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What’s all this white stuff?
Nov. 23rd, 2004 07:36 pmI’m up in Cloudcroft, arrived about 2am this morning. This is going to be quite the experience because, as most of my friends know, I’m a desert dawg and was born and raised in Phoenix. There’s all this white stuff on the ground, and I’m not too sure what to make of it.
The drive was largely uneventful. There was a major storm system in AZ and I got rained on pretty heavily leaving the Valley del Sol at about 5pm, absolutely great weather all through New Mexico. Stopped for gas in Tucson and Lordsburg, pulled into Las Cruces right about midnight, on schedule. Some very interesting maneuvering through a construction zone at the bottom of the St. Augustine Pass, which is the mountain divide leaving Las Cruces heading east into White Sands and Alamogordo. I spoke with the Border Patrol agent at the checkpoint in the middle of White Sands, he said that he’d heard it had been snowing in Cloudcroft since 10am. That gave me more than a little apprehension.
Driving up the mountain from Alamogordo was really nice, zero traffic once I was past the tunnel. It’s a 16 mile drive during which you’re ascending over three quarters of a mile. The tunnel is really cool, I’d like to get a shot of it at night, but I’d need the cooperation of a couple of constables to close the road briefly. Part of it is lined, the other part is native rock. It makes for very cool light patterns when you’re driving through it with your high beams on.
Once I was past the tunnel, the road showed signs of moisture. With no traffic, I could drive with my brights on all the way. I thought I saw someone walking along side the road, turned out it was a deer with its big white butt towards me. I saw a second deer moments later. This is the first time that I’ve seen deer on the Alamo/Cloudcroft highway, I’ve seen them almost every trip on the Sunspot highway leading to the observatory.
The roads aren’t a problem, once I see snow on the road itself (it’d been plowed recently and wasn’t snowing at the time) I took the rest of the road at 20-30mph and continued this up to the turnoff for Russet’s house.
Now, keep in mind that though I have an SUV, it doesn’t have 4WD or AWD (all-wheel drive, all wheels are powered, but it’s not designed for full off-road bouncing across the desert), and I didn’t have chains.
I attempted the road that I normally take, and I came pretty close to getting where I needed to turn off, but eventually my forward progress was halted. The road in question is a dirt road and is only plowed by residents who have little ATVs or tractors with snow blades, oddly they weren’t out plowing at 2am. I was very apprehensive about backing down to the fork in the road for a different attempt, so I decided to turn around. The road at this point was wide enough, still, I was kinda concerned that the shoulder I needed to drive on was more snow than mountain, so I got out and walked it and determined that I hopefully wouldn’t slide or roll off the mountain.
Got turned around, got back to the fork, cruised up this road behind the school to another fork which is probably where I should have started. Again, came close to making it to the level spot where the rest of it would have been OK, ultimately had to turn off. Fortunately the turnaround wasn’t nearly as much work as the first attempt had been.
Basically there was only one thing left to do: call Russet. The only thing open in town, literally, was an all-night convenience store/gas station, Allsup’s. So I call Russet, she was up as I’d called before I left and told her it would be 2ish when I got to town. The plan was for me to park my Rodeo in town behind the post office and we’d portage my stuff up in her AWD Subaru. So I went in and got a very good hot chocolate while talking to the very bored clerk until Russ arrived.
So we arrive at her house, unload my stuff, get barked at by her dog, and settle for the night. The dog barking was a little unusual, neither Russ nor I expected it. I was there when Russ got Celeste and they spent a few days at my place before returning to Cloudcroft, then again they were at my place a couple of weeks ago. Still, Celeste barked. Once I took off my glove and let her smell me she was fine.
Got to bed late, naturally, I got up around noon. Russ is still zonked out, but she sleeps a lot more than I do, mainly because of the outrageous schedule she keeps. She works Wednesday, and it’s a double-shift – 3pm to about 7am. So I’m entertaining myself. It’s lightly snowing, so I took a couple of photos out the back door from the warmth and comfort of the inside. I fired up her laptop in hopes of connecting to her neighbor’s wireless lan, but couldn’t get a connection. So I set hers (a brand-new Apple G4 iBook that is majorly spiffy) to playing her music library for a little background music. I then fired up my laptop and started writing this.
I tried to get online but it was not to be. I installed Windows XP and didn’t configure NetZero before I left, and the copy on my HD is too old. It runs, but it’s having problems, so it looks like I won’t be online until we get to the observatory Wednesday. No biggie, but I have a couple of job possibilities that I need to keep in contact with, so I guess it is kind of a biggie.
Update -- we connected Russet's laptop to the observatory, downloaded a fresh copy of NetZero, copied it via USB flashdrive to my laptop, and now I'm online. Huzzah for technology!
One thing that I was glad about was a misfounded fear that my cold-weather coat would be inadequate. Hey, I’m a Zonie, we have no problems coping when the temperature is triple digits. We’re not normally equipped for dealing with white stuff on the ground. Still, back on a vacation in ’91 between when I quit the State and started at the Police Dept., I was in Santa Fe and bought a very nice cold weather coat. I’ve always wanted one, and knew that there would be occasions that it would be needed. My parents went to Ruidosa a couple weeks ago, it’s about 90 minutes north of Cloudcroft and definite snow country, so I lent my dad my coat. The turkey never wore it! He stuck with sweatshirts and jackets and it was sufficient.
Well, I put my coat on in Alamogordo where the temperature was probably in the 40’s. It is a large jacket, but is deceptively not bulky and doesn’t present a problem while driving. I had absolutely no problems out in the cold of Cloudcroft. It’s a long coat, comes down past my pelvis, and add a leather hat and decent gloves and I was fairly comfortable. So it’s nice to know that I chose well. We’re planning on getting me a pair of boots and possibly some other accoutrements, so that’ll be nice.
Anyway, I guess that’s more than enough for my normal fairly long travel blog entries. Time to get a shower and get dressed and go to town a bit later.
Footware update: Got a pair of 'overshoes' that are quite spiffy. They keep my tennies nice and dry, also keep my pants legs dry. I can tromp through snow about a foot deep with impunity. Huzzah! The place we had planned to go to is closed Tuesdays, so we drove to another place that had a closed sign out, but there were obviously people working inside. We stayed in the parking lot, a guy came out and explained that they weren't open for business yet -- they open on Turkey Day. Still, I told him what I needed, he let us in, and we bought the boots! Great people!
The drive was largely uneventful. There was a major storm system in AZ and I got rained on pretty heavily leaving the Valley del Sol at about 5pm, absolutely great weather all through New Mexico. Stopped for gas in Tucson and Lordsburg, pulled into Las Cruces right about midnight, on schedule. Some very interesting maneuvering through a construction zone at the bottom of the St. Augustine Pass, which is the mountain divide leaving Las Cruces heading east into White Sands and Alamogordo. I spoke with the Border Patrol agent at the checkpoint in the middle of White Sands, he said that he’d heard it had been snowing in Cloudcroft since 10am. That gave me more than a little apprehension.
Driving up the mountain from Alamogordo was really nice, zero traffic once I was past the tunnel. It’s a 16 mile drive during which you’re ascending over three quarters of a mile. The tunnel is really cool, I’d like to get a shot of it at night, but I’d need the cooperation of a couple of constables to close the road briefly. Part of it is lined, the other part is native rock. It makes for very cool light patterns when you’re driving through it with your high beams on.
Once I was past the tunnel, the road showed signs of moisture. With no traffic, I could drive with my brights on all the way. I thought I saw someone walking along side the road, turned out it was a deer with its big white butt towards me. I saw a second deer moments later. This is the first time that I’ve seen deer on the Alamo/Cloudcroft highway, I’ve seen them almost every trip on the Sunspot highway leading to the observatory.
The roads aren’t a problem, once I see snow on the road itself (it’d been plowed recently and wasn’t snowing at the time) I took the rest of the road at 20-30mph and continued this up to the turnoff for Russet’s house.
Now, keep in mind that though I have an SUV, it doesn’t have 4WD or AWD (all-wheel drive, all wheels are powered, but it’s not designed for full off-road bouncing across the desert), and I didn’t have chains.
I attempted the road that I normally take, and I came pretty close to getting where I needed to turn off, but eventually my forward progress was halted. The road in question is a dirt road and is only plowed by residents who have little ATVs or tractors with snow blades, oddly they weren’t out plowing at 2am. I was very apprehensive about backing down to the fork in the road for a different attempt, so I decided to turn around. The road at this point was wide enough, still, I was kinda concerned that the shoulder I needed to drive on was more snow than mountain, so I got out and walked it and determined that I hopefully wouldn’t slide or roll off the mountain.
Got turned around, got back to the fork, cruised up this road behind the school to another fork which is probably where I should have started. Again, came close to making it to the level spot where the rest of it would have been OK, ultimately had to turn off. Fortunately the turnaround wasn’t nearly as much work as the first attempt had been.
Basically there was only one thing left to do: call Russet. The only thing open in town, literally, was an all-night convenience store/gas station, Allsup’s. So I call Russet, she was up as I’d called before I left and told her it would be 2ish when I got to town. The plan was for me to park my Rodeo in town behind the post office and we’d portage my stuff up in her AWD Subaru. So I went in and got a very good hot chocolate while talking to the very bored clerk until Russ arrived.
So we arrive at her house, unload my stuff, get barked at by her dog, and settle for the night. The dog barking was a little unusual, neither Russ nor I expected it. I was there when Russ got Celeste and they spent a few days at my place before returning to Cloudcroft, then again they were at my place a couple of weeks ago. Still, Celeste barked. Once I took off my glove and let her smell me she was fine.
Got to bed late, naturally, I got up around noon. Russ is still zonked out, but she sleeps a lot more than I do, mainly because of the outrageous schedule she keeps. She works Wednesday, and it’s a double-shift – 3pm to about 7am. So I’m entertaining myself. It’s lightly snowing, so I took a couple of photos out the back door from the warmth and comfort of the inside. I fired up her laptop in hopes of connecting to her neighbor’s wireless lan, but couldn’t get a connection. So I set hers (a brand-new Apple G4 iBook that is majorly spiffy) to playing her music library for a little background music. I then fired up my laptop and started writing this.
I tried to get online but it was not to be. I installed Windows XP and didn’t configure NetZero before I left, and the copy on my HD is too old. It runs, but it’s having problems, so it looks like I won’t be online until we get to the observatory Wednesday. No biggie, but I have a couple of job possibilities that I need to keep in contact with, so I guess it is kind of a biggie.
Update -- we connected Russet's laptop to the observatory, downloaded a fresh copy of NetZero, copied it via USB flashdrive to my laptop, and now I'm online. Huzzah for technology!
One thing that I was glad about was a misfounded fear that my cold-weather coat would be inadequate. Hey, I’m a Zonie, we have no problems coping when the temperature is triple digits. We’re not normally equipped for dealing with white stuff on the ground. Still, back on a vacation in ’91 between when I quit the State and started at the Police Dept., I was in Santa Fe and bought a very nice cold weather coat. I’ve always wanted one, and knew that there would be occasions that it would be needed. My parents went to Ruidosa a couple weeks ago, it’s about 90 minutes north of Cloudcroft and definite snow country, so I lent my dad my coat. The turkey never wore it! He stuck with sweatshirts and jackets and it was sufficient.
Well, I put my coat on in Alamogordo where the temperature was probably in the 40’s. It is a large jacket, but is deceptively not bulky and doesn’t present a problem while driving. I had absolutely no problems out in the cold of Cloudcroft. It’s a long coat, comes down past my pelvis, and add a leather hat and decent gloves and I was fairly comfortable. So it’s nice to know that I chose well. We’re planning on getting me a pair of boots and possibly some other accoutrements, so that’ll be nice.
Anyway, I guess that’s more than enough for my normal fairly long travel blog entries. Time to get a shower and get dressed and go to town a bit later.
Footware update: Got a pair of 'overshoes' that are quite spiffy. They keep my tennies nice and dry, also keep my pants legs dry. I can tromp through snow about a foot deep with impunity. Huzzah! The place we had planned to go to is closed Tuesdays, so we drove to another place that had a closed sign out, but there were obviously people working inside. We stayed in the parking lot, a guy came out and explained that they weren't open for business yet -- they open on Turkey Day. Still, I told him what I needed, he let us in, and we bought the boots! Great people!
