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Road trip!

Eleeski

Making fresh tracks
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Nov 13, 2015
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San Diego / skis at Squaw Valley
I drove from California to Texas for a waterski ride today. There's more to the story - hopefully I'll get to it.

Has anyone skied at a New Mexico resort at Cloudcroft?

Eric
 

Ken_R

Living the Dream
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Denver, CO
I drove from California to Texas for a waterski ride today. There's more to the story - hopefully I'll get to it.

Has anyone skied at a New Mexico resort at Cloudcroft?

Eric

Ive been by there (town) but since Ski Apache is excellent and not too far away in Ruidoso I have skied there and not at Cloudcroft.

I drove to LA on i10 from El Paso and back and it was a really boring drive. Felt so so long. Much prefer trips north on i25 from the area rather than east/west. There are very few interesting spots on i10 from the Coachella Valley west through Arizona and west Texas generally its desert wasteland.
 
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Eleeski

Eleeski

Making fresh tracks
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Joined
Nov 13, 2015
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2,287
Location
San Diego / skis at Squaw Valley
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
 
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Eleeski

Eleeski

Making fresh tracks
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Location
San Diego / skis at Squaw Valley
Next installation.

I wake up early – California time. I wasn’t too late Texas time but the schedule was stressed. Race on in at the legal 80mph. Around Kerville the hills were lovely. Interesting rock formations (especially where the road cuts through the hills). It flattened out, got more crowded and had more sedate speed limits as I approached San Antonio. Mcqueeny is northeast of San Antonio of the I10 so it was an easy run to the Farm Road 725 where Heath’s shop was. GPS navigation was a bit random but the building with all the boats around it had to be the place!



I was late enough that the shop was on lunch break. Heath looked at my little Ford Ranger and shook his head. I had checked (on the internet!) that the weight of a 5.7 was about 600 pounds. A little bit of an overload but reasonable for the two engines. Heath informed me that the as delivered weight of these engines was about 950 pounds. A serious overload. Now I’m nervous. Kelvin showed up and we had a wonderful fried catfish lunch at the crowded local hole in the wall. The sweet waitress gave me a huge diet Coke to go – more caffeine!



Loading the engines went quite smoothly. The engine rack went together per plan and the engines fit perfectly. Barely. The springs weren’t totally collapsed but the truck looked like a lowrider in back. Why is it that every time I pick up some major boat item, the mechanics take pictures of my rig while laughing?



Down the road to San Marcos River Ranch for a ski ride. Interesting driving. I’m not going to be pushing any speed limits on the way home. I’m not likely to even get near the speed limit. Visions of tumbling in a fiery mass of metal were only offset by worries about where in remote BFE Texas I would have a tire blowout. SMRR is about a half hour, the wrong way, from my route home. The rear tire were pretty hot after the half hour drive. Hmmm.



Skiing was great! SMRR is a busy vibrant place. Lots of skiers but lots of lakes so we didn’t have to wait. Kelvin is really a skilled skier and it was inspiring. Gordon West also came out with us. Ranked a couple above me on the trick world rankings, it was fun to see what he could do. I gave him some coaching (that’s sure to knock him down a few spots on the rankings) and saved him with a timely release. I got a nice ride with some good tips. I’m coming back for Nationals here for sure. You know, the trip was worth it just for the ski sets.



Done skiing just after 5. In the back of my mind was the nagging knowledge that I needed new tires. I’m old enough and rich enough to need and get new tires. It was late for most of the tire shops but there was one quite close that was open to 6. Just in time, I hang what was probably an illegal left turn into the lot. Certainly not the most dangerous part of the trip. I wanted heavy duty tires. Unfortunately, the heavy duty tires he had were not exactly the same size as my old tires and he only had two. I don’t anticipate using 4 wheel drive too much on this drive so those tires will get me home. But now I was riding even a bit lower in back.



GPS the route to Roswell and I40 west. Recalculating after I bypassed a California looking traffic lineup to get on the freeway, I was committed to the back roads. It gets rural pretty quickly and is beautiful countryside. The tires helped but the curving rolling roads kept trying to roll me up in a fiery ball of metal. Speed limits were definitely not going to be an issue – except maybe keeping close enough to them to avoid getting rear ended. As darkness fell, I realized that my headlights were not even close to right. Pulling over to let a car pass, I stopped to readjust the lights. Hey, there was still some adjustment left – I’m not that overloaded!



It’s going to be a long drive. Caffeine and close attention to the road will keep me out of that fiery ball of metal. But there are more variables to deal with. Namely tons of deer. Hitting one of those would be a problem. Maybe I should stop for the night while the motels are still open. It is late Texas time but I find one still open and vacant. I find I’m too tired to write (so I just post the teaser). In bed, I’m too wired from the caffeine and the stress to sleep right away. Interesting day.



Eric
 
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Eleeski

Eleeski

Making fresh tracks
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San Diego / skis at Squaw Valley
The writeup is taking longer than the trip...

I’m off to Roswell in the morning. Not super early but reasonable. Driving the back roads of Texas at way below the speed limit in a sketchy truck, I think back to the freeway signs in San Antonio that ran a count of the deaths on the road so far this year. Its a big number, in the hundreds. They post it to get us to slow down and think safety. But as I wobble down the road, I put it into perspective. Texas is a huge state. A lot of people live here. More people have been shot in Chicago NPR says. Thirteen people died snow skiing this year. Blue Oyster Cult comes on the radio singing Don’t Fear The Reaper “another forty thousand people every day”. I’m driving carefully to avoid tumbling in a fiery ball of twisted metal and joining those forty thousand today.



Back into the Permian basin openness. The Texas winds are up. This really rocks the truck – especially with the overload. I’m not close to making GPS arrival estimates. I get phone service for a while and make a couple calls (hands free of course). Missing a couple turnoffs due to talking on the phone (the GPS gets blanked by the phone call – that’s why I missed those turns) put me even further behind.



I figured out why the Haliburton standard issue oil field trucks have all that tubing on the front. It’s a roadkill plow. There are so many dead animals on the road it’s a miracle any are left alive. Actually, there is abundant wildlife. I was impressed with the antelope just hanging out in a field by the road. No, I don’t think I passed a couple antelope farms. Lots of prairie dogs popped up to watch me go by. I also saw lots of birds – some spectacular hawks (looking for prairie dogs?). But I didn’t see any armadillos (except for the one road kill).



I arrive in Roswell somewhat behind schedule. Coming in from the east, I drive through a sketchy neighborhood. It’s kind of dirty and seedy. Not too impressive. Downtown is underwhelming as well. I go to the Roswell Aliens museum. Touristy and shallow, the experience is diluted by the yapping tourist dogs that were touring at my same rate. They took the aliens way too seriously and didn’t really have enough fun with the whole thing. Maybe it is real though, after buying a mug in the gift shop I did feel like I’d been probed.



Of course, we all know that the real aliens are the insects that have taken over the planet. Horseflies! They can’t fly on aerodynamics. They are mindless pestering biting machines. And they can’t be killed. I smashed one against my windshield (it broke the windshield), I squished it against the cracked glass, crushed it in the palm of my hand and threw it vigorously to the ground. Before it hit the ground it revived, extended its wings and zoomed away. Hopefully back to its home planet.



Maybe the trip was dragging on too much. I was discouraged by Roswell’s sleaze and headed into the hills to see Smokey Bear. The park service had a nice looking museum and walk for the Smokey Bear display – but it was closed. Even the bathrooms were closed. What time is it here? Really tired of the drive I push on.



I stop in Socorro for early dinner and a walk in the scenic Walmart parking lot. It’s actually a nice town with nice people. And phone service. I call in and end up walking a tenant through resetting her garbage disposal. Telecommuting!



Still on back roads, I drive into the mountains as the sun is setting. I appreciated the sunset colors on the mountains. I was bummed that I was too late to tour the VLA radio telescopes just off the road. By the time I got there, it was too dark to see anything. I did get a measure of enjoyment by seeing the disks of the radio dishes eclipse the lights – along the lines of the Kepler telescope finding exoplanets.



The road is dark and very straight. And empty. A couple miles ahead I saw a car taillights. I seemed to be gaining slowly. Overloaded, below the speed limit and all? I had calculated that the next junction was 3 hours away. Rough estimations indicated that I would cover those couple miles before 3 hours. Driving alone is pretty cool – and safe. I won’t take anyone else with me in the fiery ball of twisting metal when something happens to the truck. After about a half hour, I close the gap with the car ahead. Somehow, the timing worked out perfectly. I caught him at the longest and straightest section of the road. He politely slowed and pulled over so I didn’t even have to disengage cruise control to pass him. Considerate drivers rock!



Now that I was past him, my entertainment calculating closure rates was gone. The road got a little curvier and climbed higher. I bet the scenery was beautiful – but I couldn’t see anything. There were a couple of yellow warning signs by the side of the road. The first was a picture of deer. OK, I’ve seen a couple of deer already and I’ll keep my eyes open. The next sign is another picture of a deer. What? Why two signs? But this picture is a lot bigger deer. An elk! Maybe I’ll see an elk. Not too far down the road I see the elk! Wow, that is a big animal! Like a small elephant. Hitting one of those and I will end up in that fiery ball of twisted metal. Impressive wildlife viewing but my level of attention to the road went way up. I don’t want to die and kill such a beautiful specimen of nature. Just when I’m thinking that I might have cleared the elk danger zone, a huge owl swoops in front of me barely avoiding smashing through the window and sending us into a tumbling fiery ball of twisted metal.



The road goes by the Petrified Forest National Park. I’m sure the road is beautiful but it’s still pitch black. The petrified Forest was on my list of to see drivathon spots. But I’m too tired of being on the road and the timing is all wrong. Sadly, I push on to Winslow where I’m hoping a motel is still open.



Eric
 
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Eleeski

Eleeski

Making fresh tracks
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Joined
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San Diego / skis at Squaw Valley
View attachment 23516
I drove by there once in October 2008

No snow then either? While it was cool to see lifts in the beautiful area, I wasn't inspired for skiing. Not completely true, I had been looking at the mountain and imagining skiing the trees. If accessible, there were some fun looking possibilities. But the lift was underwhelming. And I wasn't so late that zero snow was a good sign.

I might take my skis if passing through in the winter but not going just for the skiing.

I didn't go back through Ruidoso so I didn't check out the other options. Years ago, I skied Taos and it was great. On that trip we drove past Angel Fire but we didn't ski there despite it looking fun.

All of New Mexico looked pretty dry this April. California got all the snow?

Eric
 

Posaune

sliding
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Mar 26, 2016
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Bellingham, WA
Cloudcroft seemed strange to me because the ski area was lower in elevation than the town. That's not the way it works in my world.
 

Core2

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I grew up in Ruidoso so I know Cloudcroft well. I was stoked to find out they re-opened the ski area up there. It wasn't viable for much of the 00's due to lack of snowfall so I am guessing the current owners got the property pretty cheap.
 

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