Run In with Low Clearance

I wasn't going to post about this, especially after the 'kind words' I had to say about the guy in the truck stop in Gilroy, CA back in October, but Collin said it would be okay. And since he was driving, his is the voice that matters here.
So what happened, you ask? In a nutshell, inattention at a critical moment. We were coming home on Christmas Eve, and we were talking about our plans for the evening, when "CRUNCH" - we struck a low structure built over the road. It is a place Collin had driven under several times in the old truck, so he wasn't thinking about clearance issues in our new, taller truck. Me? Collin was driving, and I just totally wasn't thinking about our route.
But like the neighbor kid told Collin, "Sh!t happens."
My lesson is the classic "Judge not..." You can be sure I will be far less quick to call someone else a genius for inattention when all it really takes is a quick moment that makes the difference between a good move that goes unnoticed among dozens of others, and that one event that will be something to kick oneself about for a long while to come. Yes, it was totally avoidable, but it happened. Nothing to do but go forward, since we can't go back and undo it.
The end result is that we did nearly $20,000 damage to the truck, and even worse, it looks like 3 weeks of down time while the truck is in the shop. That is the worst, the downtime. We will rent a truck to do some runs and mitigate the hole in our income, but the profitability of that is pretty slim.

Electrical Storm

Drove into the teeth of the biggest storm I've seen in a while, last night. Lightning lit up the sky for miles around, and seeming minutes at a time. Rain so hard I could hardly see the road for the standing water, and wind buffetting the truck. I'm happier driving a semi in that stuff, except we have a load of coiled rebar on.

I mean, I know we're not grounded because of the tires, but still... I was nervous enough to call the best voice of reason I could think of when it comes to vehicles. Thank you Johnny for your reassurance. ; )
 
We were coming out of Kingman, AZ and hit some weather that had the emergency broadcast system going, then the one I mention here was approaching Barstow, CA. Drove through some of the areas that were flooded but today they're mostly dried out.

Spaceport, America and My Birthday

Delivered some more of these insulated panels to Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, NM.

This is the building being constructed for Richard Branson's commercial space flight program. Kinda cool that we have a small part in what is surely an historic project. The site is heck and gone from just about anywhere - thirty miles outside the town of Truth or Consequences, which in itself could classify as the middle of nowhere. There IS Elephant Butte Lake Park, which looks like a nice place to be, even in December. They have houseboats to cruise around the lake on, and nice picnic areas with little shelters to keep the sun out.

Sunrise over New Mexico

Yes, we finally found the sun on this trip.

Today was my birthday - we ended up at Route 66 Casino and Hotel. Took showers at the truck stop, got a little dressed up, then ate at the buffett, which was pretty darn good. Then we gambled just a tad. We each got $20 and Collin burned through his pretty fast on the slots and video poker. I made $10 last for over a half hour. Then we found the place we should have started - the arcade. Spent another $10 there driving (and crashing) race cars, and motorcycles. Much more fun than gambling.

Nice birthday.

The Ball & Chain at Spaceport Amercia (under construction)

Elephant Butte Lake

Birthday Load - crushed cars

Those are Buffalo out there

The Mighty Rio Grande



Very Large Array

Driving through New Mexico, in the plains of Saint Augustin, 50 miles west of Socorro, I spotted what looked like old fashioned satellite dishes lined up in an X.

I actually recognized what it was from the movies - a Very Large Array. Who says you can't learn anything from movies?

In order to be better informed, I Googled it and found out this is 27 dishes that are 82 foot in diameter, and can be moved on tracks to cover an area as large as 20 by 20 miles; linked together they form a single image of the radio source being studied. They are part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array, and the information it gathers is combined with information from other facilities at Green Bank, WV, Tucson, AZ, and Charlottesville, VA. It was constructed between 1974 and 1982.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array

Tehachapi in the rain, at dusk.

A complete polar opposite from the last time I drove Hwy 58. Last time I was driving the 2000 Volvo with pink clouds heralding the dawn, and the windmills gently turning were just about the only other things moving besides us. I could hardly tell there was a town there - it was light enough for street lights to be off, and I got the impression of a tiny hamlet just out of view from the highway.

Today we came out of Bakersfield in rush hour traffic, climbing the hill with RVs, other commercial trucks, and I assume commuters, in pouring rain. (We are beginning to wonder of we will find our way out of the rain this trip.) No sign of the windmills in the fading light, but the streetlights showed me how big Tehachapi is - I would never have guessed from my first drive through.

LA Driving

First time driving in LA for me. Drove from Kingman, AZ and missed the best opportunity to pull over and let Collin drive. Since we were in a hurry, I just kept driving. It wasn't too bad. We were ahead of the lunch rush, and I didn't try to keep up with the fast traffic, opting instead to hang out in the right lane and leave stopping distance.

We did miss our exit onto the 605 due to construction, and I had my first experience being behind the wheel while we were lost in LA. Not fun driving on surface streets, but I pushed through and got back on track.

When we missed the next exit due to a difference of opinion about where the exit actually was, I got out from behind the wheel at a stoplight and let Collin drive while I used the iPad to figure out where we were in relation to where we needed to be.

(The iPad needs a little redemption, by the way. If I had been using the direction feature on the mapping program, I would have seen that it actually is pretty good about telling what the signs say, and it gives decent written directions. I still like to verify with directions given by a person who is actually at the site, though.)

The truck continues to be hinky on us. This time it didn't want to start, and we were afraid we were going to have to call emergency roadside service to get out from our pick, but once we were loaded, it started for us. (We took it into the shop again on Saturday and they said it was batteries.)

Tonopah, Nevada

Drove through the town of Tonopah, NV. Strange little town perched near the top of a mountain. The whole town is on a slant. Couldn't see much purpose to it's location, although I reckon there is/was a mine involved.

Going to meet up with Dad and Donna for dinner tonight in Pahrump - and hopefully Sheldon and Tammy.

All were able to come, including Donna's son Henry and his girlfriend Tammy. We had dinner at Terrible's Town at the buffett. Yummy.