away at
his home in Big Spring, Texas on May 3rd. His wife,
Susi was at his side. Tim had a long battle with lung
cancer a few years back, and it appeared that he had
won that fight; Tim was high-energy, fun-loving and
active up until the last few days of his life. He had
planned to bring a truck-load of lumber to Terlingua
on the Saturday he had a seizure that led to his
hospitalization. An undetected cerebral metastasis
caused Tim's death a few days later. Tim was the
classic desert character; he will be missed.
Tim and his wife Susi were the proprietors of
Susi's Snak Shak. Susi invites all their friends and
loved ones to come to a Pot-Luck Memorial for Tim, to
be held July 14th at 6 p.m.
It will be at their Snak Shak Quonset-hut building,
1000 Terlingua Ranch Road. Bring food to share, BYO
Beverages and bring a load of hugs and love for Susi.

 BTW the Terlingua Moon can now be found on Dr Doug's site at Terlingua Moon

18 comments:

  1. Don't know why anybody would drive without a spare. Too bad about the tire.

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  2. TnT, some times you just don't have a choice down here. They actually had a spare, but it was flat also. This place eats tires alive. (Even new ones) I just repaired one tire for the jeep where about a quarter inch square sharp rock punctured it. There are billions of such rocks down here in the roads. There are also no tire stores within 60 miles of here. Used tires are snatched up here as soon as someone finds out one is for sale. Here one spare just doesn't cut it you need at least two. (3 or 4 to be safe.)

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  3. Man that is so true with the tire thing. I know from experience as we had a flat on my truck the first time we ever came to the area. It happened on the weekend and the tire place there in Study Butte wasn't open until Monday.

    BTW....I put your link up on our blog this evening. Really enjoy following it since you actually reply to people.

    Chris Miller
    Our180.com - One Family's Journey To Finding True Happiness

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  4. I don't get why the guys didn't check to make sure they had a spare tire just in case something happened on the trip (prep). Sorry to hear about your friend passing, may he rest in peace. Also sorry to hear about your windshield. It seams windshields are so darn expensive to replace even with insurance.

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  5. Chris I don't consider the tire store as you call it in Study Butte a tire store. I added your blog to my list.

    Sandy, lack of $ and lack of good used tires in this area. Looks like the tire store in Alpine may have delivered the correct tire and rim down here because I just saw the guys pass by on 118 at a higher rate of speed than they would be traveling on a flat tire.

    Here for most older vehicles its Liability insurance only (including the jeep) so no insurance to cover the windshield the county or state broke out because of loose gravel. I guess the signs strung along 118 saying loose gravel covers their butts though. Does that mean when you see one of those signs you are supposed to head the other way or are you supposed to chase down the person that passed you that cause the ding and force them to pay for it?

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  6. I don't think there are any real solutions for the dings - except staying 100ft from anyone and everyone when driving. I had a piece of tire fly up and bust the grill to our suburban to shreds years ago... nothing i could do. Today I thought the same thing had happened... I watched what I thought was a chunk of tire leave the car in front of me, go WAYYYY up in the air, and land smack center in the middle of my hood. Big ol' dent in the dodge that sent me into a cursing fit. After I calmed down, I looked up there at the dent again and realized it was surrounded by feathers. It was a bird that caused the damage! Now I don't feel so bad about the dent, because clearly I made out better than he did lol.

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  7. Chris, if you look at it like that then the state or county are stimulating the economy. (Putting people to work spreading the loose gravel, giving work to glass companies who change the windshields and selling windshield repair kits through automotive parts stores.) Mighty nice of them I guess and tough luck for the people its happening to.

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  8. Tffnguy,

    (captaincrunch again)


    I think I would board up my car windows with Plywood when I get down there next so I dont ding any windows. Yeah' think about that statement for a minute? Boarding up my car windows.
    Do you take me as a fool, on the contrary. I can get a girlfriend and have her hang her head out the passenger window and tell me how to drive.
    Women are good at that crap anyway, may as well put it to use (and people wonder why I never got married)

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  9. CC. No comment'O I'd suggest hiding out for a while.

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  10. The gravel trucks and road construction made it here this morning. That means soon it won't even be safe for windshields heading south to Study Butte.

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  11. Seems incredible that someone would drive without a spare or at least check their spare for air knowing fully well how far the nearest tire store is.

    I am sorry to hear of Tim Benner's passing. I never met him but I had heard of him and his wife and having to move to be closer to medical facilities.

    Hope the roads are fixed soon.

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  12. Ok MsB, lets look at it like this. Say you have a minimum wage job in Alpine and have to drive the 60 miles two times daily. (To and from) Its your only income and there are no jobs to be had down here. Gas is high and tires are to. Say you can barely afford gas, food and other necessities and you don't have the spare $ for a new tire. (The tire store didn't have any used tires) If you don't make it to work then you don't have $ for food and other necessities either. What would you do? Maybe drive even knowing you may have a flat and don't have a spare? There's also no ride share and no public transportation down here. Some times there aren't any choices.

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  13. BTW the spare was shot to. (A worn out donut)

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  14. When put in that context I would have to risk a flat but I would make sure to at least have a bottle of Slime...though nothing can fix a blowout.

    Glad they were able to have the new tire mounted on the correct rim.

    Have you guys considered starting a ride share for people that travel daily to Alpine?

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  15. Glad that no one was injured in the blowout. Keeping good spares is work at times...I've had to change tires more than once on a day.

    So sorry to hear about Tim. My heart goes out to you Susie.

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  16. Tire rules for Turdlingua, 1) Carry two spares. 2) Carry Fix A Flat and Green Slime. 3) Carry a 12 volt air compressor.
    Sorry to hear about Tim.
    Dave you would have loved to be in Lousville, Ky today, there was a very large gathering of Falcons in town.

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  17. BKid, I think the Falcon Club Of America had their National there? If so there should have been several hundred falcons of all years from 1960 to 1970 1/2. A bunch of those people are also my members.

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  18. Denese, maybe one day a decent tire store will open up down here, but I'm not holding my breath until it happens.

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