Tucumcari was kind of an interesting experience this time.... Renting the room was from the same gal that had the bad cold at Christmas time when I went thru town...
She was still full on with a head cold... She even left her snotty kleenex laying on the counter between us.... And handed me a room key card with the kleenex in her hand...
I went immediately to the room and washed my hands and the key card in scalding hot soap and water.... Then I went to the store and bought a jug of Purell... I brought it back and went over the room by squirting it in a washcloth and wiping everything..
I stopped at the pizza hut in town and had a small personal pan pizza, and while I was waiting a fellow pulled in with a 53 lime green Pontiac.... A straight eight two door with the lighted indian chief hood ornament.... He first got my attention while he was waiting for his take out pizza... He was wearing bright green shorts with a pinkish red shirt, and penny loafers..... Without socks...
Remember Tucumcari is on the mother road Route 66... and many of the motels and attractions are themed from the 1950s... So this fellow was dressed to play the role... And his car that started and ran like it was only 10 years old, not 60, fit that role as well.... Its just that you don't see folks driving old cars like that for a daily driver....
Back in the room after stressing over the cold germs, I was settled into watching the Canonization of the former Popes... It was about 11 PM by then and the wind had picked up even more from earlier... My door faced the outside and West...
The wind was rattling it in its frame... It was blowing in hard enough to swing the curtains on the inside of the window.... The concrete block building fairly shook with the gusts.... I wondered how I would sleep...
Well in about 30 minutes, that wonder had a new element, as somewhere the power lines must have been blown together and things went slowly out.. First with low voltage like a brown out and then totally gone....
Looking out the window confirmed that the entire street as far as I could see was dark.... My laptop was on batteries, but the internet connection was gone and so was my mifi...
After a long while, the power did come back on so the lights were back.. But then the desk phone began to ring, and ring, and ring..... Answering it didn't stop it ringing... Still no cell phone or wifi or mifi... And the TV would run but the programming on their cable system was gone... No TV either...
None of these things rectified themselves for the rest of the night... I pulled the phone wire out of the wall, and the alarm clock was one of those that flash a bright light on the ceiling to wake you up... And I couldn't get it to stop or reset either... So its plug was pulled as well... So I and the 50 mph wind spent the night as it rattled the door on my room.....
Sunday
The lady with the cold was gone from the office the next morning, but a 30 something fellow had replaced her... He looked as though he was up all night when I was checking out at 7 AM... He told one fellow that when the electric went out and all the communications, it was time he went to bed anyway..... Nice..!
I grabbed some breakfast items from the coffee bar and hit the road...
I didn't see much of Texas... Just a brown out dust storm.... At times I had to pull over and wait along the shoulder of the road because the visibility went down to zero... The tumbleweeds were whipped up into a frenzy along with the dust... Some of them were small trees that had been broken free.. When they are so large, I try and dodge them as well... Hitting them a 65 will leave scratches in the paint...
If I thought the wind was bad on Saturday, the wind on Sunday was much worse.. I arrived at the Wichita airport at 3 PM to haul the Honda home with the Jeep... That will be the next post.
Retired Rod
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Friday becomes Saturday.....
Once out in the driveway of Mesa Gateway airport, another scramble began to ensue.... Folks were finding their people and rides.... I just sat down on a bench and watched for a while... I didn't have anyone meeting me...
Cabbies grabbed the available passengers as they walked across the street to the cab stand... This seemed to be a competition... I expected elbows to be thrown and pushing and shoving to ensue any minute...
But as I sat there one of the cabbies came over to me and asked if I needed to go somewhere.... Perhaps I had that look about me... I explained that I only had a short trip, but he had just the fellow...
Well it turned out that his fellow couldn't understand English... And didn't know where it was, that his hustler had told him to go... He was fumbling with his GPS looking for Elliott street.....
I said I would direct him but he didn't understand that.... He wanted to go West on Ray Road, but I told him NO! Go East... Finally I said turn Right!!! He understood that... So the trip was made with turn right or left commands... $25 later, I was at my house.. He grumbled about such a short trip... Or the small tip, or perhaps both...
As I fumbled with the locks on the front door, I realized that I was back in the realm of familiarity.... A big sigh of relief came over me.....
Nothing had changed since I left here almost 4 weeks ago, except for the 4 weeks of dust on the furniture... And this wasn't a cleaning trip, so I immediately began to get the Jeep back in action....
I had left a battery tender connected to the wall socket of the garage, so once it was removed, the Jeep came right to life.... I was out into the night driving the Jeep for gas and a hamburger.... But that was when it hit me..........
I really miss being here in Mesa..... I seem to have a tranquility here in the desert... I don't know how to put it into words... Perhaps the demands of society and the town around me are much more...... relaxed.......!
After the gas station and the burger, I thought that I could destroy that relaxed feeling by going to Wal Mart for some traveling supplies and an ice chest... But even there, no one was around...
That Wal Mart in the winter time is an absolute zoo with limited parking, but tonight there seemed to be so few patrons, that I parked only a few spaces from the door... The winter Arizonans have gone back home!! That made me want to stay all the more...
Saturday.
My inner clock is now well adjusted to the central time zone, so I awakened at 5 AM Arizona time.... But since that was 7 AM in Kansas, I just went with it...
As daylight came over the yard, I realized that I had a big crop of weeds, so I spent the next two hours mixing weed spray... I soaked everything in ground clear.... Loading the Jeep with a few forgotten belongings in the process...
So by 8 AM, I was ready to leave... I only spent about 12 hours total at the house...
As I climbed Usery Pass, on Elliot Road I could see that the weather in the mountains wasn't good.... Dark heavy clouds covered the mountain tops in the distance.. Well before I reached Payson, sprinkling rain gave way to torrents of falling precipitation.... People sped past me on the highway like it was sunny and 80.
As I topped the ridge East of Heber at 7600 feet, the temperature was 35 degrees and the rain was splatting on my windshield as snow and sleet.... At least today I had the presence of mind to wear long pants....
The Az Highway Patrol were up along the highway at several places checking speeds, and generally allowing their presence to slow folks down.. I think the weather being so close to snow brought on their presence... A good thing.
Once I made Holbrook, it was interstate driving from then on... But the wind began to pick up in speed... It was from the South West and mostly behind me, but I battled it for the rest of the day.. Gusts in the 40s..
Once in New Mexico I lost one of those hours that I had gained in Arizona... So now my watch was only one hour ahead, stopping at the Casino West of Albuquerque, I pondered how far to go... I was glad I was only driving the Jeep as the wind was blowing me all over the road... With the motor home I would have been waiting for another day...
With nothing else on my agenda, I drove on to Tucumcari.... Which I will take up in the next installment...
Retired Rod
Cabbies grabbed the available passengers as they walked across the street to the cab stand... This seemed to be a competition... I expected elbows to be thrown and pushing and shoving to ensue any minute...
But as I sat there one of the cabbies came over to me and asked if I needed to go somewhere.... Perhaps I had that look about me... I explained that I only had a short trip, but he had just the fellow...
Well it turned out that his fellow couldn't understand English... And didn't know where it was, that his hustler had told him to go... He was fumbling with his GPS looking for Elliott street.....
I said I would direct him but he didn't understand that.... He wanted to go West on Ray Road, but I told him NO! Go East... Finally I said turn Right!!! He understood that... So the trip was made with turn right or left commands... $25 later, I was at my house.. He grumbled about such a short trip... Or the small tip, or perhaps both...
As I fumbled with the locks on the front door, I realized that I was back in the realm of familiarity.... A big sigh of relief came over me.....
Nothing had changed since I left here almost 4 weeks ago, except for the 4 weeks of dust on the furniture... And this wasn't a cleaning trip, so I immediately began to get the Jeep back in action....
I had left a battery tender connected to the wall socket of the garage, so once it was removed, the Jeep came right to life.... I was out into the night driving the Jeep for gas and a hamburger.... But that was when it hit me..........
I really miss being here in Mesa..... I seem to have a tranquility here in the desert... I don't know how to put it into words... Perhaps the demands of society and the town around me are much more...... relaxed.......!
After the gas station and the burger, I thought that I could destroy that relaxed feeling by going to Wal Mart for some traveling supplies and an ice chest... But even there, no one was around...
That Wal Mart in the winter time is an absolute zoo with limited parking, but tonight there seemed to be so few patrons, that I parked only a few spaces from the door... The winter Arizonans have gone back home!! That made me want to stay all the more...
Saturday.
My inner clock is now well adjusted to the central time zone, so I awakened at 5 AM Arizona time.... But since that was 7 AM in Kansas, I just went with it...
As daylight came over the yard, I realized that I had a big crop of weeds, so I spent the next two hours mixing weed spray... I soaked everything in ground clear.... Loading the Jeep with a few forgotten belongings in the process...
So by 8 AM, I was ready to leave... I only spent about 12 hours total at the house...
As I climbed Usery Pass, on Elliot Road I could see that the weather in the mountains wasn't good.... Dark heavy clouds covered the mountain tops in the distance.. Well before I reached Payson, sprinkling rain gave way to torrents of falling precipitation.... People sped past me on the highway like it was sunny and 80.
As I topped the ridge East of Heber at 7600 feet, the temperature was 35 degrees and the rain was splatting on my windshield as snow and sleet.... At least today I had the presence of mind to wear long pants....
The Az Highway Patrol were up along the highway at several places checking speeds, and generally allowing their presence to slow folks down.. I think the weather being so close to snow brought on their presence... A good thing.
Once I made Holbrook, it was interstate driving from then on... But the wind began to pick up in speed... It was from the South West and mostly behind me, but I battled it for the rest of the day.. Gusts in the 40s..
Once in New Mexico I lost one of those hours that I had gained in Arizona... So now my watch was only one hour ahead, stopping at the Casino West of Albuquerque, I pondered how far to go... I was glad I was only driving the Jeep as the wind was blowing me all over the road... With the motor home I would have been waiting for another day...
With nothing else on my agenda, I drove on to Tucumcari.... Which I will take up in the next installment...
Retired Rod
Monday, April 28, 2014
Headed to the desert..
Its completely dark outside the airplane window as we descend thru the clouds over the Arizona desert... I can see small patches of lights clustered in the distance, but mostly the desert is vast and uninhabited...
This surreal peaceful arrival is broken up by the loud screams of the young child in the seat behind me........ WAaaah, WAAAAahhh. And the the 18 month old in the seat in front of me is standing on his dads lap sucking away frantically on his binky... He was wailing away a few minutes ago, but now is amazed to find me in the seat behind him....
And then there are the two kids in the seat across the aisle... The three year old was watching Dora the Explorer on her mom's Ipad, but had a total fit when the captain said over the intercom that all electronics had to be turned off and stowed for landing.... Her one year old sister has wailed off and on throughout the trip as well... I now know why children are awarded to the young folks...
As an old guy, my patients isn't up to par..... We land.......... The loud rumbling of the wheels on the concrete runway scares, and starts a symphony..... A symphony of loud wailing from all three of these youngsters.....
As we parked at the gate, the flight steward tosses open the giant door and the night desert air rushes into the overheated plane... Its dry as a bone, but wonderfully cool... I escape the confines of the center aisle, as the mothers are packing up belongings for the kiddies...
Out into the night with my one small carry on bag...... Freedom..!
It was only a few hours ago that I was driving the Honda from KC to the airport in Wichita.... I had looked up the locations of the long term storage parking and the ramp from which we would depart..
The Honda had its precious cargo of my RV towing bar and safety cables in the back... And I was early.... way early... But I stopped at the McDonalds for a soda and time to collect my thoughts.
You see I was quite anxious because of the TSA screening that I was about to endure..... After the cancer surgery a couple of years ago, I am now reliant on Medical supplies... Supplies that aren't within the guidelines of stuff that can be carried onto the airplane.... The bottles of liquid are too big... Scissors and the like....
Once in line, I had to explain that I needed a special screening for medical needs... I had to explain in front of several other nosy people to a less than accommodating officer.... But he took me aside and went thru all of the offending medical things.. And my whole carry on.. Shoes off, belt off, watch and phone in the bucket... Laptop out and turned on... And I passed the metal detector...
So after what seemed forever, we finally were called for boarding... But even that seemed to be in doubt, as the plane coming in was late from Mesa... They had several folks on board that were wheel chair bound... It had taken a long time to get them all boarded in Arizona... It took just as long to get them back off again once they were in Wichita.....
And one of our passengers, a young twenties something fellow had arrived at our gate noticeably drunk... Or possessed, if that is possible.... He was making loud statements to all that would listen, about what he planned to do to someone.. Talking in the third person about himself... Airport security was called....
They took him aside and I thought a fight was about to ensue.. Several more uniformed officers came from doors all around the situation.. They seemed to just appear... Up from the ramp... down the concourse... The fellow was seriously outnumbered.... He capitulated...
Once seated again with most of the officers gone, he began to make loud and intolerant remarks.... I wondered if he was under the influence of drugs...
At that time a rather small lady ticket agent, made an announcement that Allegiant Airlines reserves the right to refuse service to anyone they deemed to be to drunk to comply with flight requirements... The announcement rang out over the PA system......... The officers were back within a moment and the fellow was led away in handcuffs.. How can we be having so much fun!!!?
This is getting too long, I'll take up some more in the next post.....
Retired Rod
This surreal peaceful arrival is broken up by the loud screams of the young child in the seat behind me........ WAaaah, WAAAAahhh. And the the 18 month old in the seat in front of me is standing on his dads lap sucking away frantically on his binky... He was wailing away a few minutes ago, but now is amazed to find me in the seat behind him....
And then there are the two kids in the seat across the aisle... The three year old was watching Dora the Explorer on her mom's Ipad, but had a total fit when the captain said over the intercom that all electronics had to be turned off and stowed for landing.... Her one year old sister has wailed off and on throughout the trip as well... I now know why children are awarded to the young folks...
As an old guy, my patients isn't up to par..... We land.......... The loud rumbling of the wheels on the concrete runway scares, and starts a symphony..... A symphony of loud wailing from all three of these youngsters.....
As we parked at the gate, the flight steward tosses open the giant door and the night desert air rushes into the overheated plane... Its dry as a bone, but wonderfully cool... I escape the confines of the center aisle, as the mothers are packing up belongings for the kiddies...
Out into the night with my one small carry on bag...... Freedom..!
It was only a few hours ago that I was driving the Honda from KC to the airport in Wichita.... I had looked up the locations of the long term storage parking and the ramp from which we would depart..
The Honda had its precious cargo of my RV towing bar and safety cables in the back... And I was early.... way early... But I stopped at the McDonalds for a soda and time to collect my thoughts.
You see I was quite anxious because of the TSA screening that I was about to endure..... After the cancer surgery a couple of years ago, I am now reliant on Medical supplies... Supplies that aren't within the guidelines of stuff that can be carried onto the airplane.... The bottles of liquid are too big... Scissors and the like....
Once in line, I had to explain that I needed a special screening for medical needs... I had to explain in front of several other nosy people to a less than accommodating officer.... But he took me aside and went thru all of the offending medical things.. And my whole carry on.. Shoes off, belt off, watch and phone in the bucket... Laptop out and turned on... And I passed the metal detector...
So after what seemed forever, we finally were called for boarding... But even that seemed to be in doubt, as the plane coming in was late from Mesa... They had several folks on board that were wheel chair bound... It had taken a long time to get them all boarded in Arizona... It took just as long to get them back off again once they were in Wichita.....
And one of our passengers, a young twenties something fellow had arrived at our gate noticeably drunk... Or possessed, if that is possible.... He was making loud statements to all that would listen, about what he planned to do to someone.. Talking in the third person about himself... Airport security was called....
They took him aside and I thought a fight was about to ensue.. Several more uniformed officers came from doors all around the situation.. They seemed to just appear... Up from the ramp... down the concourse... The fellow was seriously outnumbered.... He capitulated...
Once seated again with most of the officers gone, he began to make loud and intolerant remarks.... I wondered if he was under the influence of drugs...
At that time a rather small lady ticket agent, made an announcement that Allegiant Airlines reserves the right to refuse service to anyone they deemed to be to drunk to comply with flight requirements... The announcement rang out over the PA system......... The officers were back within a moment and the fellow was led away in handcuffs.. How can we be having so much fun!!!?
This is getting too long, I'll take up some more in the next post.....
Retired Rod
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Windmills and motor cycle riding
This was a long day for a very sunny Tuesday.. We left KC at about 8:30 and rode about 55 miles to Dearborn, Missouri. That is around the West side of the city on 435 and then North on I 29 almost to St Joseph...
We stop at the Cooks Corner Cafe...
We were here by 9:30 and enjoyed breakfast.... Then as the time slipped away, we all gathered in the street and went on a group ride up thru the country side about 50 miles farther to the North...
We were lost a couple of times, and finally took about a mile of gravel that was looser than I really like to ride in, but we got there....
There was King City, Mo... Where many of the farms have wind generators on their property...
There was a visitors center with long wind turbine blades in the driveway where you could get right up close to them.
From there a group of the riders went out on a personal farm to look at the four generators that were installed there.... It was a couple of miles of gravel each way, so Al and I opted not to take that part of the tour... They even rode out into the soft dirt field, but that is beyond my riding skills...
From there the remaining riders went for Fried Chicken and mashed potato dinner.... Al and I were still stuffed from the breakfast, so we opted for the return ride back down the highway...
Of course we stopped in Platt City at the Mc Donalds like we always do on the ride home.. I had a small burger and small fry... That is a lot more friendly to me than the massive plate the other riders were served in King City....
They ate everything in that restaurant, running them completely out of the fried chicken.. I understand that the lady felt bad about it.... But I'm not certain why... They often time eat everything a small town cafe can put out....
We got back home about 4:30 having ridden about 250 miles......
There are numerous pictures taken out on the generator farm and during the day, so go look at the Romeo site for a much better write up of the activities....
Romeo Wind Farm Ride
I was tired just from the ride we took part in, with a lot of it at 70 mph on the interstates... And I never had one driver attempt to run over me all day, which is much better than some days we go out...
Retired Rod
We stop at the Cooks Corner Cafe...
We were here by 9:30 and enjoyed breakfast.... Then as the time slipped away, we all gathered in the street and went on a group ride up thru the country side about 50 miles farther to the North...
We were lost a couple of times, and finally took about a mile of gravel that was looser than I really like to ride in, but we got there....
There was King City, Mo... Where many of the farms have wind generators on their property...
There was a visitors center with long wind turbine blades in the driveway where you could get right up close to them.
From there a group of the riders went out on a personal farm to look at the four generators that were installed there.... It was a couple of miles of gravel each way, so Al and I opted not to take that part of the tour... They even rode out into the soft dirt field, but that is beyond my riding skills...
From there the remaining riders went for Fried Chicken and mashed potato dinner.... Al and I were still stuffed from the breakfast, so we opted for the return ride back down the highway...
Of course we stopped in Platt City at the Mc Donalds like we always do on the ride home.. I had a small burger and small fry... That is a lot more friendly to me than the massive plate the other riders were served in King City....
They ate everything in that restaurant, running them completely out of the fried chicken.. I understand that the lady felt bad about it.... But I'm not certain why... They often time eat everything a small town cafe can put out....
We got back home about 4:30 having ridden about 250 miles......
There are numerous pictures taken out on the generator farm and during the day, so go look at the Romeo site for a much better write up of the activities....
Romeo Wind Farm Ride
I was tired just from the ride we took part in, with a lot of it at 70 mph on the interstates... And I never had one driver attempt to run over me all day, which is much better than some days we go out...
Retired Rod
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