I'm still alive.
When I first disappeared, it was because I couldn't afford the downtime at work. That's still true, really. I've got projects on the back burner, so I need to tend to them whenever I find myself looking for work to do. I'm just popping on here because I finally saw HB's message on Facebook.
Could I surf the forum from home? Well, yes. But you may recall that I switched from a smartphone to a dumbphone a year ago or so, because the internet was taking my attention away from my family. So, suffice it to say, sitting in front of the PC for hours at a time wouldn't be any better.
In the meantime, my family and I did a camping trip to Guadalupe Mountains National Park in October. We camped at the very north end of the park, right by the New Mexico state line.
Southbound route here Northbound route hereHere are some pictures.
↓ This is our new car and new cargo box. It has a lot more space than our old car, but its suspension isn't as beefy. I like the JEGS cargo box, although I had to purchase aftermarket crossbars in order to install it: there's no way to ratchet-strap anything to this car's rails.
↓ This is the area near our campground. It was well protected from the wind, and the weather was gorgeous. We saw black widow spiders and tarantulas and scorpions, but never in our tents. My boys and I got some good hiking in. Considering their age, I was proud of them.
On the way back, we hit some crazy winds and, on NM-483 heading north toward Lovington, we had a tumbleweed adventure. There were strong sustained winds from the west that day, and a good stretch of NM-483 must lie in a slight depression between the fence lines. So here's the situation that was created:
The wind would blow tumbleweeds up against the western fence line. Eventually, the weeds would pile up to form a sort of siege ramp, which then allowed all the ones after them to just roll up the ramp and down onto the highway. Some of them made it across the highway to the eastern fence line, and the same thing would ensue on that side. However, down on the highway depression itself, the wind was substantially less strong, so a lot of weeds simply piled up on the pavement.
When I say "a lot", I mean it! For probably a mile or more, it was literally impossible to see the pavement at all, and we "waded" through a sea of tumbleweeds that reached up to the grill. Every so often, we'd catch a glimpse of the edge line or the center stripe, but most of the time it was guesswork to stay on the road. With tumbleweeds cascading over the hood of our car, we plowed through at 15 to 25 mph. Occasionally, a trucker would roar by in the other lane, sending an avalanche of weeds over our car; at that point, we'd switch over and drive in the left lane, in the tracks of matted-down weeds left by the trucker, until we came upon another oncoming vehicle and would switch back to the right side again. I say "we", but my wife was driving that stretch; I guess my role was moral support and technical advice.
When we finally made it out of the "sea", we pulled to a stop in the middle of the travel lane. Barehanded (ouch!), I had to reach up under the grill and pull out mats of wedged tumbleweeds. Then I went around to the side of the car and had my wife drive very slowly while I pulled weeds out from inside the wheel wells and behind the wheels–trusting that she wouldn't suddenly accelerate and rip my forearm off. When we got into Lovington–wind whipping dust and tumbleweed bits and chaff all around–we pulled into a parking lot and did another round of weed pulling. Days after returning home, while I was checking the air filter, I found myself pulling tumbleweed pieces out from on top of the transmission.
↓ Here is a picture of the beginning of the adventure. This is
before it got "really" bad.
From there, the winds didn't stop. Heading north from Plains (TX), we drove through sustained 25-35 mph crosswinds. Because that part of Texas seems to grow a lot of dirt in their fields rather than crops, that meant driving through periodic dust storms that reduced visibility by as much as a snowstorm. Then, just as dirt farms gave way to crops, the rain started. By the time we stopped for gas at Vega, the wind had ripped the decal off the windward side of our cargo box.
In Friona, I drove a specific route in order to pass through the intersection of TX-214-Business and FM-2397-Spur, with the intention of taking a picture of the
assembly to share on this site. But the rain was still strong, so I didn't feel like stopping and getting drenched.
The last day of driving, from Guymon to Wichita, however, the weather was beautiful. A lovely autumn day through the Great Plains.
↓ And here are my wife and I, taking a break during a hike.
