Thursday, October 29, 2009

Just Rocks



Looks like I inherited some rocks. Either the colonel or his wife one forgot to load up these rocks or didn't think they were good enough to take. Or...Maybe they wanted to push me toward becoming a rock hound to? If that was the case it might have worked. Probably won't mean much to most of the people around here, but to those in other areas where these aren't easily come by it could have a certain amount of cool.

As a side note the weather has been and is lousy! Cold, windy and cloudy with a few sprinkles off and on. Fortunately the wind has died down and the sun is actually trying to come out now that it doesn't have much time to do any good.

And on another side note since the chili cook off will be coming up this next week I may have to postpone some plans for trying to get to the land and do some work on the road. From what I hear there will be too many state troopers in the area just looking to pull people over. Maybe I'll just sit by the road in front of the RV park and watch them pull everyone else over instead. Maybe after the chili cook off is over I'm thinking of using a 4x4 and towing the tailgate from my trailer up and down the road to knock down the grass and probably rip it out of the ground at the same time. Should help level the road also? I've used railroad rail like that before and had very good luck with it. I've got to start somewhere right?

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Lake or Not?


My new neighbors for a couple of days are a couple of rock hounds. He is an amiture geologist and retired Air Force Colonel. I was talking to them and told him it looked like the whole area my land is located on had been filled in with the same soil you see piled up everywhere from mining years ago. He told me that is volcanic ash. I always thought volcanic ash was black, but evidently not. They are both great and I'll hate to see them leave. Have injoyed talking to both of them very much and they have given me a quickie education on some of the different types of rocks they have found in the area.

Now.... ever since I saw the land on google earth I thought it had to be an ancient lake and he said it probably was. Anyway from looking at the soil while I was out that way a while back it sure appears that rather than make mounds like everywhere they may have just filled in an ancient lake. There is no creosote growing on it... its all the grass seen growing between the creosote bushes everywhere else. If it was actually a filled in lake I wonder what the reason was for? I wonder if it would make good farm land. The native grass sure seems to like it.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Reverse Rick



Another windy night and morning. I'd say it would rival the wind generated by Rick, but this time from what seems like due north. This RV is again rocking and rolling and I've been watching the coffee in the pot rock back and forth between the 9 and 10 cup mark. I notice a few drops of rain on the window now so I guess out of the 20% chance we are in the 20% or at least on the fringe of it.

Its been sort of entertaining looking out the window watching some of the campers try to take down their tents without them blowing away. I'm surprised they were even still standing this morning.

And for jandean here is the picture of the bird you asked for. I'm throwing in one of my trike (which is still in Odessa). The photo was taken in front of my X-House in Plano, TX.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Blog Blog Blog

The bad part about these Blogs that I've found is that those leaving comments can't edit their posts, can't cut and past from another source in to the blog and as of yet I haven't found a way to change the order in which comments are shown. On forums you can do all three. A lot of times I'll compose my messages to my forums through notepad or even the email client for spell checking and when finished then I cut and paste the text in the Blog editor. Can't be done with the Blog.

Oh well.... I guess the good part is that they are free.

No new news about the land or getting moved to it. Its too far away from pay day.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Rick Blows

Had some furious wind out of the remanence of Rick last night. Good thing this trailer was facing southeast because that was the way the wind was coming from. It still managed to rock and roll this RV! I hate to think what it would have been like had it been a side wind! No rain, hail, lightning or thunder.

The lack of rain is good for me in case I get the chance to try to visit my land again, but for those storing up water it probably wasn't so good. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to join them in capturing rain water and it will be the other way around.

It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to do much of anything before the first part of next month. I did make it to the tiny hardware store day before yesterday and they had something similar to JB stick weld so I got a stick of it to reinforce the stuff I'd already put on the radiator to try and stop the leaks. I got that done yesterday, but haven't driven the car since to see if it did any good. Its ammazing how much stuff they have crammed in that tiny hardware store!

I'm planning to head for my mail box shortly and will stop by the Grub Shack while I'm there. I have a slow leak in one of my car tires, but fortunately I have my pancake compressor with me and am able to keep it aired up. More than likely that problem came from the trip out to nearly my land the other day. I guess I'll be putting Green Slime in all four of those tires since they are on ancient mags and are beater tires.

*** Addition ***

I guess I made it to the Grub Shack at the right time. I formally introduces myself the the infamous John Wells See his Blog at http://thefieldlab.blogspot.com/ ) and met another Viet Nam vet that was there about the same time I was. Unfortunately no names were exchanged so I don't know his. It would have been a wasted trip otherwise because all that was in my mailbox was a single junk mail. And I thought I was leaving all of that crap behind when I headed this way. I guess the junk mailer would find you on the moon if you moved there.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Setback #101



I made it real close to my land, but it appears that the road I named Elna Rd hasn't been graded for a few years so its covered with tall grass. I didn't want to take a chance trying to go over it with my old car. I guess I need to try and get a hold of the TR people and see if I can't get that road graded. I wonder how much luck I'll have with that? The red x in the bottom picture is where I was when I took the photos. The sticky pin is about the center of my land.

I stopped by and met BillyBob on the way to the land. Good guy. I didn't think about this being Sunday and assumed the Grub Shack would be open. I guess I know better now.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Mo Problems

After about five stops to top off the radiator between Alpine and Terlingua Ranch I made it to the GrubShack and my mail box at the Terlingua Ranch Lodge entrance. I hung around the GrubShack while My sister and brother in law went in to Study Butte to drop off the RV and then returned. Met some good people there and when my sis and bro in law got back we tried to go to my land. Problem was that the recent rains had made the main road going to it too bad to pass. It was in very good shape in most other areas, but one place we had to detour and the second there was no detour so we called that off and did some sight seeing instead. I'm now hold up at the Big Bend Motor Lodge in their RV and they have left it here for me to use until I can get something else going. I'll probably make another attempt to get there in a couple of more days after the road has time to dry out.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Break Down while on the way

Well the thermostat stuck on the bird (1968 Ford Falcon) about 45 miles from Alpine and I spent several hours waiting for a tow truck to come that never did. This was about 45 miles from no where either way. I wound up letting it cool down and limped two miles to a rest area and that's where it spent the night. Me and my brother in law went back this morning and removed the thermostat and I managed to make it to alpine, but the radiator is leaking so I have to top it off about every 10 or so miles. I sure was glad to see that it she hadn't been molested over night! I call her Elna after my mom who bought the car new in 1968. Still 80 miles to go to get to my land. Auto Zone says they can't even order a rad for it. Right now it has plenty of BJ wet weld to try and stop the leak.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Headed That way

We will be pulling out before long and I may or may not have internet access for a while so this may be it for a while. Talk about butterflies in the stomach. Uncertainty abounds.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Oh Joy! I had trouble figuring out how to pay for diesel fuel at a truck stop on the way and ran the card through several times before I finally went inside to pay. That went through, but since then my ATM has been declined. I assume with all of the trying the card the bank decided someone else was using the card and deactivated it. I called the automated crap number at the bank yesterday trying to get the problem fixed, but got a message saying I'd have to wait until after the upcoming holiday. Grrrr....

We were planning to leave early Tuesday morning for Alpine and stay there until Wednesday about noon to give me a chance to take care of business before heading for Terlingua and to the land. We will just have to leave after 9:00 AM to give me a chance to get my card reactivated (or try to). Considering I don't want to use a credit card and all of my moving and other $$$ is in my account tied to the ATM this has really screwed me! I was declined at the storage and had to put that on credit and when I was going to get a generator, propane stove and other things I'll need at Harbor freight the card was declined there to. I wasn't about to charge that! MAYBE I can do that before leaving???

Saturday, October 10, 2009

I'm now at point B and scheduled to be at the land probably around Tuesday. In the meantime I find that my server's mail server isn't letting me send mail. (Must be Murphy's Law at work?) Of course point C will be Terlingua. I've already stored about half of my junk in the storage and then had to get the trailer and trike out of the back of the truck before I could get the rest of the stuff out. Fortunately my brother in law has a tractor with a frontend loader so we were able to use it with the help of chains to get those two off. The trailer broke loose and fell about 4 feet and both lights got broken in the process of getting it off so now replacing them will be extra $ that I hadn't figured in the move. It seems to have survived other than that. Hope I don't run in to many more of those GotYa's

Monday, October 5, 2009

Saying Goodbye

Now comes the hard part of saying goodbye to my family, friends and especially my elderly family members that lives in this area and all the time knowing that I won't ever see them again. I don't plan to ever come back this way again after I leave.

I have another change of plan and that is to take my utility trailer and lawn tractor to. I'd intended to sell the trailer and leave the tractor here because I couldn't figure out a way to take the trike, the trailer and tractor. I couldn't find the title to the trailer so I couldn't sell it. Plans now are to load the trike on the trailer, hook the trailer to the tractor and pull it on the truck. I think I can pull that off. I really didn't want to get rid of the trailer and the tractor should come in real handy down there. As matter of fact keeping the trailer will keep me from having to buy another one later on.

I love it when a plan comes together!

2 more days until I pull out of here!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

In the beginning

Another one of Life's tragedies has struck because of divorce and difference of opinion between my former spouse and myself. (Just something that some times happens and probably neither of our fault.) I'll sure miss some of her grandchildren and other people (including her), but the time has come to move on. This decision has left me with only a couple of choices. Move in to a seedy motel apartment somewhere far away from Plano, Texas or move to my 10 acres in Terlingua Ranch Texas. I chose the latter even though I'm less sure of how things will be. In my earlier years I'd tried out the first option, but I was a lot wilder back then and didn't mind the hard core druggies, prostitutes and other people who usually wind up in places like that. Now days I can't imagine myself going back to something like that so its Terlingua or Bust.

I'm also burned out on city living because even living in a house for the last 18 + years the last 10 have made me feel more like being boxed in and trapped. I hope to find some peace of mind in my new life, but of course that's yet to be seen. I know it will be hard living for a good while, but I was raised in similar land conditions and have always loved that type of country. I've always loved the outdoors and spend most of my time outside when I can, but living in the city and doing that leaves a lot to be desired. I'm a fairly resourceful type person and have built wind generators, solar heating panels, go carts, choppers and now ride a chopper trike that I built from scratch. Not sure how its going to handle the Terlingua terrain though so it may get a new makeover. (Can you say Dirt Trike.)

I've run a classic car site for the last 11 years and an old time multi node BBS for 5 years before that until the internet pretty well did them in. (Both as hobbies) I'm not ready to be far enough off grid as to do away with the internet so hope to be hooked up VIA satellite before long. That will be one of my early priorities and then of course upgrading my living standards as I go. I plan to chronicle my progress here as I go. Perhaps I should phrase that as successes and failures as we all know there seem to be plenty of failures in life, but I guess that's one thing that makes life interesting.