Let’s get this started….
When faced with the prospect of trying to recant two weeks full of cross country traveling I was somewhat leery . It would be much easier to just say “It was a good trip, here are the pictures” and move on. I don’t plan to do an in depth day by day analysis, it would require me to call on my memory far too often. This will probably be broken into several posts.
Ok looking back it looks like I have up to Day 3 decently documented. The trip up to that point was enjoyable. Neither Ali or I spent much time in the back of the van because we were constantly seeing new things that neither of us wanted to miss. We were following a pretty relaxed driving schedule, leaving by 9:00 or 9:30 and then stopping normally no later than 7. Plus as we headed west we were gaining time due to passing through time zones which gave the illusion of even more padding in the schedule.
Our 3 rd day ended in Fort Stockton, Texas which was more or less a hole in the wall town. I wasn’t thrilled with the LaQuinta there, one of the reasons being the place was jammed full of truckers. As I walked Nicki around I saw drunk guys walking around as well as empty beer boxes outside several rooms. When I related that as one of my reasons for not liking the place to Ali she was a bit taken back about my negative stereotyping of truckers since her Pop Pop was a trucker. I immediately felt bad and tried to clarify my comment based on what I saw.
The final leg of our drive to my dad’s was very interesting. Ali and I both were anxious to reach our destination. Up until the last day and a half I had kept the van at speeds no greater than 70-72 mph, kept constant by the cruise control. However I decided to push through the 73-75 mph shake zone and set the cruise at 80 which smoothed out again. The only problem was as our elevation kept increasing (Dad lives somewhere between 4500 and 5000 feet) the van was unable to maintain 80 up even the most mild of hills. It was downshifting constantly to try to keep it’s speed up. Back east it had no issues. The lack of power was astonishing due to the thinner air creating a rich fuel mixture which in turn makes for a less efficient combustion process.
We got to the point where we could no longer use the GPS and had to switch over to the directions dad sent us. As we went on the roads got progressively less populated until eventually it was just us and a few cattle. As we descended into the canyon where my dad’s place is we crossed two arroyos which are dry river beds. They only have water during the monsoon season which is a very small portion of the time. The rest of the time they are just extremely bumpy, rough terrain to cross. The van bounced around like crazy as we crossed, it wasn’t made for off road adventures. We see the signs pointing to our stopping point, we are close. 
As we navigated our way towards their house we both got a true sense of how isolated this little town was. It truly is in the middle of nowhere.
We turn on to Hummingbird Lane which is the side road they live on. It isn’t an official road as far as a map is concerned but it was named by the residents, because well, they have a lot of hummingbirds in the area. We pull into dad’s property and see their pickup truck parked with the doors open. They had just gotten back themselves and were unloading groceries.
After some quick greetings we jumped into unloading both the van and the remaining groceries. It looked like Teresa cleaned out the store, there were that many bags. Their refrigerator was packed to the gills. She was prepping for both our arrival and the next day arrival of my sister, brother-in-law and my niece (and their dog, Baxter)
We threw our stuff in the guest bedroom which was very nice. It had the brand new, remote controlled Samsung AC unit in the window to combat any hot bedroom issues that could be present. The house itself was very nice, pretty much what I imagined from the pictures. After getting a brief tour inside, Dad took us outside to tour the “estate”. He has about 16 acres of land.
The first thing I noticed was the trench running down the middle of the property along with various guillotine-like gates along the way. This is the irrigation trench. Every 19 days, someone upstream diverts water down this trench for a period of 9 hours or so. Then the gates are used to divert water to the various areas of the property. It is flood irrigation where each field is covered with a few inches of water which sustains it until the next 19 day cycle begins. Rain is so scare that without this water source nothing would grow.
Dad had two large fenced in fields which surpisingly both had horses in them. Dad never mentioned anything about having horses. He told us that the horses actually belonged to one of the neighbors. He is allowing them to graze there in exchange for his neighbor tending to the watering duties if Dad is away. It turns out that is quite a bargain for the neighbor. Dad later found out that normally it could cost someone upwards of 200 bucks a month to rent grazing land like that.
Dad took us around showing us more things like the several fruit tree orchards, the various out buildings like a big metal pole barn, along with two other storage buildings and the remains of another one which he was in the process of taking down to build something else in it’s place. Under the pole barn was another structure that he was building to serve as a workshop. It’s only phase one as there is going to be another building inside to store things like his motorcycles and the Alfa.
As he is rattling off all these perspective to do projects I couldn’t help wondering what he got himself into. Don’t get me wrong, the place is very beautiful and as soon as I arrived I got a quite sense of peace about it, but then again I don’t have to maintain it. I guess I keep putting myself in his shoes and imagining if I would want that much to do on a daily basis when I am 60. My answer is no, but I guess Dad feels differently. I would need to keep busy, I would need to do something to feel useful, just not THAT much.
So anyway the tour was over and we got to settle in. It was great fun watching their two dogs interact with Nicki. Dad and Teresa got a new dog, Clara around the time Dad was in Florida visiting us. Clara is very high strung and likes to greet you by nipping at your face. She also is not very well disciplined and has a tendency to run off when she is unrestrained. She didn’t get the formal training that their other dog Maggie did. Plus when Maggie was maturing they lived in the development in Las Cruces and had plenty of free time to focus on training her. Nicki got to be off leash the entire time we were there since obviously there are no busy roads to be fearful of. It was a big treat for her. Initially she would stay right by our side even though she was unleashed. As the week progressed she got progressively braver, often venturing out on her own to explore. I actually had to reel her back in several times by the end of the week.
Before we left on the trip dad had told me how he had been quite busy with various projects and he was worn out and looking forward to taking a 4 or 5 day break while we were there and not do any work and just relax. Once we arrived dad mentioned that some guys were coming during the week to do several things related to the new well he had dug and running electric out to the new building he was erecting. However he indicated it should be minor as far as his involvement. Eh I didn’t care really. We surely did plenty of work when he visited us.
Our first night in Monticello/Placita wasn’t bad. Our room had a door with a screen door to the outside as well as a ceiling fan. Instead of turning on the AC I left the door open to see how it would be. As I was falling asleep, instead of the white noise I am accustomed to hearing, it was replaced with a huge array of sounds from the nighttime creatures, some familiar some not so familiar. When I woke up in the morning the room was actually chilly. When I took Nicki out for her bathroom jaunt there was a refreshing chill in the air, something we won’t feel in Florida until mid to late October, maybe. Nicki had a hard time figuring out where to do her business. Unlike the wall to wall grass she is used to, the land right around dad’s place is rather spartan with a small patches of grass and weeds and a whole lot of dirt. Nicki made do and found small spots of vegetation to utilize.
Dad recently got “high speed” internet in the form of satellite internet. When we first moved out to our house I too had satellite internet. It was not great. The performance varied wildly and the response time up to a satellite and back to terra firma just is not fast. Dad’s service seemed worse than ours, offering speeds that may have equaled a normal 56k dial up line. It’s all that is available. I hopped on their computer a few times to check email and post a couple brief blog entries but that about it.
That first morning dad was outside early roughing up pvc fittings and priming them. After a pop tart breakfast I went out and helped him, priming the fittings while he sanded. With our huge sprinkler project we never bothered to sand the fittings maybe because of the scope of it. Anyway all of our sprinkler connections were just fine but dad wanted to go the extra step and rough up the pvc for his lines. He was putting in pvc to run from the new well that was just dug. The old well was not actually on their property so they dug a new one.
Later in the morning a guy named Terry showed up. He is the jack of all trades in this small town, you name it and Terry can pretty much do it or knows someone else that can. Terry was using his backhoe to dig a trench from around the house down to the pole barn, nearly 300 feet away as well as a shorter trench from the new well to the side of an out building by the house.. In parts of this trench was going electrical conduit, the pvc dad was laying and wiring to control the well pump. Terry was a very likable guy that seemed to have a very happy disposition on life as well as being an extremely hard worker.
During the day we took a quick drive into “downtown” Monticello, there wasn’t a whole lot to see. Many of the properties were abandoned and/or used as junkyards. Everything is more or less on one road including the post office and fire department. The paved road ends and turns into a rocky dirty road which we traveled along for awhile. As we passed various properties dad would comment on them. He knew much more about the people in town than I thought he would.
One thing I picked up on right away is the difference in the people. Every car that we passed, waves were exchanged. There is a friendliness that I am just unaccustomed to. It is a good fit for dad whom always has been the type to strike up conversations with people, unlike me.
Late in the day Tuesday, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece and their dog showed up. They were pulling their boat with their MONSTEROUS Dodge Ram truck. Damon had this thing tricked out to the max with huge 27 inch wheels, an industrial winch, lift kit and auxiliary propane injection system, what a beast. I got meet my niece Emily whom up till now I only knew via pictures. She is a cute little baby. Their dog Baxter added to the canine madness.
In addition to the 4 dogs we had under roof, there was 5th dog as well, Seymour. Seymour is a basset hound from a neighbor that lives at least a half mile away. He seems to have adopted my dad and Teresa as his new family. He spends much more time with them than his home. He had a hilarious personality. He just wanted to be involved in things. Even though he had short stubby legs he was surprisingly fast and was eager to participate whenever the other dogs were running around and rough housing. Every time you went in or out the screen door, Seymour was normally right there ready to go inside at a moments notice. As we were inside, Seymour would be laying outside the door staring in. As soon as you looked at him or said his name, his big long tail would start wagging. It was so sad. All he wanted was to be part of the gang. Every couple of days my dad throws Seymour in the truck and drops him off at his real home only to have him wander back to his place within a day or so. When Seymour is at my dad’s overnight he spends it sleeping on a lounge chair on the porch. He is a great dog, it’s sad that his owners don’t really seem to care about him. My step mom may try to find him a real home.
This is enough for one entry….