Bob n Elayne n Cinder's Musings

Link to trip photos

Our trip… Myself, Elayne, and Cinder have been planning a trip in my RV (aka JuneBug) that will take us to the 4 corners of the USA.  I have been to 49 states only never have set foot in Florida so off to Key West we all go….  Be sure to check out my trip pixs.

April 2 – Day 1: Planned to leave my Silver City home at 11 AM but of course we didn’t get away until 2 PM.  I called a friend, Mary, along the route planning just to drop by for a visit.  As I got closer I starting thinking of the things I had forgot…. 1st came to mind was Cinder’s food, oh well we can buy some food.  Then I looked at the empty space behind the passenger’s seat where my laptop should be   So when we got to Mary’s place I unhooked the Jazz (my towed car) and headed back the 35 miles to home.  There I picked up the forgotten items and made it back to Mary’s.  Now it was nearly 5 PM.  We said our goodbyes to Mary and headed out again with my suggesting to Elayne that we should drive until 7 PM and then find a overnight place.  Our orginal destination of Valley of Fires was out.  So we pulled into a Walmart in Truth or Consequencies, NM for the night.   Of course it gave us a chance to shop for all the “other” things we forgot errr…. needed

April 3 – Day 2: Waking up before the sunrise we started out for the Valley of Fires, an easy drive of around 90 miles.   The road was wide and well maintained so that wasn’t a problem.  The mountains we crossed were not too steep and the downslopes not too taxing on our setup.  Still it was a good test for JuneBug and me.  At the halfway point the wind started (and would not quite for the next 4 days!) blowing JuneBug from one side of the lane to the other.  Had more that a few choice words for those sudden blasts from the side!  Around 10 AM we pulled into Valley fire and setup camp.  Now I was getting into the routine of unhooking the Jazz (even it the raging gale force winds we now had going on).  Just before lunch we went into town, Carrizozo, just to check things out.  Funky, new, junkie, and dusty.  Elayne bought a ring and earrings from the antique store (had lots of old doorways in you need one!) at the crossroads of US54 and NM380.  Paul’s Mexican Take Out was really good (Cinder woffed down her Taco in 2 seconds, so she gives it 2 paws up!).

Valley of Fires

In the afternoon Cinder and I took the nature hike through the Lava Beds.  If you ever make it through this area be sure to stop and spend an hour, well worth it!  The wind never did let up that night and so JuneBug rocked, rolled, and rattled all night long!  Still I slept like a baby warm in comfy in my bed atop the cab.  Elayne and Cinder in the back bedroom didn’t do so well as the back bedroom bore the brunt of the wind.  Even the jacks I put under the rear of JuneBug didn’t seem to help.

April 4 – Day 3: Around 4 AM the wind died down to a stiff breeze.  Sunrise over the Sacramento Mountains was super!  Now we had a really good view of the rough and tumbled Lava Beds just outside our “dinning room” window.  After a light breakfast we headed for the Trinity Site (the site is open for visitors only 2 days a year, spring and fall).  Thinking I had enough gas for the round trip in the Jazz was off by about 1/2.  It was more like 85 miles one-way instead of the 60 I expected so I thought a side trip to Bosque del Apache would be good, we could gas up in San Antonio just 35 miles away.  While historically interesting, physically the Trinity Site is not much to look at.  People watching was more entertaining.  Seeing how may were dressed in shorts and t-shirts (temps in the low 40s with a 10-15 MPH breeze) when jackets and warm gloves being more attuned to the weather.  At the time we left the parking lot was nearly full with more people pouring in and lined up at the gate waiting for security to check them out (Picture I.D. please sir,   OK it says here your are a spy for the KGB, well that’s ok as your picture matches, go ahead sir and have a nice day).
Bosque del Apache

Sandhill Cranes in Flight

is where the Sandhill Cranes come to winter.  Being the middle of the day not many birds were in the refuge (they go off to feed during day and only return for the night) so we didn’t get to see any cranes.  Only mud hens, ducks, and a few Snowy White Herons were in residence.

After our visit it was back to camp for hot showers, some dinner, a movie (Under the Tuscan Sun), and then a good night’s rest (the wind had died down to only that stiff breeze).

April 5 – Day 4: Traveling day.  Up before sunrise getting the rig shipshape before heading out.  Only a cupa instant joe as I had forgot the brand new bag of ground coffee at home.  Most likely tomorrow morn I would have my first good coffee from my brand new coffee maker.  Elyane had mapped out a route but we decided to “trust” the lady in the GPS.  NM380 East thru the Sacramento Mountains (well just the pass over them) stopping in the little sleepy village of Lincoln home to NM State Monument to Lincoln.  At 6 AM nothing was open (who woulda thunk!).  At least we weren’t looking into the sun as the road was winding its way thru a narrow canyon.  Lots of horse ranches, big oaks, and deer (yikes) dotted the landscape.  Once again we suffered thru New Mexico rush hour (3 cars in 3 hours) and then suddenly after we crested a grade we were on the parrie.  To the East, North, and South the horizon dropped off some 8 miles out with the curvature of the Earth.  I’m thinking this is how it will be for the next 2 days when a gust of wind almost blew JuneBug out of the lane.  And that is pretty much how it was for most of the next 2 days, flat and windy!  Soon Roswell came into view and lucky for us a nice truck bypass to the North East was provided so we never did have to tempt fate with a chance meeting of the aliens that inhabit the city (even McDonnell’s was advertising that they were the “unofficial” crash site).  Expecting a advertised truck stop along the bypass we thought we didn’t have to enter the city, wrong.  The truck stop was out of gas.  So we entered Roswell, got our gas, and escaped with only meeting a guy from Mexico fill up his pickup.  Not bad, only 1 alien.  The rest of the day our GPS lady guided us with some “side trips” (a barely 2 lane highway that might have been shorter but was white knuckle because of the 20-30 MPH side wind) that we learned to ignore when she wanted us to abandon the US highway for a county lane.  Around 5 PM we pulled into Vernon Texas our stop for the night.  GPS lady told us to get on the Freeway even though the Walmart was less than a mile away according to her calculations.  She led us up a mile, then onto the frontage road on the other side of freeway, and then back to where we had just entered the freeway a few minutes earlier.  It seemed that GPS lady did understand all we had to do was go under the freeway and then as by magic the Wal*Mart on the other side of the freeway would appear.  Still we had begun to trust GPS lady.  We picked a good overnight spot for JuneBug, did some shopping, had dinner,  and then I learned that I could get Wi-Fi internet from the open hot spot of the RV park just on the other side of the fence (ok, I had to be in just the right spot holding the computer out from my lap at a 45 degree angle and sometimes it would get signal, but it worked!).  A movie before bed and then drifting off to sleep with a lonesome train whistle some 40 feet away!  Ah the joys of the West Texas plains

Day 6 – April 5: Woke up late, 6am.  We had some breakfast then on the road before the sun using GPS lady to scout the tail for us across Texas and into Oklahoma.  Along the way I stopped and took a picture of the FLAT Texas plains.  The sky down here is as big as it is in Montana!  After crossing into Oklahoma we headed East on our “mother road” US 70 (it was our 2nd day on this road).  Winds from the North once again were buffeting JuneBug.  Somewhere along this stretch a pickup with trailer going the opposite way dropped its wheels off the road and starting sending up rocks hitting JuneBug’s windshield (but doing no damage) and I suspect at this point is where the Jazz’s windshield took a hit.  As we got into Eastern OK the wind once again pickup up to near gail force.  It was then that the GPS lady threw us a curve telling us to turn JuneBug North into the teeth of the wind.  I was putting my foot into it and it seemed like we were just barely able to maintain 55 MPH going into wind. I was thinking this is going to be fun when we start to climb into the Rockies.  In little while we were out of the open land and into woods, lots of wind sheltering woods.  Soon we began to see Dogwood Trees in bloom and trees loaded with Raspberry colored blooms (later we found out they are called Redbud as the bud is a deep red before they bloom).  The roads now were quite narrow, winding, and we were actually climbing into Ozark Mountains.  At this point GPS lady wanted us to turn right onto a dirt road?!  No thanks I made a command decision and continued on the OK 144 highway we had been on.  Soon after several “Recalculating” complaints GPS lady accepted the fact I was not on her dirt road and plotted us a new course into Mena Arkansas.  Soon we saw the Arkansas line, headed up US71 to Mena for a gas stop.  It was there where I discovered a stone chip in the Jazz’s windscreen and several small stones in the air intake vent just below the windscreen.  I told Elayne that I would have to get the windscreen “repaired” again (I had it repaired just a week after I bought the Jazz in New Mexico).  Just East of Mena we pulled into Caryls (Elayne’s sister) and Rich’s home.  Really nice set back in the woods with green grass and tall pines everywhere.  Unhooking Jazz I noticed the stone chip was now a chip and long crack running about 18 inches, ouch!  That means a new windscreen!  After a nice dinner, Cinder running herself ragged (lots of room to run!), and conversation I tucked Cinder into her bed and then climbed into my loft.

Day 6 – April 7: After some coffee and breakfast, I topped off the fresh water tank, hooked up the Jazz, and we all headed out for Lake Ouachita about 50 miles away.  We setup camp just 15 feet from the lake at Little Fir campground. The camp is about 80% full of fisherman and 99.9% of the campers are locals.  The campground is a well kept secret as it doesn’t show up on the GPS or any map.  The locals made me swear not to disclose the exact location as they want to keep this little gem for themselves   Cinder was having a ball growling at the strange contraptions that moved thru the water and made noise.  When one guy beached his boat nearby she started barking (which is very unusual for Cinder).  It was the first time she saw a boat up close.  Then the lake!  It was great fun throwing sticks into the water for Cinder to retrieve.  She would only go in so far (poor baby her daddy hasn’t taught her to swim) and then wait for the sticks to float closer.  Of course once she got the stick she would not bring it back.  She only knows how to play “keep-a-way” and would pile the sticks up in “her pile” on the bank well away from me.  After lunch I did the unthinkable!  I went to town and got a haircut remembering the Ray Stevens song about getting haircuts “away from home”.  The little barber shop was straight out of Mayberry.  One guy in the chair getting his hair cut, another in the other chair telling stories (not really caring if anyone was listening), deer head mounted on the wall.  I was really down home in the South! To top it off when the guy getting his hair cut had the barber cape removed it was the town’s sheriff.  I almost expected Barney Fife to come in saying someone was double parked in front of Win-Dixie.  BTW it was the guys in the barber shop that gave me the name of the trees we had been seeing along the road into Mean, Rosebuds…. These guys know their flowers.
So in one day I had got a very nice (and needed) haircut.  Cinder had learned about cats, boats, and that really big pond!  The day was gorgeous and after a nice supper we sat around the fire and talked.  The full moon rising through the trees, with smoke and sparks drifting into the night, water lapping at the shore…. Yes I will keep Little Fir’s secrets!

Day 7 – April 8: A great sunrise.  Fog drifting across the lake, sun light filtering through it and the trees, fisherman getting onto the lake to try their luck.

Perfect beginning of the day.  But after breakfast the wind began to come up, clouds rolled in, and it began to rain.  Cinder had been sick on the rug, I washed it out, but there was no where to dry it. We decided to make it a day trip in the car exploring down to Hot Springs (boyhood home of Bill Clinton as the sign entering town would proclaim) some 40 miles South.  Not much to speak of as a town, nice with lots of trees and water.  But it was a town and the largest we had seen on the trip so far.  Needed to get back to the woods!  On the way back I took a side trip of 4 miles of rocky dirt road to a Lake Ouachita Vista.  Even with the rain and clouds it was very impressive to see the lake from a birds-eye-view.  I had expected to see a large body of water but instead the lake was dotted with islands (former mountain tops), hundreds of them.  Would have really been nice on a sunny day where I’m sure you could have seen more of the surrounding countryside. Still it was worth the “pounding” (did I say LOTs of rocks) that my poor little Jazz had to endure.  Back at camp it had not really rained but the wind was strong.  No one was out on the lake now and the gentle lapping of the water was now more like small waves braking against the shore.  After supper we did get a small fire going but it was not a repeat of the night before, no moon, no wispy smoke, just trying to keep the chilly wind out.  We all turned in early, maybe the next day would be better.  We put on one of DVDs while JuneBug rocked with the wind.  Not as bad as Valley of Fires but now the wind was accompanied by lighting and the boom of thunder.  I began to think tornado!  While the wind was loud never did hear the “it sounded like a fright train” sound you always hear as the description of the wind by people who survive a bad one.

Day 8 – April 9: Woke up and the lake was full of white caps, now it was really starting to look like heavy rain.  I turned on the radio hoping to get a weather forecast and heard news.  The little town, Mena, was struck by a tornado last night, 3 people had died.  Cayrl and Rich were heading back to check on their animals and house so we had the day pretty much to ourselves.  The weather forecast was for afternoon clearing so we decided to stick it out for another day (we had planned to break camp on Saturday).  Did a little hiking around the lake with Cinder but the day was pretty much just hanging round the camp waiting for better weather.  By the afternoon Caryl and Rich’s friend had showed up with the pontoon boat but it was much too rough to put it into the water (and no one wanted to get seasick).  So we had a nice communal dinner and decided to leave on Friday, a day early.  Still all in all it was a nice visit to the lake and you just have to make the best of what you are given.  Can’t always have perfect weather like we do in Silver City

Day 9 – April 10: After breakfast and packing up we said our goodbyes to Caryl and Rich.  Got on the road and heading South East hoping to make El Dorado by later afternoon.  We stopped in Hot Springs so I could catch up with goings on the internet.  That was a disaster!  I dropped off Elayne so she could get some books while I headed for Starbucks which I thought was around the corner (try 7 miles of traffic!).  Took nearly a half an hour to get to Starbucks, then I tried to sort through 200+ E-Mails, check bank accounts, and catch some news.  I knew I was going to run over the 1 1/2 hours we had agreed on but with nearly an hour of traffic to plow through it would be what it would be.  Around 3 PM we were on the road heading for El Dorado.  No way was I going to take the route 7 (the same one that had so much traffic going to Starbucks) so we looped around 7 picking it up about 40 miles South East of Hot Springs.  It turned out everyone was in town and using route 7 for the dog races!  Back in the country again. This part if Arkansas is replete with Pine, Hickory, and Oak forests set among rolling hills.  Poor JuneBug was chugging up one hill after another.  But soon our progress took us into El Dorado and the big blue sign of Wal*Mart.  We found a nice parking spot next to the woods where Cinder could run and have a good time sniffing out all the smells she wanted.  The gray skies had given way to blue and after the sun set a big full moon lit up the sky (along with 5000 watts of Wal*Mart Mercury Vapor lights).

Day 10 – April 11: Will be a short travel day going from El Dorado AR to Vicksburg MS. Started with lots of Ups and Downs in the rolling hills of Arkansas.  Elayne thought (and I agreed) all these hills would really kill our gas milage (which has bee not good!) but in fact that tank we hit our trip high of 9.6 MPG.  The green forrest hills gave way to city and then the super slab of I-20.  It was nice not having to stay on top of everything and have a little room in the lane (JuneBug nearly fill up the line on those backroads) plus a shoulder.  Soon we were in Vicksburg, dropped off JuneBug at the N.P. and took the Jazz into downtown.  We wanted to play tourist and have a antebellum  tour of an old plantation house but they didn’t have such a thing here, Oh Well we’ll try again in Charleston SC.  Still we did get to see the drug store where Coca Cola was invented and had some Black Walnut Ice Cream, yummy!  We took a driving tour of the town, lots of old houses but somewhat disappointing as the ones we wanted to go inside were not open.  Most had been turned into B & Bs plus Elayne’s knee was not upto much walking.  I did tour the old courthouse museum which had a lot of 19th century items and quite a bit about the siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War.  One thing I learned was not to make sudden entrances across driveway aprons.  I scrapped and tore the bottom edge of the Jazz’s bra (had put one on to keep down stone caused paint chips) while making a fast left turn into a Subway shop.  After getting lunch we headed back for the Vicksburg National Military Park for a nice lunch under the shade of a large oak tree. Then we toured the park.  It was amazing to see how close in the Union and Confederate troops were to each other.  Also the thick forrest that they fought in.  At one place you could still see the zig-zag pattern of trenches the Union forces made in an unsuccessful assault on a Confederate fort (still visible after more than 140 years).  After the tour we made our way to the local Wal*Mart for the night. On further examination of the Jazz’s front end we found the left side driving light was cracked and quite a few rocks under the bra.  So using some back tape I covered over the driving lights and the day’s damage.  Looks a bit tacky but it will keep the rocks from getting under the bra.

Day 11 – April 12: From Vicksburg we headed South East planning to make it into Florida as we didn’t see much to bother with in this part of Mississippi or Alabama (I don’t like to visit big cities e.g. Mobile!) other than more pine forests and swamps.  Would be great for fishing and hunting (it was Turkey season).  Being Easter Sunday all the little churches had full parking lots.  I did like the sprit of one fellow who had his fishing boat hooked up behind his pickup at one of the Baptist Churches.  He had either been out fishing early or was heading out right after the service   That’s the way to spend a Sunday in the South.
The first stop we made in Florida was at the welcome center (closed BTW) and walking back to JuneBug I notice something hanging down under the front of the Jazz.  Crawling under the Jazz (no easy task) I found a 4 foot section of vine with the end stuck up in the right front suspension.  After getting the vine out I noticed fresh grease on the end of it, uh-oh!  Then I check the right front wheel and it had lots of the same grease on it!  So now we had a change of plans, head for Pensacola and on Monday have the Jazz checked out for the cause of the grease.

Day 12 – April 13: At the Honda dealer bright and early.  They were most helpful and plus I got to use their WiFi.  Then the bad (well not very bad) news, the grease had come from the boot that covers the CV (constant velocity) joint on the right front wheel.  They didn’t have the part in stock but were ordering it for overnight delivery from California.  If all went well I could be back on the road Tuesday afternoon.  It was OK to drive the Jazz so I made my way back to JuneBug (parked at a Wal*Mart of course) where it started to downpour!  Elayne’s knee was not getting better so we took her to the ER to have it checked out.  We had AAA tour books which turned out to be very much less than helpful so I made the best of the time by visiting a nearby Camping World store and got the Woodall’s guide (very nice, comes with a CD-ROM which you can install on your computer… Recommended!).  The goodnews is that Elayne didn’t need a new knee shipped overnight from California, just rest and relaxation (hey that’s what this trip is about!).  After lunch and a nice nap we went exploring the area.  I was thinking of the nearby Naval Air Museum but got there too late.  At least we had kept warm and dry on a cold damp day of liquid Florida sunshine (the same kind we had back in California!).

Day 13 – April 14: Back at the Honda dealer for all the WiFi (and donuts) I could eat!  Almost 4 hours of high speed/sugar bless.  Got the blog updated, pixs put up on Flickr, software updates, news, weather, and no sports.  Plus the little Jazz was being repaired and finally the Sun was peaking thru the fluffy white clouds.  At 11:30 my baby was all well and I was heading back to the mothership so we could could “get out of Dodge”.  By 12:30 Pensacola was in the mirrors and we where heading down the road with the Sun overhead and the Blue Gulf on our right.

In an effort to get back to nature and enjoy this beautiful area I’ve moved to, I plan to set aside one day a week to make a “simple day trip”.

My first trip is just to explore the area South of Silver City going down close to the Mexican border.  I had just bought a new Honda Fit and this would be a good chance to see how it does.  So with my trusty sidekick, Cinder, off we went.  First stop was Lordsberg some 45 miles South West of home for a fill up and then I headed East on I-10 for NM 146 which took me South to the little burg of Hachita.

Ok, that is not the whole town, but it is almost a ghost town.  The cemetery some two miles south of town had some interesting graves with one person dying on the day I was born.  I continued South on NM Hwy 81 to the border crossing station at Antelope Wells which has neither Antelope or Wells.  No town just the border crossing station but Antelope Wells is the official southern starting point of the 3100-mile Continental Divide Trail. (BTW from where I live the next ridge a 1/4 mile to the East is the Continetal Devide).  Most of the traffic you see on the highway is US Border Patrol (B.P.).  Just to the East of the highway stands Big Hatchet Peak at 8,356 ft (1,132 m) and rises some 4,000 ft above the valley floor. 
The only real activity were big flatbed trucks hauling iron barriers that formed the “new” border fence.  They were designed to prevent vechiles from crossing the border, but as with most defenses the smugglers just come up with inventive ways to get past the defenses.  The goverment has a history of making mistakes with the fence in this area.

Back at Hachita I headed West on NM 9 towards Animas.  The highway parallels the old train road bed with bits of the past still standing, old bridges with “1908″ stamped in the concrete, long unused sidings for loading cattle and goods, and ghosts of steam trains heading for ‘old El Paso….

Soon I came into the town of Animas, one cafe, post office, high school, a few houses, and not much else.  Very unlike Hachita in that it was an active town.  From the town I headed South on Hwy 338 to see where it goes.  About 20 miles south of town the blacktop runs out and the road became a dirt superhighway (wish the road to my house was so smooth!).  Now the Fit doesn’t have a lot of clearance but so long as the road was in such good shape I would press on.  Soon I was being tailed by a B.P. pickup.  He followed me for about 10 miles before turning off onto Geronimo Trail Road (looked interesting so I’ll save that for another day).  The only traffic was B.P. going the other way on the road and off highway all over the place.  Soon I was was in the Animas Valley proper with Animas Peak/Mountains as a great back drop off to the east.

I began to notice large dirt hauler trucks going north (empty) and lots of temporary warning signs (speed limit, no passing etc…).  This seemed strange having all these large trucks out here (in the middle of no where).  As I approached the point where 338 heads West into the Coronado National Forest I could see large dust plumes from the trucks heading East along 338.  Sure enough as I was heading West the dirt trucks were heading East but now they were full.  In about 5 miles a road off to the right (going North) is where the trucks were coming from.  Mystery?
At this intersection was “Cloverdale” where the general store built in 1918 still stands.

Now 338 was getting pretty rough so I pulled over near a nice grove of Oaks and let Cinder explore.  Very remote, isolated, and beautiful.  Here I found the cocrete foundation of an old house that use to sit amougst the Oaks,  must have been a really cool there in the shade.  Now it was just a ride back up 338 and then to home.  The only bad thing was I got a rock chip in my windshield and that happened on the backtop road North of Animas.

PS:  The Honda Fit got 45.9 MPG for the day, Yea!

Patty Bryant

(click on picture for album of Patty pixs)

“



A Loving Sister, Mother, and Partner”

Pat’s life as told to Bob…

Pat grew up in small town Massachusetts spending “Tom Sawyer” summers in Bird Park swimming in the pond, laying on the stone bridge in the warming sun, stealing from old man Lacivada’s orchard (he really didn’t mind), twirling her “cowboy” rope while standing on a rail fence so she could make the lasso loop larger, kicking the autumn leaves, and facing the death of her mother at 12. That had a profound effect on her young life as she had to leave behind childhood and enter into adulthood with her sister to run a house, care for her father, and start working too early.

When Pat was 14 her sister Eileen married and moved out of the house. Pat then was in “charge” of her of a 6-room house, an alcoholic father, an eternally grumpy grandfather, a clueless older brother who also drank, and stubborn, angry, direction-less Pat, looking for love in all the wrong places.

As a young woman she didn’t get a chance to finish schooling though later she did get her GED and go onto college. She was wild and free which caused her to also be foolish and irresponsible. A strange combination brought about by being pushed onto the stage of life she wasn’t ready for.

One story that speaks volumes about how Pat saw herself was that while she was attending Framingham College her councilor asked for the address of her home where the school would send her grades. She replied with the address of her dorm and said it was her home. He replied next you’ll be telling me your mother and father are dead and you’re all alone in the world. Pat replied “Yes”… Of course she wasn’t “all alone” as she always had the love support of her sister Eileen.

She always liked to say how she was at M.I.T. during the first heady days of the space program (early sixties for you young folks). And she did get to meet some of the original 7 astronauts. Then she comes back to earth and confesses that she “worked at M.I.T.”…

It was at this time that Pat just a child herself in many ways but living the life an adult became pregnant. She had the sense to know she was not ready or able to care for a child so she opted to give up her daughter for adoption, Ann Patricia Griffen. So Pat only able to hold her for only 15 min. after giving birth. They would not hug again until 36 years later, first by a beautiful letter Pat received on 11 September 1998 and then a month later at the Orange County Airport.
It was one of the greatest joys of my life to be part of that reunion. It was Pat’s greatest joy of her life to be able to reconnect with Ann and find what a wonderful person she is. (Bob)

But also in time frame she did hear about the Unitarians and attended a meeting one day. Then she starting going more often and found that in fact she was a Unitarian which she remained for the rest of her life.

Then she found the “job of her life” working for Mrs. “Tillie” Moore, then Director of Nigerian Programs of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Pat would say “If I was independently wealthy and didn’t have to come in hear and work from 8 to 5 each day for money, I’d come in for free.” Living the true life of following your passion.

Pat was never clear about this part of her life as I think she was not proud of it. I’m sure she made many mistakes and suffered later from the daemons that haunted her mind. But in any case she married a Jack Griffin and in 1971 had a son Wylie.

When Wylie was 1 Pat feared for her and Wylie’s safety as Jack was quite abusive. She packed Wylie into a backpack and with a suitcase struck out for California.

Once again free but now with a 1-year old she had to work. Various jobs and a wild life were the norm. Once again Pat was adrift without much meaning other than trying to raise Wylie to not be his dad. In this clinging period she found and married Jerry Biechler becoming Pat Biechler. They seemed to be a happy family into dirt biking, sports, and camping. Pat was hoping Jerry would be the dad for Wylie that Jack was not. Things don’t always turn out the way we want.

Pat started working for a new Savings and Loan and soon found an unused state of the art (for the time) word processor. Pat is a wordsmith and took to the machine doing things with it that the manufacture didn’t know were possible. Soon her little closet operation became a central part of the organization and she had responsibility for more and more of the daily communications. Something must have happened in Pat’s mind and she became too stressed and broke down. In 1982 she was disabled and unable to function or work again in the 9-5 world.

In 1984 Pat and Bob meet as a result of the Orange County Road Riders, a touring motorcycle club. Pat was growing away from Jerry and finding she had traded one set abuse for another, this time it was the mental abuse that she saw and it was directed towards Wylie.

In 1986 Pat broke from her marriage and became a partner with Bob blending a family that included 3 kids. A year later Pat and Bob were married at their home in Garden Grove, CA… with the ceremony ending in the pool…

Wylie became more withdrawn and anti-social, all that he loved was his music. Pat and Bob tried to put him back on track but by 1989 he was living a vagabond’s life at the beach and in Hollywood. In the end Wylie had become his father Jack, beating up girlfriends, abusing drugs, and ending up in and out of prison. Pat’s worst nightmares that she fought so hard to prevent had become true.

Then Ann stepped into her life on September 11, 1998. That truly wonderful daughter that Pat had hoped for back in that hospital in Boston was in fact.

For 10 years they shared joys and sorrows, became mother and daughter while Pat was ever grateful to Ann’s true parents and NEVER wanted to detract from that.

When Pat and Bob got together them became “TeamBryant” and worked together thru the years in homeless shelters, care facilities for medically fragile children, building web sites for indigenous peoples, support the free thought movement, food gleaning programs, and always the UU movement. Pat was the lead while Bob made up the support staff.

And so on September 11, 2008 the end of the circle that began 10 years earlier came around to its starting point. Now the circle is complete.

Patty – “I keep trying to make things better, but even after a fresh coat of paint here, a fundraiser for homeless shelter there, or a protest against discrimination there, the decay eventually bleeds through again.. The sadness doesn’t stop… and I’m running out of paint!”

(Bob) I’m sorry that Silver City will miss the team but I will carry on the work as best as a hawk can with a broken wing… looking for more paint!

From the Native American Ishi people of the Pacific Northwest, who imagined that their dead spoke to them saying When I am dead, cry for me a little, think of me sometimes, but not too much. It is not good for you to allow your thoughts to dwell too long upon the dead. Think of me now and again as I was in life, at some moment which is pleasant to recall, but not for too long. Leave me in peace, as I shall leave you in peace. While you live, let your thought be with the living.

Aug 8: Our new pipe for the well came in from EP.  Jimmy and T.J. showed up in the early morning and stated putting the pump down into well.  After putting all 750 ft. of pump and pipe in they fired up the pump and didn’t get any water    The amps on the pump were low meaning it was not under load (not pumping water).  They played around with it for a while to no avail and no water!  So Jimmy thought it might be a bad check valve at the last section of pipe or in the pump.  Nothing to do but pull all 750 ft. up and check the check valves (again).  By Friday afternoon the had pulled the pump to within 200 ft. of the top when our afternoon thunderstorm struck.  With rain and lightning all around they camped out in the shelter of the truck.  Done in by the weather for today!

Aug 9: Back at it again Jimmy and T.J. finished pulling the remaining pipe and pump.  Checked the check valve and found it OK.  Pump looked good but the took it back to the shop to test it under load again. 

T.J. Showing our well pump.

Everything checked out!  Pump was doing 10 gal/min at 370 psi which would get water up the well and up the hill to our holding tank.  So back out to our place they went.  Jimmy put in a new check valve and put the pump and pipe back down the 750 ft.  Turned things on and this time got a trickle of water.  Still puzzled he pulled the pump up 12 ft and tried again.  This time they got a water flow, not strong but at least they were getting water.  Pulled the pump up a litter further and got a good 3-5 gal/min of flow.

Now that they were getting flow they buttoned everything up reconnected the pipe to our holding tank and turned things on. 

The well head and the pipe going up the hill to our holding tank

Now up they scurried up the hill to check the on delivery end and water was flowing into the holding tank.  For the 1st time in over a week our system was fully functional….  Not too sure how functional I’ll be after I get the bill.  This water well stuff is a bit of a black art.  Drill a hole in the ground and hope for the best.  Sometimes you get water sometimes you just get sand…  I know Jimmy and T.J. worked really hard to get our well operating again and thank them for all that hard work.

Best and clear skies, Bob

One more thing…. Here is Cinder, out-standing-in-her-field

Ask if she cares about all this

After trying to take a bath on Thursday and getting only 30 sec of water I knew something was not right.  Hoofing it out to the holding tank (after putting work clothes on) I could see that the water level was topped off and hear the pump running.  But no water was going into the house.

I made it down to Ace and got a sub. pump to draw water out of the holding tank putting as much as I could into buckets and tubs (we have a 120 gal horse trough) until the tank was nearly dry.  I also noticed our well pump was not sending water into the holding tank (not a good sign).  Checked the well pump and it was drawing electricity but not pumping water up the hill.  Shut it down to prevent any damage.

We called about 8 different companies and in the late afternoon 2 of the plumbers showed up.  Neither was able to work on the holding tank/booster pump.  One recommended a “friend” who had worked for Kester and the “friend” Bret did call back.  Said he had just helped move stuff, had a truck full of said stuff, and once he had it unloaded he would call back (putting that call at about 6:30 Thursday night).  Never heard from him again.

Jimmy Oliver from A&O Well Service did call on Friday morning.  He had been out in Mule Creek all day on Thursday so he didn’t get our calls (no cell service), he had a job to do in the Mimbres, and could be out around 2pm.  About 1pm he called from town to get exact directions and did show up around 2pm.

His first impression of the booster pump installation was that is was poor installation in that to service the tank you first had to empty (which I had already did emptying the water into our 120 gal horse trough), then go down into the tank, and finally work on the pump.  Jimmy suggested that he would reconfigure the installation so that the pump could be pulled w/o having to drain and go down into the tank.  Good, let’s do that.

T.J., Jimmy’s son went down into the tank and almost jumped out, there was a live mouse down in the tank (I had left the lid off the tank the night before).  Gave T.J. the business end of the shop vac and after a few tries the mouse was sucked up (later drowned in the water in the shop vac).  T.J. pulled the pump and then vac cleaned the tank (9 years of muck in the bottom).  Jimmy noticed a “xx” valve (don’t recall the exact name but it’s a restrictor valve) between the pump and pipe to the house, and wondered why that was in the system.  I set about taking apart the plumbing while Jimmy tested the pump in the horse trough.  Pump was AOK, right flow, right pressure, and in spec current draw.

In taking the plumbing apart I discovered a .26″ size rock in front of the the .25″ restrictor valve hole, the reason we weren’t getting water into the house!

After about 4 hrs. we had the pump and electric re-configured (so next time it can be serviced w/o so much trouble!), put our remaining water into the holding tank, and fired up the system.  Water filled the pressure tank inside the house in about 30 sec.  Now the house had water (but the holding tank just had enough to cover the pump).

Down to the well head we went.

Once again Jimmy was disappointed by the poor setup.  The check valve should have had a union between it and the well so that you could test the pump w/o having to drain the pipe leading up to the holding tank (180 ft. above the well head).  So he had to cut the pipe (and for the next 5 mins what water we had in the pipe drained into the creek bed).  He tested the pump.  It was drawing the spec’d current but no water was being pumped.  Now late in the day he said he could come back on Monday morn to pull the pump and gave us a number to call for a water truck delivery.

I called MeadowHawk Water service and the owner/operator, Tom, responded he was in Chicago, at the airport, and would not be back into Silver until Saturday.

Now for some more stage setting… Remember we had Tom King’s sister Ann and her partner (J.P.) from France staying with us?

(Bob, Ann, J.P., Tom, Sarah, & Pat reflected in the window)
No showers since Wednesday and now two days of hiking.  And now the closest water is in Chicago.  That’s when Tom said, “wait a sec.  I’ll call my son-in-law and see if he could bring some out”.  So about 6pm the wonderful truck with “Potable Water” painted on its side rolled up to our holding tank and topped it off.  Thanks to Pat busy rounding up any spare container we probably had 750 gals of good water stored around the house.

NOTE: The min water delivery was 1,000 gal for $75 but that tank had no more than 700 gals as we drained it dry.  In any case we now had water to shower (and we all needed it).

We had Tom King, Ann, J.P., and Sarah over on Friday for a wonderful dinner (steaks by Bob and scallops by Patty) so the day ended well (and it was full too) with a little sky gazing…

The next thing was on Saturday, we had a nice lunch at Diane’s where I left my ATM card.  Didn’t notice that until Sunday 2 hours after they closed and wouldn’t reopen until Tuesday.  Thank you again Pat for retrieving my card on Tuesday.

Monday about 8:30 Jimmy and T.J. show up (yeah!)  After 2 hours of pulling pipe (21′ sections of galvanized 2″ pipe)

the first section with indications of water came up (it was wet.  I could stop worrying about a dry hole).  Water was at 582′.  Up to now each section of pipe had water in it because of check valves installed in the pipe, but now the pipes were empty.  This indicated a hole in the pipe or at the junction of the pump and last section of pipe.  As the last section of pipe (750 foot level now) came up we could see a 1/4″ hole at about the middle of the section.  There is were the water was going!

The pump looked to be in good shape, Jimmy would take it back to the shop to check and clean it out (don’t expect any problems there).  Now another decision.  Replace the 1 section of pipe w/galvanized, replace that section with schedule 120 PVC, or replace all the sections (9) that were in water with PVC.  I went with the latter.  Jimmy called around and of course no one in Silver has a stock so it has to be trucked in from El Paso.  Should be in on Thursday with Jimmy planning to come out on Friday to put in the pump/pipe and get the installation reconfigured right!

Now just to be sure that we didn’t have a “copper theft” problem we loaded the 750 feet of pump wiring onto our trailer and have it stored up at the house.  It would be about $4k worth of copper wire at today’s prices.

So that is how I spent my weekend.  Those 2 nice nights…. with lots of stars…. no moon…. I slept through it all!  Too dog tired to open up the observatory.  Oh well….

At Least there is a

… at the end of every story. –Bob

Over the past week we’ve had delivered 12 tons of 3/4″ Red Rock (crushed flagstone) to help keep down the mud tracked in the house from our front yard. Bob and Pat got it started:

And Patty finished it (with help from a couple of hired hands). What do you think of her work?

Full set of pix at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sc_bobnpat/sets/72157605543871773/

Bob…

Patty has been working on her hair trying to go away from the straight look. This week she got it to wave (yea) and I think it’s really looking good. What do you think?

Pat got this really great pix of Cinder and myself playing. We call this pix “The Black Diablo”. She’s really not mean at all and at worst she’ll lick you face off Bob…

Our house guests, Janet and Ron from Austin TX, over the Memorial Day weekend and Bob enjoy the sights. Here we are looking a Saturn (when Patty wasn’t flashing us).

Dicovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781.

The Owl Nebula Messier 97 (M97, NGC 3587) is one of the fainter objects in Messier’s catalog. It is one of the four planetary nebulae in that catalog, and situated in constellation Ursa Major.

M97 was discovered by Pierre Méchain on February 16, 1781. In his description of this object, Charles Messier also mentions two other nebulous objects that he (and Méchain) have seen at about the same time, but which he had not added in his printed catalog version of 1781 (in the Connoissance des Temps for 1784). As the description is obvious and he added positions by hand in his personal copy, as well as descriptions in his manuscript personal pre-print version, we now know that he had observed the objects M108 and M109. Admiral William H. Smyth first classified it as planetary nebulae in 1844. The name “Owl Nebula” goes back to Lord Rosse, who first used it in 1848; see his drawing. In 1866, William Huggins recognized its nature as a gaseous nebula from the observation of its spectrum, where he discovered two spectral lines.

M97 is one of the more complex planetary nebulae. Its appearance has been interpreted as that of a cylindrical torus shell (or globe without poles), viewed oblique, so that the projected matter-poor ends of the cylinder correspond to the owl’s eyes. This shell is enveloped by a fainter nebula of lower ionization. The mass of the nebula has been estimated to amount 0.15 solar masses, while the 16 mag central star is believed to be of about 0.7 solar masses. Its dynamical age is about 6,000 years. (from Stephen J. Hynes, Planetary Nebulae).

As often for planetary nebulae, the Owl is significantly brighter visually (Machholz: 9.7 mag, Hynes: 9.9 mag) than photographically (about 12.0 mag), as most light is emitted in one green spectral line (see our Planetary Nebulae page). Its distance is uncertain; the Sky Catalog 2000 has 1,300 light years (400 pc), I.S. Shklovsky 1,430, O’Dell and Kohoutek independently found 1,600 in the early 1960s, Cudworth (1974) 2,600 (our value), Becvar’s Atlas Coeli Catalog 7,460, Voroncov-Vel’jaminov published 8,150, Kenneth Glyn Jones gives 10,000, and Kaufmann has 12,000 light years (some of these values quoted from Burnham).

(Click on image for full size)