Canyons, Colorado, lots of miles

Hello everyone, I am blogging tonight from Telluride Colorado, and staying with Aunt Laurie Uncle Tom, Audrey and Ella! I haven't posted in four days, so this will be a tad lengthier. 

This past Sunday night I stayed at a KOA in Lubbock Texas, posted the last blog update, and went to a drive-in movie theater across the highway. This was really cool, besides the fact I felt like a looser going to the movies alone, because I thought that drive-ins did not exist anymore. I saw Super 8 which was OK and The Hangover 2 which was pretty predictably disappointing and funny at the same time. 

The next day, I ate lunch with JT and Daniel Rose's brother Ben, who is a student at Texas Tech. We ate Mexican food and had a few beers and a good chat. 

 That afternoon, I visited a cotton seed oil mill. I didn't take any pictures, but the uses of cotton seed oil are pretty cool and its very healthy (tasteless, unlike most oils). Not only is cotton seed oil healthy for you (no trans fats), ALL of the by-products are sold to other industries and thus nothing goes to waste.   The massive piles of cotton seeds were very impressive in their on rite (oh about 100 feet tall, and about 8 or 9 of them (just the seeds)). I will not continue to bore you with stuff about the cotton seed mill.  

After the mill I hit the road to Palo Duro Canyon State Park which is southwest of Amarillo Texas. For those of you who are note Texas State Park buffs, Palo Duro Canyon is the second largest canyon in the United States by volume.

 When I arrived, I immediately set up the camper, but for some reason if felt a little uneasy; almost like I was being watched -and it wasn't the bikers camping across the road.  I realized after a while there was a deer standing about ten yards away from me (god knows for how long), blankly staring as if he were actually interested in what I was doing. Seeing a deer this close, that wasn't scared of me, made me giddily smile. I jokingly gave her the dog whistle, and said "here boy," and what do ya know she came closer. Then, I noticed something... this deer was drooling. I thought to myself, "man I sure hope she doesn't have rabies or something." But then I remembered that the area had not had a rain in almost 8 months, and also that I didn't ever see that river that carved this big ole canyon (because it no longer existed)....hmm I bet she his thirsty.  I got her a bowl from my cabinet and poured her some water, and she immediately came and lapped up the bowl of water. 

Quite a feeble, ribby deer, and thirsty nonetheless 

She got very very close; this is not zoomed. She kept smelling in the camper. I assume that she smelled some food or something. I will keep this in mind as I transition to bear country. 

From the base of the Canyon floor. I have realized that since I can't take pictures of myself, I without realized that the truck and camper represents me in all of the pictures. 

The next event in the canyon was that night. I  was awoken by lightning and my power going out to the AC hookup. I said, well Crap.... this is great, this place is in an 8 month drought and I get here when the only storm of the century is coming through. I thought, it won't be that bad, and plus the ground is sandy and dry so I'll be fine. WELL. I couldn't sleep a wink. I kept on thinking "how am I going to get out of a canyon flash flood...." So i decided to think positively, "I guess I won't get struck by lightning, and if these mesquite trees fall, I doubt it would do any real damage; I bet the percentages on canyon tornadoes is pretty low." The lightening was popping non-stop, but after about two hours of hard rain, it ceased and the power came back on and I drifted to sleep thinking my dear doe friend wouldn't need me anymore. 

That morning in the canyon, I was having I nice after packing/shower breakfast when my old doe friend shows back up for some more....hmmm not water. Well now just overnight Mrs. Doe thinks my water isn't good enough for her tastes, she wants a piece of strawberry pop-tart and a crunch of my carrot. Not only did she crash b-fast she brought three of her best friends along to pester me. I swatted at them, did a deer warning call...nothing deterred these ladies. While I was concentrated on the three deer in front of me, one came over my shoulder and tried to take my carrot... I spun around, and she jumped. I finally figured out that they responded only to foot stamping, which I have observed female deer do when they are aggravated or  confused about the identity of another animal. They eventually moved off and I pointed the camper to Spearman Texas. 

Buzzed wheat field, as far as the eye can see

I stopped in Spearman Texas to meet another one of Tom's friends from the past, and to tour his state-of-the-art cotton gin. Mr. Key is a great guy, spent about 2.5 hours with him at the gin and then we enjoyed some Texas BBQ brisket and ribs and I headed to Pueblo Colorado to meet up with Carter Johnson at Karen Witten's family's ranch. 

This is the road that Mr. Key's cotton gin is on, every road out here is like this: long, strait, and seemingly endless. 

Sky-Scraper (grain bin) in Spearman Texas

To you Mr. Bridges... Dad (I mean Julie Because I know he doesn't look at this thing) send this to Mr. Bill

After long hours across the flatness of the Texas panhandle (I think the panhandle is more properly named the top-hat because it looks nothing like a panhandle), I see a fire in this drought stricken land... I was excited to see some action, so I slowed down and checked it out... until I realized it was a gas station that was on fire...... then I quickly sped away. 

I spent about 4 hours in New Mexico, going to Colorado. I saw a Volcano, and a bunch of volcanic formations. I have pictures but I couldnt find them on the camera... Ill update later. The mountain on the left hand horizon is a volcanic formation 

Went through a mountain pass... It dropped 30 degrees and I was in Colorado! The weather was quite interesting in NM too went from 100 degrees to 68 in about 20 miles. 

The Ranch where I deposited the camper, which has a great view of pikes peak.

On the ride to Telluride.

Ha Ironic. There is a comedian with the same name as my Uncle Tom who I was in route to visit. 

Hot Tamale

Today I am in Lubbock Texas, home of Texas Tech... and not much else unless you are interested in agriculture or energy.  Though I am sure Texas Tech is probably a great school, this drought stricken town looks like the surface of mars: desolate and hot. 

Colorado Bend State Park was a good time. I was able to see some interesting things while I was there such as a the roadrunner and painted bunting (look it up, it looks like a parakeet finch) birds, caught some fish on the fly rod (including a Gigantic Guadalupe Bass), went for a long bike ride, and visited a spring fed creek that comes out of a huge ravine/rock-walled gully/what would be a canyon in Georgia.

I was in Colorado Bend State Park for Thursday and Friday nights, and then went to Lake Brownwood State Park where I proceeded to do nothing but catch up on my eating, sleeping, reading, writing and Gatorade drinking.    

Hmm... No coffee filters

Homemade Coffee filters. (Paper towels cut with leatherman) 

A fun-sized Guatalupe Bass caught on the fly rod from the Colorado River

Some sort of bream/sunfish that would have been delicious 

Fellow swimmers Matt and Rachel helped me with the picture taking, since it is quite hard to do solo

Spice Wood Springs Creek Pool, and yours truly 

Nappin' by the creek 

Camp Spot in Colorado Bend State Park* (*heard of noisy nocturnal deer that seemed to like my camper not depicted). Also to any fellow Arborists, that is a very stumpy pecan tree, which (with my hypothesis) because of a arid climate, seems to look more like a Laurel Oak.

I must have passed well over 1000 wind turbines as I was coming across the plains of Texas. The interesting thing was, that there were lots of oil pumps in this area also, often times interspersed with the wind turbines. Lots of energy here. 

Picture of wind turbines and petroleum wells in the same frame. (I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty proud of my balancing act/photography skills to drive the truck with a camper and come out with this shot) 

No, you aren't reading the engine temperature or my Philly cheese-steak sandwich temperature, that's how hot it was in the shade today on the way from Abilene to Lubbock Texas. Puuuurdy hot I might say. (It isn't humid though, 110F with 10% Humidity in Texas doesn't have anything on 100F in GA with 100% Humidity)

And as the odyssey continues, I will be meeting with some of my uncle's (Tom) former colleagues and customers as I travel from Lubbock to Palo Duro Canyon State Park tomorrow. On the 28th I will travel from the canyon through Amarillo, to Spearman Texas where I will visit a cotton farmer, and then to Pueblo Colorado that evening.

TEXAS

        Ok… So I am in Colorado Bend State Park in Bend, Texas this evening sitting atop a large hill so that I can get service for my Internet card. I left Houston this morning after having a good time hanging out with UGA friends for a few days. On Tuesday night Gray and I joined some of his new-found Houston buddies at a bar for trivia, which was really fun.  Then on Wednesday, I went to eat with Gray, Gray’s roommate, John, Sean, Maggie and Callie Anne, it was good to see everyone!  

Today when I finally got West of Houston, to some better roads, I came across this thing Texans like to call a “toll road” (which we don’t have many, if any in GA).  At these “toll roads” they like to charge you about  $1.00 PER AXIL on your vehicle. I thought “well that seems pretty reasonable:  more tires, more wear on the road.” Well, it wasn’t long before I saw ANOTHER toll booth… and then ANOTHER toll booth…(you see where I am going with this).

 When I got to the fourth toll booth, I asked the guy, “Yall are getting me pretty good on these, are you the last one?”  He said “Yep, where ya headed?” And then he proceeded to give me directions to the park I am at right now, which I completely ignored (he didn’t notice).  I guess he didn’t see the Garmin suctioned to my windshield, or the look in my eye that said, “why weren’t you there four booths back to tell me how to avoid Tolls.” Welp, by the time I got north of Austin Texas, I had paid $19 odd dollars so that I could ride on Texas’s beautiful concrete highways.

Then I asked myself “19 dollars?! That’s kinda pricey. Right?” Then I realized it was a highway named after some Bush guy… Look at the pictures below and you will know why it cost me about $80 in gas and $19 in tolls to get across a small part of Texas. 

LINK TO WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/colorado_bend/

 Houston Home... I may have posted this already

 Unnecessarily, over-the-top decoration of State Highway Concrete

 Yeah these, gaudy stars were placed every location possible on this sacred highway

Hmm.... There is Roadrunner bird in this tree about midway down. He hopped up there from the road as I was getting my camera. He is a cool bird, that we dont have in GA, but what is cooler is that my Camper is called "roadrunner"

The head of a Roadrunner emblem on the front of my camper that I see in my rear view every time I forget that I can't see anything out of my rear view. (I am going to get a better picture of one later, they are everywhere at this park)

Home at Colorado Bend State Park. Parked strategically under a pecan tree for shade and recreation purposes.

My new hashbrown dish called Roadrunner Nest

Add ground beef, fresh diced tomatoes, and sliced sharp cheddar Hmmmm

Salivating 

Bambi walked out into the river when I went down there to check it for fishability 

I'm no technophile

I am making this post short and sweet as far as text goes. I am going to do some hiking, biking and fishing while I am on the Colorado River here. Then I am heading to Brownwood Lake State Park on Saturday. Monday I am visiting one of my Uncle Tom's friends in Lubbock to check out his manufacturing business (only interesting for an Engineer I guess). 

Houston: No Problems

Monday I left New Orleans at about 7:30AM. I was passing by this small town called Gonzales Louisiana,  enjoying the scenic views of the beautiful Louisiana Bayous, when low and behold there pops up a Cabela's Outfitters! I SLAM on brakes and stop in just in time for the opening of the store at 9AM. This was no doubt the most surprising site of the trip thus far; I have never been into a Cabela's though I have been looking at Cabela's catalogs since I can remember, so being able to go in this store was like a trip to Mecca of sorts. As I bedazzledly (I made up that word) fumbled around the practically empty Cabela's store for about two hours, I wondered to myself "I wonder how a store makes it out here in the middle of nowhere with no customers." WELL. I realized just how they make it when I went to the cash register....

One of New Orlean's more well-maintained streets (no joke)

A couple "My Size" Catfish at Cabela's 

A Tank of Redfish? Man they know how to get me. 

 A ridiculous wall/mountain of mounted animals 

Even a Polar Bear

 Oh Yeah

 The pinnacle of Baton Rouge's bridge over the Mississippi River 

So yesterday was probably the most difficult driving I've ever had to do in the daytime. Between New Orleans roads with 8:00AM traffic, and Houston's traffic at 5:00PM and hauling a cumbersome travel-trailer... I was glad to get to "All Star RV Resort." I am looking forward to finding road,s with less traffic. (It wasn't quite as bad as driving in Brisbane, in a compact, at night, in the rain, on one-way streets, with no gps or passenger.... on the left side of the road)

A meal of rice and chicken in Houston 

My Houston Home

Last night, I ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant with Gray Millsap and Sean Dauterive, and had drinks afterward. Today I got my first "poo disposal" experience with the camper.... Lets just say that it took me about 15 minutes and I was on my way to Walmart to get RV tank deodorizer.... hahaha (it was about a hair away from my rat/trunk experience).

Maiden Voyage, Mobile + New Orleans

Right now I am sitting in my camper in Stephen Kreller's side-yard in New Orleans Louisiana.  The trip has been great so far, I have made some progress west and I have seen some friends and had some fun! I left from Bainbridge on Friday the 17th in the afternoon and drove to Mobile and got there safely around dark (I say safely because the GPS was telling me to go through the smaller of the two tunnels in Mobile and I would not have made it through if I tried. Wouldn't that be an embarrassingly short trip across America).

Picture below: Me leaving my house in Bainbridge (photo Courtesy of Ann Brannen)

 I am still trying to work out all the little kinks in my camper set up, like "shifting luggage" I had a large Gatorade powder mix fall out of the cabinet during transit, and explode everywhere (so I put little bungee straps on the cabinet handles). I met up with Martin Hackney's friend, Todd Robinson who graciously let me put the camper at his Dads house, and then took me to a catfish and bream fish fry and his friend's house.  The fish, coleslaw, and blackberry cobbler was AWESOME and the Natural Lights were pretty good too; Martin met up with us later on and we all ended up back at Todd's apartment. The next day Martin, Todd and I went and got the camper and took it to his family's place on the Fowl River where many of family members had gathered this weekend to go to a wedding party Saturday evening.  I hung out on the "Warf" (dock) all day and swam in the river, with the Hackney family and company. They Late that afternoon, I took a shower in the camper, made myself some Ramen noodles and hit the road to New Orleans to meet up with Daniel Salisbury and his brothers, David and Stephen.

Picture below: My Hackney Surrogate-Parents

   Louisiana roads are terrible, I mean terrible, especially for a truck with a travel trailer. I eventually got to Stephen's house after going through a seemingly uncoordinated jumble of crowded and craggy New Orleans backstreets, overpasses and corridors.  I called a cab and got a ride to the French Quarter to meet up with Daniel and his brothers. The fact that bars don't seem to ever close in New Orleans is very deceiving to an Athens person who is accustomed to bars closing at 2 AM.  Nonetheless, it was a very fun outing in ole' Nawlins, we visited DBA bar, Bruno's, and F & M's. Quite exhausted from the night before, I decided to wait until Monday morning to head to my next destination, Houston Texas.

Picture below: My camper at Stephens House, not very exciting but maybe you can appreciate this picture, Drew 

  

Ready to Ride, T-minus Hours

I just got all of my things situated and ready for departure today. The camper is loaded down with all of my belongings that I could not spare. I finished packing the camper yesterday, my camera came in the mail yesterday, I finally got my computer in the mail today (so I can update the blog), and I cleaned, serviced and switched trucks with my Dad. Now I am finishing up packing the truck with my camping gear, generator, bike and RV camper accessories. I plan to leave tomorrow morning, the 16th of June!!! Destination: Unknown (It doesn't really matter when you bring your hotel room with you).