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Trip Report: New Mexico Atomic History
This is a trip we took in late September last year. The boss had a four-day conference in Austin, TX that the girls and I were going to join her on. We were then going on to NM and planned to spend a week or so there. We left on a Friday morning, but since we didn’t need to be in Austin till Saturday afternoon we stopped at Wright Patman COE Lake near Texarkana. The girls have gotten used to us dragging them away from our perfectly nice house to live in a tiny box on wheels every so often. They don’t understand why we would do such a thing, but they make the best of it. Selina has learned how to open the cabinet doors next to the head of our bed, and typically will open both of them at least once a day. You know when she’s working on one when you hear the “bumpabumpabumpabumpa” noise from her pawing at the recessed latches. Eventually the noise stops, and everything is quiet. Like with small children, that’s when you should probably check on them. Whatcha looking at, Dixxie? There’s nothing there. :h Oh yes there is! :W Another thing Selina is good at is burrowing. She is a world-class bedspread burrower, so it doesn’t stay made up looking for very long. While in Austin, the boss would be staying at the hotel where the conference was being held, and I would take the girls to Guadalupe River SP for three nights. This was our campsite. I was asked by a number of people what I planned to do out there for three days. My answer was always “nothing”, and I meant it. I needed a rest from being on my feet a lot, and saw this as a perfect opportunity to get it. So, I stayed at the campsite, read a few books, and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Before leaving on this trip, I had told the boss that I hoped she didn’t have her heart set on doing a bunch of hiking, because I didn’t think my feet could take it right now. I’ve had a bunion on my left foot for 10-15 years progressively getting worse, and I think it was on this trip that I decided I was going to have to finally do something about it. I dreaded foot surgery, but those of you that have experienced bunions, you know they just continue to get worse with time, and can get quite painful and ugly. Mine’s just classified as “moderate”, but I decided I’d had enough. I had surgery two weeks ago, and I’m mostly off my feet right now, so I have all the time in the world to mess with trip reports. :W I’m not going to show the “before” picture, but in case you’re wondering, this is what they did. (So that’s what 3” drywall screws are good for!): My foot’s in a boot, I’m putting weight on it now, but I have to stay on the heel. I started out on crutches, but I’m transitioning to a cane now. I’ve got about 6 more weeks before I can wear a normal shoe on that foot again. Since it’s my left foot, as soon as I’m not having to lay around with my foot elevated to keep the swelling down most of the time, I’ll even be able to drive. So, I did a lot of this…… And this……. And when it was time to go get the boss, the feets felt a lot better and we had a nicer trip than I was anticipating. So….we head west on I-10, and stopped for the night at Hilltop RV near Ft. Stockton. The next day, we drove north through the Permian Basin of west Texas. I’ve always found that area interesting to drive through. It’s an active oil patch, so not much non-oil patch related traffic on the roads, and the scenery looks like this for miles and miles. I hope this doesn’t make some of you old roustabouts homesick! :W We stopped for lunch next to the Pecos River in Carlsbad, NM. We decided to head north to Artesia, then west to Alamogordo, which would take us through the Lincoln NF. It’s a scenic route, especially at the higher elevations. Between Cloudcroft and Alamogordo on US-82 is the only highway tunnel in Southern New Mexico. We saw just a trace of snow in this area. We found a campsite at the Oliver Lee Memorial SP near Alamogordo. Beautiful sunset. The next day, we drove on to White Sands NP. WSNP is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Gypsum sand is very easy to walk and drive on, and is cooler than silica sand. It does cake to the bottoms of your shoes and your tires, so it gets tracked everywhere. We stuck to walking, but saw several younger groups riding plastic disks down the dunes. This was Friday, and we realized that the next day (Oct. 2) was one of only two days each year when Trinity Site at the northern end of White Sands Missile Range was open to the public. We had been there several years ago, but we both decided we wouldn’t mind seeing it again. We’d probably drive up to Los Alamos after that. We were about 100 miles from the Valley of Fires Recreation Area (BLM), and that would make a good place to stop for the night, and put us close to the Stallion gate entrance that we would need to use. We got the last available site! Valley of Fires is located next to the Malpais Lava flow. At 5000 years old, it’s one of the youngest in the US. There’s a nice trail through the lava field. Selina said “Meh, you go ahead. We’ll be fine”. So we did! This is inside WSMR, following the route to Trinity Site. The area had experienced some severe rain and flooding earlier in the year, and you could tell that it had damaged the already poor road surface in low areas. It looked like some areas had been buried under several feet of rocks and mud. The McDonald Ranch House was not accessible this time because of a washed out road. Trinity Site is about 15 miles inside WSMR from the Stallion gate. We found a spot to park out on the edge of the parking area. Walking out to ground zero. Replica of the Fat Man bomb on display. The part of Fat Man that goes “boom” is what was tested here on July 16, 1945. This is normally on display at the WSMR museum down at the southern end of WSMR. Ground zero. This is what remains of “Jumbo”, the 214 ton containment vessel that was produced at great expense to the US government, then never used. It’s walls were 14” thick. It was supposed to keep the plutonium from being scattered all over the site if the chain reaction failed to occur after the TNT initiators exploded. If the chain reaction occurred, Jumbo would be vaporized. After the Trinity test, it was ordered destroyed (probably due to the millions that were spent on it), but eight 500 lb bombs only succeeded in blowing the two ends off. Thick! There were steel bands around the outsides as well, making it even thicker. The girls all say they’re tired, and are ready to head for the next campsite. I second that, and instruct the navigator to plot a course for the nearest available facility. With that, I’m going to stop for now. I’ve got more pictures from this trip, but I need to take a break. I’ll bump this back to the top when I add more to it.4.2KViews0likes12CommentsRe: Source for magnetic dipstick for Champion C46540 3500W gen?
You’d probably have better luck finding a magnetic oil drain plug. Sources for those are pretty numerous. If the engine has spin on oil filter, another option would be to stick a magnet to the side or bottom of it.458Views0likes0CommentsRe: Making A Warmer Truck Camper Bed
I’ve had heated mattress pads both at home (120v AC) and in our TC (12v DC) for at least 15 years, and wouldn’t want to be without them. In the TC, if you can provide the power, they just can’t be beat in the winter. With my DC-DC charger, I have the ability to provide more than enough power from the truck to run the mattress pad, and run the fridge in AC mode from an inverter while we’re driving, and still arrive at our destination with a fully charged camper battery. The mattress heater in the TC is Electrowarmth brand, and as far as I know they are the only ones that make one. When I bought mine, they were even making a queen size pad. I think a heated pad that size was pushing the limits of what the standard 12v cigarette lighter plug could tolerate amperage-wise though, because that was the only issue I ever had with it: the plug was getting too hot. Today, they only make a twin size 12v pad, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use two of them on a queen mattress as long as you didn’t overlap them. I have mine hardwired though a panel mounted, switch-duty CB now, so I’m not having any more plug issues with it. With only a single group 31 AGM battery in the camper, I’ve never tried to use the heated mattress pad when we’re without shore-power. If I remember to turn it on while we’re driving it will pre-warm the bed so it’s not so cold when we climb in. I’ve got a couple of small Li batteries I’m going to install one of these days that will be just for powering the mattress pad in the winter when we don’t have outside power. If the pad flattens them overnight no problem, the main battery will still be charged. I can recharge the Li’s the next day while driving, plus the few hours of generator use we typically will have. If the 12v pad were to fail today, I’m not sure which way I would go on it’s replacement. There are pluses and minuses I’d have to consider for both.1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: Trip Report: This Time Last Year
That was actually Caverns of Sonora, Jeff. But, Carlsbad Caverns isn’t very far away. In fact, we almost went to Carlsbad after leaving Sonora. We all enjoy a good cave tour, but I think we decided that one spelunking experience was enough for this trip. :B On to the next antique shop! :):)643Views0likes0CommentsTrip Report: This Time Last Year
This time last year, I got roped into making a sudden trip to the Austin, TX area the day after Christmas. It was me and the boss, her sister, and the three girl cats who all identify as girl cats. So, that makes more or less, approximately, one guy and five girls (give or take). We had no reason to be back home for a week or so, so we all (or at least two of the girls) decided to hit every antique store they could find that was open in west TX and southern OK. Antiquing, craft show, and flea market trips aren’t usually great photo opportunities, but (fortunately) we did a few other things that were. The girls had a great time, bringing home all kinds of cr@p that they’ve been reselling ever since. I’m always happy to drive them around because I enjoy driving my truck, and it gives me an opportunity to use the camper. I’m just going to tell you about the fun stuff we did, so any apparent gaps in the time-line just say to yourself “And then, a bunch of antique stores were visited”. The first night after leaving Austin we stayed at campground near Kerrville in the hill country. I remember my brother in OK texting me a picture of him and some friends sitting out on his deck all bundled up around a fire trying to make me envious. Actually I was a little, because they were all toasting me with glasses of Elijah Craig and smoking cigars, and I wasn’t there! But, I also knew the weather was colder there than where I was, and his was about to get worse. And, I knew he thought I was still in Little Rock, where the weather was about the same as his. So, I texted him back with this picture. He responded with that “What The Fudge!” acronym, and “Where are you???” Haha, that was fun. :B The next day we headed towards Sonora, and ended up spending that night at the Caverns of Sonora campground, then taking a cave tour the next day. I love Texas :W Our campsite. There are peacocks that hang around. The caverns are beautiful with some formation types that are unique to this one cave. This is an area on the ceiling of one room that doesn’t look like this at all to your eyes, but when you take a picture of it, it looks like…………this. :E Spooky. After Sonora, we headed north into the TX panhandle and southwest OK. It was pretty cold most nights, getting down to the teens and twenties. We were staying south of, then following behind a winter storm system that was moving from west to east across the TX panhandle and SW Oklahoma that was causing a lot of freezing, snow, sleet and rain. I think we had three nights in campgrounds with electricity, and four nights dry camping in parking lots with no electric. I’d use my Yamaha 1000 to top the camper battery up before we went to bed, and just set the furnace on about 60 for the night. Everyone was happy, though the cats missed having their little heated beds turned on. Those only work if we have shore power. :( I remember one of our days we ended up within striking distance of Palo Duro Canyon SP at the end of the day, and since I’d been there before, I knew they had nice campground with electric we could use that night. We got there just as the sun was going down, and barely had time to get parked and plugged in before it was dark. The cats were happy that their little beds were warm that night. The boss and I were also happy our mattress heater could stay on all night, too! A few scenic views in the park. Charles Goodnight ranch house near Goodnight, TX. It wasn’t open due to the holidays, but we stopped and ate lunch there. One of the cans of antique snake oil that caught my eye. It was still full of “stuff”. I almost bought it. :W I don’t think this one is really old. As we got close to OK, we spent a night in Collingsworth County (TX) Pioneers Park. The park is on the Red River, and one of its claims to fame is that it’s the location where Bonnie and Clyde crashed their stolen car into the river while trying to cross the state line into OK at a high rate of speed. They apparently had just taken out an unsecured loan from a TX bank. :) There’s also one of these arrow markers in the park. There are many of these in this part of TX that indicate some connection to the Comanche nation, or Quanah Parker who was the last Comanche chief. Quanah was actually the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been kidnapped as a nine year old child and assimilated into the tribe. The John Wayne movie “The Searchers”, is loosely based on that kidnapping. The rest of our trip seemed to revolve around Quanah. The land was also once part of the “Rocking Chair Ranch”, which was owned by a couple of Scottish Earls. The cats all got a tin of sardines filled with kitty drugs for Christmas! I think Selina is really enjoying hers. She fell asleep face-planted on it! :W We stayed out from under the winter storm for the most part, but got close enough to it to see some snow once in a while We did some shopping around the Cashe and Ft. Sill, OK area, then decided we needed to go see Quanah Parker’s “Star House”, that was originally located north of Cashe on Fort Sill's west range. When the government took the land, the house was moved into town. The house was later moved again to property outside of Cashe that would become an amusement park in 1957. The amusement park had the typical rides and attractions, and also had a collection of historic buildings from the area. The historic structures were used as a backdrop for western shows and music festivals, rodeos, hot rod meets, a couple of American Pickers episodes, and even a few not very well known movies (one of them starred David Carradine). The park closed in 1985, and has been neglected and in serious decline ever since. It’s private property, so you can’t go on site without permission. The current owner was nine when the park opened, and has spent his entire life there. There is an old trading post on the property that is sometimes open, and it’s one of the largest collections of disorganized merchandise I’ve ever seen. We spent some time talking with the owner, and bought some of his stuff, and he was happy to show us the Star House. The name of the place was Eagle Park. If you recognize the sign styling, it’s a repurposed Burger Chef sign. :C it apparently had been quite a while since a vehicle the size of ours had been down the road leading to the park. The owner had to get out at a couple of spots and cut some big overgrown cedar trees and limbs down for me to get through. Wild Mouse coaster. Ferris wheels. I think this was a shallow pool of water that kids operated miniature motor boats on. The owners dog was running around outside. Dixxie was doing her best prairie dog imitation. :B What the fudge??? The Star House. Quanah had the stars on the roof as a symbol of his status within the tribe. He had multiple wives and children. The house had ten bedrooms. The current owner in the black jacket. Some of the buildings that were here when the park was in operation have burnt, others have fallen in, like this old church. Eagle Park was a BIG DEAL back in its heyday. The collection of historic buildings, while not on the same scale as Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village in Dearborn MI, was almost as historically significant. The kitchen. Teddy Roosevelt, who was in OK on an antelope hunt, is supposed to have visited with Quanah in this room. The Star House has decayed to the point that it’s unsafe to go upstairs. If you’d like to see how Eagle Park looked in its prime, CLICK HERE. There is a magnificent gallery of old photographs below the article. One of our last stops was in Shawnee, OK. That’s a pretty impressive train station for a little Oklahoma town. Shawnee was a railroad town from its earliest days, with Santa Fe, Rock Island, and MKT all having depots and repair shops in town. The sun was flattering the truck when we stopped for lunch on our last day out. It’s actually filthy from all the wet sloppy roads we had been on. :):) :R Let’s Go Girls! :P (End of quote) NRA Benefactor Life Member Lance 1121-Two Awnings, Slide topper, 3.6 kw Gen, Trimetric Batt. Monitor, 1500W Inverter, 40A Redarc DC-DC charger. 2016 F450 6.7 PSD.4KViews0likes11CommentsRe: Aftermarket heated steering wheel?
Since the steering wheel in my truck isn’t heated, and the boss’s ‘stang has one, I tell her that heated steering wheels are for girls. :P I used to tell her that heated and cooled seats were for girls too, until I got my current truck that has them. :B :):) :R Let’s Go Girls! :P (End of quote) NRA Benefactor Life Member Lance 1121-Two Awnings, Slide topper, 3.6 kw Gen, Trimetric Batt. Monitor, 1500W Inverter, 40A Redarc DC-DC charger. 2016 F450 6.7 PSD.393Views0likes0CommentsRe: this is why
Don’t Renogy and Relion (and probably others) make self heating Li batteries? I realize that’s going to either use some energy from the battery itself, or from the charger, but the technology to use Li’s in extreme cold exists. Do all the EV’s sold in the Great White North come with SiO2 battery packs? :):)263Views0likes0CommentsRe: this is why
Sounds like for PieAnnerTooner, only EssEyeOhToo will do. Got it. Don’t need to beat that into my head. :):) :R Let’s Go Girls! :P (End of quote) NRA Benefactor Life Member Lance 1121-Two Awnings, Slide topper, 3.6 kw Gen, Trimetric Batt. Monitor, 1500W Inverter, 40A Redarc DC-DC charger. 2016 F450 6.7 PSD.413Views0likes0Comments
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