January 2006 found The
Rolling Home still in Austin, TX where I was deployed by FEMA
working on Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita
issues. Later in January, another part of Texas was
declared a disaster area due to wildfires that
occurred roughly between Ft. Worth, Abilene and the Red
River.
The FEMA managers
asked if I would go out
with a mobile Disaster Recovery Center to
work that disaster. Of course, I said, "sure".
We left Austin on Sunday , January 15, heading for Cross Plains, TX. Cross Plains is about 40 miles east and a bit south of Abilene. We drove into the town late on Sunday afternoon and were just amazed at all the destruction. 116 homes were destroyed in and around Cross Plains. The wildfire, on December 27th, was moving to the north of the town when the wind shifted and it blew directly into the west and north side of this community. Most of the west side of Cross Plains was totally destroyed by this fire. Nothing was left when the fire was gone.
We spent three days in Cross Plains, two days in Carbon, one day in Mineral Wells, one day in Huckaby (near Stephanville) and two days in Granbury. After our two week tour of these places we were extended another week and returned to Cross Plains, Carbon and Granbury for one day each.
On the way to Carbon the first time, I noticed the motorhome wouldn't go faster than 55 mph. We were driving directly into a 40 mph headwind, so I thought it was just the wind slowing us down. More later about this phenomenon which wasn't caused by the wind! The folks in Carbon and all the other rural Texas towns were incredible. They all had someplace to live before we got there. Not a single person was homeless. Some had no house, but someone else had stepped up and provided a place for them to stay.
They also have a sense of humor. Here is the Playboy Club in Carbon, TX.
One of the most striking comments I heard dealing with victims of these wildfires was the intensity of the fire. Several told me that their fireproof safes had melted. I had one fellow tell me that he barely got to his car before the flames reached it. Had he gone inside to get keys, he would not have made it. Luckily, he had his keys in his pocket that day.
I returned to Austin on February 12th. On the way back to the Texas capitol we drove through President Bush's hometown of Crawford. An interesting place, very small but both pro Bush and anti Bush forces were there. We preferred to see the local coffee shop and stay out of the politics.
I
released from FEMA on
Monday the 13th and we headed to San Antonio to have our slide out
checked by Ancira RV in Boerne.
We spent the 14th in Boerne getting some work done on our rig and then headed out late in the afternoon for The Ranch. We got as far as Ozona, TX between Junction and Ft. Stockton.
Our rig still was not running properly. Our normally quick and responsive Cummins was struggling to keep 55mph on hills and we didn't pass anyone. Our fuel mileage was down to 8 mph, about 2 mph below normal. I suspected a cracked intake manifold or perhaps even a cracked block. A new engine would cost us about 12k. This is not what we wanted to find was wrong!
We left Ozona early in the morning of the 14th and headed for New Mexico. We arrived in Carlsbad just as the Chili Chapter of the Escapees was having its monthly luncheon at a Chinese buffet. We pulled the D into what looked like a minuscule parking lot and joined our friends for lunch.
After lunch, we managed to get out of the parking lot. We did unhook the toad before we left. We wanted to make it easier to get out and also to see how the rig performed without the toad attached. It didn't help our performance.
We arrived at The Ranch and moved onto our new lot here. It was great to get some junk out of the rig and into the storage area of our Casita. We are still moving and reorganizing, but the rig must be about a foot higher now with all that weight out of it.
After about a week and a half, we upped anchor and went to Odessa, TX to have the D looked at. It turned out that the intake hose on our air compressor had a cut in it. $6 worth of hose later, we were back in business, back to 10 mph, back to passing big trucks and back to being able to "dream big and run hard" as Cummins likes to say.
Our next stop was Pecos at the SKP park TraPark. We have stayed there many times and this was an overnight stop. Here is what sunset in Pecos, Texas looks like!
The next
morning, along with the Striblings, we headed south to Ft. Davis in the
Davis Mountains.
We stayed at the Prude Ranch, a working ranch nestled in the mountains a bit northwest of Ft. Davis and not far from the McDonald Observatory.
Tuesday
night, we headed for the observatory
and its famous star party. Of course, it was a rare cloudy night,
so we figured no telescope observations tonight, but the sky cleared
enough for all of us to get a good look at some constellations and the
rings of Saturn.
The next day, we went back to the observatory and did a day tour of the facility. Off in the distance, we could see a radio telescope that looked like the ones at the very large array in New Mexico. It turned out that this facility was indeed connected with the VLA. It along with some others scattered around the globe are the part of an enormous radio telescope even more powerful than the VLA. All of these remote sites are slaved to the VLA and when one dish turns, they all turn. Quite impressive.
We also toured a desert museum south of Ft. Davis one afternoon. It was quite interesting.
We visited a cafe, nut store and hat store in Ft. Davis where Libby talked me into a new western hat. This hat is made from beaver and will not be ready until late April. We may just drive down there to pick it up.
After Ft. Davis, we headed further south to Alpine and the 20th annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering. It was held at Sul Ross University and was a real hoot. Real cowboys from all over the southwest and even one from Australia recited homespun poetry and sang songs of the western ranch life. We met some really marvelous folks, heard some great poetry, stories and good songs. One of our favorite folks was Washtub Jerry. Washtub, in his regular life, is an engineer at the McDonald Observatory. But he spends a lot of time playing a washtub bass complete with a clutch cable from a Porsche.
The Poetry Gathering also brought some local ranchers in to show their livestock. Here is a real Texas Longhorn.
And just to show how easy it is to find serious anthropological sites, here is one from Alpine.
At the end our our three days in Alpine, we headed to Las Cruces where the Striblings were having some work done on their motorhome. We stayed at a PA park on the west side of town near the old village of Massilla. If you are in town, make sure you eat at La Posta. A great Mexican restaurant in the old town.
The next day, we moved to Alamogordo at a very nice Elks lodge. Full hookups, close to town, good food and $10 a day. We stayed for three days and explored once again, White Sands National Monument and the town of Alamogordo along with some other sites in the Tularosa Basin.
Holloman Air Force Base is located near Alamogordo. The Germans fly Tornadoes from this field and our own F117 Nighthawk stealth bombers are stationed there. I snapped this pic of an F 117 as he was circling for a landing at the AFB.
On Thursday, we pulled the 16 mile grade from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft, gaining over 4500 feet of elevation in that climb. We arrived back at The Ranch Thursday afternoon because Dave was doing a Salmon bake on Friday. Friday morning I helped him clean 9 Salmon and man, was it good that night for dinner!
We are pleased to be back on the road and traveling again. We have spent some time and money fixing our Casita here at the Ranch too. I have a vertical antenna up for my ham radio, the WiFi router is working well with our MotoSat and we have our two computers in the rig and another in the casita on line.
Life here at The Ranch is pretty interesting. The park is a Co-op so everyone works together to get things done. Meals, Ranch projects, individual assistance to other leaseholders, folks just pitch in and do whatever it takes. It sometimes reminds me of the communes of the 60s except we are all gray or bald or getting that way. (except the ladies of course)
We will be heading west in early May for a Bluegrass Festival in Benson, AZ, where we will meet up with our friends Dave and Judy Boldt who were our employers the summer we workamped in Wisconsin. It will be good to see them again. Then we will probably go to Cannonville, UT to visit the KOA where we worked the next summer. After that , we will visit our son Taylor in Telluride, CO before turning east. We are scheduled for the Banjo / Jewelry classes at the Campbell Folks School near Murphy, NC the last week of June and after doing our doctor and dentist stuff, we will head for Florida to see our other kids and the grandkids.
We left Austin on Sunday , January 15, heading for Cross Plains, TX. Cross Plains is about 40 miles east and a bit south of Abilene. We drove into the town late on Sunday afternoon and were just amazed at all the destruction. 116 homes were destroyed in and around Cross Plains. The wildfire, on December 27th, was moving to the north of the town when the wind shifted and it blew directly into the west and north side of this community. Most of the west side of Cross Plains was totally destroyed by this fire. Nothing was left when the fire was gone.
We spent three days in Cross Plains, two days in Carbon, one day in Mineral Wells, one day in Huckaby (near Stephanville) and two days in Granbury. After our two week tour of these places we were extended another week and returned to Cross Plains, Carbon and Granbury for one day each.
On the way to Carbon the first time, I noticed the motorhome wouldn't go faster than 55 mph. We were driving directly into a 40 mph headwind, so I thought it was just the wind slowing us down. More later about this phenomenon which wasn't caused by the wind! The folks in Carbon and all the other rural Texas towns were incredible. They all had someplace to live before we got there. Not a single person was homeless. Some had no house, but someone else had stepped up and provided a place for them to stay.
They also have a sense of humor. Here is the Playboy Club in Carbon, TX.
One of the most striking comments I heard dealing with victims of these wildfires was the intensity of the fire. Several told me that their fireproof safes had melted. I had one fellow tell me that he barely got to his car before the flames reached it. Had he gone inside to get keys, he would not have made it. Luckily, he had his keys in his pocket that day.
I returned to Austin on February 12th. On the way back to the Texas capitol we drove through President Bush's hometown of Crawford. An interesting place, very small but both pro Bush and anti Bush forces were there. We preferred to see the local coffee shop and stay out of the politics.
I
released from FEMA on
Monday the 13th and we headed to San Antonio to have our slide out
checked by Ancira RV in Boerne. We spent the 14th in Boerne getting some work done on our rig and then headed out late in the afternoon for The Ranch. We got as far as Ozona, TX between Junction and Ft. Stockton.
Our rig still was not running properly. Our normally quick and responsive Cummins was struggling to keep 55mph on hills and we didn't pass anyone. Our fuel mileage was down to 8 mph, about 2 mph below normal. I suspected a cracked intake manifold or perhaps even a cracked block. A new engine would cost us about 12k. This is not what we wanted to find was wrong!
We left Ozona early in the morning of the 14th and headed for New Mexico. We arrived in Carlsbad just as the Chili Chapter of the Escapees was having its monthly luncheon at a Chinese buffet. We pulled the D into what looked like a minuscule parking lot and joined our friends for lunch.
After lunch, we managed to get out of the parking lot. We did unhook the toad before we left. We wanted to make it easier to get out and also to see how the rig performed without the toad attached. It didn't help our performance.
We arrived at The Ranch and moved onto our new lot here. It was great to get some junk out of the rig and into the storage area of our Casita. We are still moving and reorganizing, but the rig must be about a foot higher now with all that weight out of it.
After about a week and a half, we upped anchor and went to Odessa, TX to have the D looked at. It turned out that the intake hose on our air compressor had a cut in it. $6 worth of hose later, we were back in business, back to 10 mph, back to passing big trucks and back to being able to "dream big and run hard" as Cummins likes to say.
Our next stop was Pecos at the SKP park TraPark. We have stayed there many times and this was an overnight stop. Here is what sunset in Pecos, Texas looks like!
The next
morning, along with the Striblings, we headed south to Ft. Davis in the
Davis Mountains.We stayed at the Prude Ranch, a working ranch nestled in the mountains a bit northwest of Ft. Davis and not far from the McDonald Observatory.
Tuesday
night, we headed for the observatory
and its famous star party. Of course, it was a rare cloudy night,
so we figured no telescope observations tonight, but the sky cleared
enough for all of us to get a good look at some constellations and the
rings of Saturn. The next day, we went back to the observatory and did a day tour of the facility. Off in the distance, we could see a radio telescope that looked like the ones at the very large array in New Mexico. It turned out that this facility was indeed connected with the VLA. It along with some others scattered around the globe are the part of an enormous radio telescope even more powerful than the VLA. All of these remote sites are slaved to the VLA and when one dish turns, they all turn. Quite impressive.
We also toured a desert museum south of Ft. Davis one afternoon. It was quite interesting.
We visited a cafe, nut store and hat store in Ft. Davis where Libby talked me into a new western hat. This hat is made from beaver and will not be ready until late April. We may just drive down there to pick it up.
After Ft. Davis, we headed further south to Alpine and the 20th annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering. It was held at Sul Ross University and was a real hoot. Real cowboys from all over the southwest and even one from Australia recited homespun poetry and sang songs of the western ranch life. We met some really marvelous folks, heard some great poetry, stories and good songs. One of our favorite folks was Washtub Jerry. Washtub, in his regular life, is an engineer at the McDonald Observatory. But he spends a lot of time playing a washtub bass complete with a clutch cable from a Porsche.
The Poetry Gathering also brought some local ranchers in to show their livestock. Here is a real Texas Longhorn.
And just to show how easy it is to find serious anthropological sites, here is one from Alpine.
At the end our our three days in Alpine, we headed to Las Cruces where the Striblings were having some work done on their motorhome. We stayed at a PA park on the west side of town near the old village of Massilla. If you are in town, make sure you eat at La Posta. A great Mexican restaurant in the old town.
The next day, we moved to Alamogordo at a very nice Elks lodge. Full hookups, close to town, good food and $10 a day. We stayed for three days and explored once again, White Sands National Monument and the town of Alamogordo along with some other sites in the Tularosa Basin.
Holloman Air Force Base is located near Alamogordo. The Germans fly Tornadoes from this field and our own F117 Nighthawk stealth bombers are stationed there. I snapped this pic of an F 117 as he was circling for a landing at the AFB.
On Thursday, we pulled the 16 mile grade from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft, gaining over 4500 feet of elevation in that climb. We arrived back at The Ranch Thursday afternoon because Dave was doing a Salmon bake on Friday. Friday morning I helped him clean 9 Salmon and man, was it good that night for dinner!
We are pleased to be back on the road and traveling again. We have spent some time and money fixing our Casita here at the Ranch too. I have a vertical antenna up for my ham radio, the WiFi router is working well with our MotoSat and we have our two computers in the rig and another in the casita on line.
Life here at The Ranch is pretty interesting. The park is a Co-op so everyone works together to get things done. Meals, Ranch projects, individual assistance to other leaseholders, folks just pitch in and do whatever it takes. It sometimes reminds me of the communes of the 60s except we are all gray or bald or getting that way. (except the ladies of course)
We will be heading west in early May for a Bluegrass Festival in Benson, AZ, where we will meet up with our friends Dave and Judy Boldt who were our employers the summer we workamped in Wisconsin. It will be good to see them again. Then we will probably go to Cannonville, UT to visit the KOA where we worked the next summer. After that , we will visit our son Taylor in Telluride, CO before turning east. We are scheduled for the Banjo / Jewelry classes at the Campbell Folks School near Murphy, NC the last week of June and after doing our doctor and dentist stuff, we will head for Florida to see our other kids and the grandkids.