Life has been busy. I'm working on the writeup. At least a bit is here.
Long story. Long trip.
A few years ago in a conversation with boat guru and friend Jody Seal, he offered me an old ZO compatible engine (ZO is a speed control system for tournament waterskiers). By the time I warmed to the idea of putting a ZO engine in the antique American Skier, the engine was sold. But seeds were planted.
Last winter, my son Kirk’s Waterworld show at Universal was shut down for planed maintenance. He had informally pitched Todd Ristorcelli, the editor of Waterski magazine who published other articles by Kirk, an article on how to convert an old boat to ZO. We talked to Jody about getting an expensive new engine. Jody wisely went slowly with us – he is a guru (and friend). Something happened at Waterski magazine and there is a new editor who is not ready for that article.
Meanwhile, Kelvin Kelm had heard of my crazy ideas and was inspired to upgrade a couple of motors in his Nautique 200s. Note that he has multiple ski boats – but I can’t judge, I have two more than him. His boats are bound to help out some college programs – sweet! Kelvin offered me a great deal on both the motors. Only problem, Kelvin lives in Texas and I’m in California. Shipping was reasonable but logistically difficult. Road trip!
Technically I started traveling with a flight to Santa Ynez to visit our daughter in law. But this had nothing to do with picking up ski boat parts and I did get one night in my home bed (I was too tired to leave Sunday night) so it doesn’t count.
I drive from San Diego to the lake in the morning to switch to the truck. I need to build a rack for the engines and do some lake maintenance (and get in a nice long swim – the water is warming up nicely) so I’m really late leaving. GPS says 18 hours from Mecca to Texas. OK, that leaves some sightseeing room I think. Silly me.
Right off the bat I go through some of the prettiest scenery. The Painted Canyon road from Mecca to I10 is desert spectacular. Steep canyons with varied bright strata surround the road. We like to hike there but I haven’t driven all the way through in years. What a treat! A good omen?
A little ways down I10 I see a weird rock formation. It looks like three people standing and talking. Except they are 3 hundred feet tall (maybe more). With a little rock sculpting and some inspiration they might rival Mount Rushmore. Silly daydreams – and the trip has barely started.
Caffeine is a powerful drug. It’s getting late but I’m not tired. Actually, not true. My butt is really tired of sitting (sitting is not good for my new hip) but I’m not sleepy. Because Arizona doesn’t do daylight savings and matches California time in summer, I’m not suffering any jet lag. Actually, I have no idea what time it is. My old cracked screen phone is too lazy to readjust to time zone changes. The car radio time display is random – the phone plugged into recharge sometimes resets the time – sometimes not. The minutes sometime match the phone minute display, sometimes not. Not enough banks with the time and temperature display on this route to really know. Since I don’t know the time, I don’t know when bedtime is. When I see the moonrise, I know it’s late. I pull into a rest area to sleep. A quick nap and I realize I’m totally caffeine wired. Back on the road. Next rest area – now I’m in New Mexico – I try to sleep again. A quick nap and I’m going again.
I hate sunrises. It means I’m up way too early. And the sun is blasting my red eyes. And I lost my dark glasses a while ago so I’m using a pair with electrical tape holding them together skewed on my face. The bank in Las Cruces says it’s 7AM so I actually do have time to sightsee. Off to White Sands and see a museum while the sun rises enough to not blind me.
The missile range at White Sands was recommended so I head there. WTF, I’m in the middle of nowhere NM and there’s a traffic jam. It’s approaching 8AM and everyone is going through the checkpoint to work. It is a working missile range, And honestly, it’s not traffic by California standards. I get out of the workers line for the visitor security checkpoint. It was crowded with contractors going in to do real productive work. My turn comes up and the guard takes my license. The best radio reception in Las Cruces was NPR discussing North Korea. With a last name Lee (the Korean spelling) I guess I understand the delay in the security clearance. But I did get cleared to tour the visitor center.
Fun collection of all Kim Jong Il’s missile collection (our antiques). I’m impressed that Alan Shepard fit on top of a Redstone rocket. Nice museum with some interesting history – both regarding the rockets and the pre history of the area. Good thing we got Werner Von Braun – and swiped the land from the Native Americans. Watched an old spool of the V2 rocket procedure. Amazingly complex. Good stop.
The docent recommended the White Sands Monument so escaped from the fence and gate to head east. That’s a big missile range. Finally got to the dunes. Another excellent museum. More history and some geology. The dunes are gypsum sand. It could have been a monument or a wallboard factory. Interesting. As I walk out of the museum (next to the gift shop), I spy Saucer boy from GNAR! Really it’s a kid peeling the price tag from her new saucer. But there’s some fun sliding out there! Approved and condoned by the park service. Pretty cool. I fork over the 5 bucks to get in (after a long negotiation with the ranger – if I’m going to a bunch of other parks should I get the annual pass? Just go for the 5 buck entry and if you get to another park they’ll credit you. I think he knew how bid New Mexico really is.). Cool park. Nice boardwalk hike (it was slippery even though it wasn’t wet despite the ‘slippery when wet” sign). It was early and the kids hadn’t made it to the sliding dunes yet so no silly human entertainment. Lots of movie scenes are filmed there - Waterworld vs Mad Max skiing behind the snowmobile scene I’m thinking would be part of a cool movie (and a perfect part for my SAG stuntman son). Silly daydreams to keep me entertained on the drive.
So I head off to Carlsbad Caverns. It’s still in New Mexico so it can’t be that far? Hmmm. Hmmm. I had been warned to gas up in El Paso. Since I didn’t go through El Paso, I figured I’d better gas up wherever I saw gas. So I stopped frequently – there were a reasonable number of gas stations. But there were long stretches of very lonely roads. Much more comfortable with a full tank. I was hoping for lunch at Carlsbad Caverns so I passed on the gas station mini mart pre packed sandwiches. Saw an old school ski resort at Cloudcroft. No snow – it wasn’t even cold. Is it that late in the season? Lisa is off to Tahoe for some sweet spring skiing. The one chair serving the nekkid flat hill might keep me from making a winter ski destination of Cloudcroft. Still, it was a very pretty drive through a pretty mountain forest.
Gradually the road flattened out and stretched on. Forever? These detours are adding some distance to the journey. Finally arrived at Carlsbad Caverns. It was just about to close!? The elevators down were broken so I would have to walk down. After sitting in the car forever, that sounded great. But they were already starting the closing sweep. I could go as far as the sweeping ranger – and I didn’t have to pay to go in. OK. I’m off to the races. I made it a long ways in to meet the ranger in the depths of the dark cave. It was incredibly impressive. I enjoyed a leisurely walk back out enjoying the sights. No bats but the swallows were in full flight at the entrance. The bat guano was a valuable commodity and was mined from there until fairly recently. Learn new $hit all the time.
I had no phone service for most of the drive. These were very remote back roads. The GPS worked but sucked the battery dry. So I was stoked to get service at Carlsbad Caverns and set up tomorrow’s engine pickup. I figured I was pretty close by now – at least with the map zoomed out. I was a bit concerned that the day was over here and I was thinking lunch. It’s only a time zone hour, oh wait, two. I’ll get there. Why so many hours on the GPS to destination?
So I try to make up some time. I’m hauling ass down the back roads. Kind of worried about cops until I saw the speed limit sign. 75? On a remote back road? How cool. Except that the GPS has probably figured this in so I am not making up time.
There are a lot of oil wells in the Permian basin. Most of the traffic was the standard issue Haliburton truck. White full size crew cab 4x4 with a partial rack and tubular bumper guard. OK, only one actually said Haliburton on the door but hundreds came from the same mold. Figuring out a more efficient oil well derrick pump kept me awake for a few hours more.
It gets prettier, greener and more hilly as I approach I10. It also gets dark. I’ve been on the road for 24 hours straight with a few sightseeing breaks. My car lunch of peanuts and diet Coke is keeping me awake – sort of. I keep hallucinating about being on the road to my childhood home (the curve by Rosottis off Alpine road in Portola Valley is every gentle right turn – subliminally I must really want to stop for a beer and burger). I’m OK at paying attention to the (real) road and I need to push on. But it’s weird. I wonder what the road really looks like in daylight.
On I10 the speed limit is 80. It’s kind of refreshing that speed limits are set to a speed that makes the miles go by quickly – not so much as a revenue source for the police. A refreshing change from another long drive up 395 from San Diego to Tahoe. I now understand why my Texan friends get so many speeding tickets in California. As an interesting side note, the trucks are much less of a problem on Texas freeways. When they pass one another you are still moving along reasonably. On I5 you get frequently stuck behind overtaking trucks that are 15 miles per hour slower than the (legal) flow of auto traffic. All California freeways need to be at least 3 lanes each direction to handle the truck speed limit difference. Of course, California freeways are severely underbuilt and gridlocked – car travel doesn’t work there. But there is no alternative. Cessna? But my Cessna won’t haul engines.
I need to stop. Not sleepy tired but really tired of being on the road. I’m close enough (3 or 4 hours from McQueeny) so I can stop. Aptly named Junction has a Motel 6 with a cheap room advertised on its sign. “Hon, I sold out of those rooms hours ago. I do have a suite available.” OK, I check into an expensive cheap room. I walk across the street to a McDonalds. I love McDonalds ice cream. Darn jetlag, it’s closed. So I stop in the gas station mini mart and get a roach bait sandwich. A beer, Guns and Oil beer catches my eye. After driving through the rural Southwest’s Permian basin all day, I have to try “Guns and Oil” Texas brew. Motel rooms now a days don’t have bottle openers. Hey, it’s not a dry county – I just bought the beer here. Not wanting to Goldie Hawn (removing the beer cap like in the movie Overboard!) the bottle on the nice cheap furniture, I get visegrips from the truck. I’m sure the beer was safe but the sandwich was scary. I did survive without getting the touristas.
There was a Tesla charging station in the motel/gas station parking lot. It is Junction, Texas after all in the middle of I10. Makes geographic sense. In California, there is always someone using the charging stations – if not a wait. Tesla owners rarely complain overtly but on the popular long routes charging stations are very busy in California. Not a soul approached the chargers in Texas. For that matter, I didn’t see a single Tesla in Texas. When the range of gas vehicles is barely adequate, electrics are not quite ready for the wide expanses of Texas. Someday but not today in Texas.
In the motel I’m tired but can’t sleep. I try to write a bit of the trip report but I’m completely incoherent. Some notes and some stretching and I lie down in the bed. It’s not late in California but it is late here. And I have to be up early here to get the engines. After 30 hours in the truck, I fall into an exhausted dreamless sleep.
Eric