Another short post on glass keyboard:
We visited the Museum of Atomic Science and Energy this morning. Very interesting, even after just going to Oak Ridge, Alamagordo, and White Sands. We'll probably be radioactive by the time this is over.
Now at Marc & Puck Hogenboom's beautiful home IN the desert hills near
Madrid, NM. Puck fixed us a great pasta dinner in her big commercial
kitchen. Well worth the 1-1/2 mile rocky road. :-)
Tomorrow we expect to move on to Bandelier NM as base for our visit to Los Alamos.
Ken & Dennis
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
We've had a quiet day in Albuquerque today. Got up late and did laundry. Then visited Old Town for lunch. The Rattlesnake Museum was the one thing of real interest to Dennis. We both really regretted Kenneth not being with us -- he'd have really liked all the different rattlesnakes and lizards on display. I'd never been there during our previous visits -- not really HER cup of tea. :-)
Back at the coach we found that the A/C, running on Low was hardly putting out any air. After a while with fan only the cool air returned. I'd just cleaned the filters a couple of days ago, but that was obviously not enough. So, we disassembled the inside bits and vacuumed the evaporator the best access and our mediocre vacuum allowed. Reassembled, the performance is somewhat better. I guess 15 years between cleanings is a bit long.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the National Museum of Atomic Science and History, which is just outside the eastern gate of Kirtland. We'll proceed from there to Madrid, NM to visit with the Hogenbooms.
A bit late, perhaps, but it took me a while to get the photos off of the broken camera. Here's Pilot Dennis:
Back at the coach we found that the A/C, running on Low was hardly putting out any air. After a while with fan only the cool air returned. I'd just cleaned the filters a couple of days ago, but that was obviously not enough. So, we disassembled the inside bits and vacuumed the evaporator the best access and our mediocre vacuum allowed. Reassembled, the performance is somewhat better. I guess 15 years between cleanings is a bit long.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the National Museum of Atomic Science and History, which is just outside the eastern gate of Kirtland. We'll proceed from there to Madrid, NM to visit with the Hogenbooms.
A bit late, perhaps, but it took me a while to get the photos off of the broken camera. Here's Pilot Dennis:
Until the next time,
Ken & Dennis
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
More for 14 May: I forgot to mention that today was our first experience with boiling gasoline. Shortly before we reached Truth or Consequences, the engine began to run rough and fuel pressure began dropping and fluctuating (sure glad I have that instrument working). Switching tanks didn't help, but the engine kept running. We stopped in T or C and Dennis got out to fill up with gas while I began entering the stop in the trip log. He was soon tapping on my window, "...There's lots of pressure coming out when I try to take the gas cap off...". After he let that bleed off slowly, he put about 18 gallons of fuel in. That seemed to cool things down a bit because the engine ran well for another 20-30 miles. Then it began to stumble on up-grades, but steady out as we reached the crests. That continued all the way to Albuquerque. Fortunately, it didn't persist in the city traffic. I guess we're victims of the winter/summer changeover in blends. At this point, with two pusher pumps and a surge tank feeding the high pressure pump, there's not much more I can do to prepare for the higher altitudes and steeper climbs ahead. I may add a switch to parallel the pushers, hoping to keep the surge tank better supplied.
Ken
Ken
Sorry for the short report for yesterday, delayed until today. My HP laptop got to acting up so I had to type that on HER Nexus 10 which SHE let me bring along. It's a great little tablet, but trying to type on a piece of glass STINKS! Especially on a rough NM interstate.
The HP quit completely this evening so I had to pull the ThinkPad I usually use only for EFI monitoring and update it for general use. That's what I'm on now.
Let's see, what did we do yesterday? Left Holloman AFB mid-morning and stopped at the White Sands Missile Port It was very worthwhile stop; lots of well-presented history and logically arranged with lots of historical hardware to see & touch. Better than the previous days' stop.
The drive on into Las Cruces was not very exciting but did present the first necessity to downshift to Super; the Cad couldn't quite maintain 50 mph in Drive.
We reached Hal Kading's place early in the afternoon and enjoyed a very pleasant visit with him, talking GMC's and airplanes. Dennis really enjoyed getting up-close and inside looks at the O-2 and Harvard in Hal's hanger.
Hal carried us to a great old Mexican restaurant, in business since 1939, in what was originally the stage depot for the Butterfield Stage. Great food! And atmosphere -- including a cage full of colorful parrots of several varieties. And an aquarium with a Piranha!
Parked at the far side of the hanger from the office with the wifi hotspot, we couldn't use it, even with my Alfa. And the Mellenicom/Verizon JetPack didn't get enough signal to let us get on the net. So we just slept.
Today was probably the best of the trip for Dennis: Hal's brother Bruce, a retired Continental pilot, came out and gave Dennis his first pilot training lesson in Hal's Piper Archer. I watched/listened as Bruce led Dennis through the pre-flight, explaining what and why he was looking at each item, and explaining the aerodynamics of the control surfaces. It was obvious then that it would be a GREAT experience for the budding aviator. I didn't join them to avoid any distractions, so Dennis got the "Whole Monte", from takeoff to landing. :-) He'll remember it forever. He doesn't say much, but he catches and retains everything. THANKS, Hal and Bruce!
Dan, I didn't get your photo of Hal. Seems when I laid on the creeper to look under Hal's Buskirk stretch, the camera didn't like being in my pocket. The only thing the screen will display now is abstract art! Maybe I can sell some of that to buy HER a replacement.
After Dennis' thrill, we came on to Albuquerque and moved into the FamCamp at Kirtland AFB. I have fond memories of the several days SHE, the 3 kids, and I spent here on the way to Hawaii in '65 -- our guest house was a fully furnished 3 BR home! A very pleasant respite after the trip from Indianapolis in a '60 Opel station wagon. :-)
Too bad the balloon festival's not going on -- we enjoyed the Western States rally here for that a few years back too.
Enough rambling. Good night.
Ken & Dennis
The HP quit completely this evening so I had to pull the ThinkPad I usually use only for EFI monitoring and update it for general use. That's what I'm on now.
Let's see, what did we do yesterday? Left Holloman AFB mid-morning and stopped at the White Sands Missile Port It was very worthwhile stop; lots of well-presented history and logically arranged with lots of historical hardware to see & touch. Better than the previous days' stop.
The drive on into Las Cruces was not very exciting but did present the first necessity to downshift to Super; the Cad couldn't quite maintain 50 mph in Drive.
We reached Hal Kading's place early in the afternoon and enjoyed a very pleasant visit with him, talking GMC's and airplanes. Dennis really enjoyed getting up-close and inside looks at the O-2 and Harvard in Hal's hanger.
Hal carried us to a great old Mexican restaurant, in business since 1939, in what was originally the stage depot for the Butterfield Stage. Great food! And atmosphere -- including a cage full of colorful parrots of several varieties. And an aquarium with a Piranha!
Parked at the far side of the hanger from the office with the wifi hotspot, we couldn't use it, even with my Alfa. And the Mellenicom/Verizon JetPack didn't get enough signal to let us get on the net. So we just slept.
Today was probably the best of the trip for Dennis: Hal's brother Bruce, a retired Continental pilot, came out and gave Dennis his first pilot training lesson in Hal's Piper Archer. I watched/listened as Bruce led Dennis through the pre-flight, explaining what and why he was looking at each item, and explaining the aerodynamics of the control surfaces. It was obvious then that it would be a GREAT experience for the budding aviator. I didn't join them to avoid any distractions, so Dennis got the "Whole Monte", from takeoff to landing. :-) He'll remember it forever. He doesn't say much, but he catches and retains everything. THANKS, Hal and Bruce!
Dan, I didn't get your photo of Hal. Seems when I laid on the creeper to look under Hal's Buskirk stretch, the camera didn't like being in my pocket. The only thing the screen will display now is abstract art! Maybe I can sell some of that to buy HER a replacement.
After Dennis' thrill, we came on to Albuquerque and moved into the FamCamp at Kirtland AFB. I have fond memories of the several days SHE, the 3 kids, and I spent here on the way to Hawaii in '65 -- our guest house was a fully furnished 3 BR home! A very pleasant respite after the trip from Indianapolis in a '60 Opel station wagon. :-)
Too bad the balloon festival's not going on -- we enjoyed the Western States rally here for that a few years back too.
Enough rambling. Good night.
Ken & Dennis
Yesterday's Report
Yesterday was another great day, but we couldn't report because we were parked on
the far side of Hal Kading's hanger from his hotspot. Mellenicom/Verizon wasn't cooperating either. This is short because I25 toward Albuquerque is ROUGH.
More tonight from Kirtland AFB.
Ken
the far side of Hal Kading's hanger from his hotspot. Mellenicom/Verizon wasn't cooperating either. This is short because I25 toward Albuquerque is ROUGH.
More tonight from Kirtland AFB.
Ken
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Alright, tonight I (Dennis) will be posting, so expect a change from Grandpa's posts.
We started out at Brantley Lake State Park, and travelled west over the Sacramento Mountains. I drove most of the way (slowly!) and had the "fun" experience of driving ten miles down a 6% grade that had been advertised fifty miles away for trucks to stay away from. If you were behind me coming down, sorry for hitting the brakes, slowing down to ten miles an hour under the speed limit, then coasting to five miles an hour above the speed limit, then slowing down again, then speeding back up again, then repeating a hundred more times. He told me to do it! :) Anyway, after finding a scenic overlook that we could stop at right after a short tunnel, Grandpa started driving again, then five miles later we were back on flat ground.
After getting set up at the family camp at Holloman Air Force Base, we headed to the New Mexico Space Museum. It was pretty interesting, and they had a lot of rockets standing up out front that had been tested at the nearby White Sands missile testing range. We saw an IMAX movie about the last repair to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was really neat. The IMAX theater had a much wider field of view than a computer, television, or movie screen, and that made it look more like you were really there. After that, we went through the museum, and learned a lot about spaceflight. This museum is also home to the International Space Hall of Fame, and we learned a lot about important people in space history.
We couldn't see all of the exhibits, since we got there only a couple of hours before closing time, so after seeing as much as we could, we headed back to the base. We cruised around for a while trying to see the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters based here, but they're pretty stealthy on the ground too. We instead settled on going to a park where they had parked one of every major kind of plane that had been based at this base, including an F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber. After that, we went and got dinner, got back to the motorhome, I called home (Happy Mother's Day, Mom!), and started to type this. Now I'm done with it, do I'll let Grandpa type whatever he wants.
-----------------------------
What more could I say?
Tomorrow we plan to visit White Sands NM, then move on to Las Cruces to visit Had Kading.
The GMC's been doing great! Dennis didn't mention that his drive included climbing from 3310' at Carlsbad to 8650' at Cloudcroft, probably because the Cad500 pulled it so easily we hardly noticed. It was just over 2000 miles ago that I changed the oil -- and have added none since! MUCH better than any engine I've had in here before. We still don't talk about gas mileage.
-Dennis
& Ken
We started out at Brantley Lake State Park, and travelled west over the Sacramento Mountains. I drove most of the way (slowly!) and had the "fun" experience of driving ten miles down a 6% grade that had been advertised fifty miles away for trucks to stay away from. If you were behind me coming down, sorry for hitting the brakes, slowing down to ten miles an hour under the speed limit, then coasting to five miles an hour above the speed limit, then slowing down again, then speeding back up again, then repeating a hundred more times. He told me to do it! :) Anyway, after finding a scenic overlook that we could stop at right after a short tunnel, Grandpa started driving again, then five miles later we were back on flat ground.
After getting set up at the family camp at Holloman Air Force Base, we headed to the New Mexico Space Museum. It was pretty interesting, and they had a lot of rockets standing up out front that had been tested at the nearby White Sands missile testing range. We saw an IMAX movie about the last repair to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was really neat. The IMAX theater had a much wider field of view than a computer, television, or movie screen, and that made it look more like you were really there. After that, we went through the museum, and learned a lot about spaceflight. This museum is also home to the International Space Hall of Fame, and we learned a lot about important people in space history.
We couldn't see all of the exhibits, since we got there only a couple of hours before closing time, so after seeing as much as we could, we headed back to the base. We cruised around for a while trying to see the F-22 Raptor stealth fighters based here, but they're pretty stealthy on the ground too. We instead settled on going to a park where they had parked one of every major kind of plane that had been based at this base, including an F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber. After that, we went and got dinner, got back to the motorhome, I called home (Happy Mother's Day, Mom!), and started to type this. Now I'm done with it, do I'll let Grandpa type whatever he wants.
-----------------------------
What more could I say?
Tomorrow we plan to visit White Sands NM, then move on to Las Cruces to visit Had Kading.
The GMC's been doing great! Dennis didn't mention that his drive included climbing from 3310' at Carlsbad to 8650' at Cloudcroft, probably because the Cad500 pulled it so easily we hardly noticed. It was just over 2000 miles ago that I changed the oil -- and have added none since! MUCH better than any engine I've had in here before. We still don't talk about gas mileage.
-Dennis
& Ken
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Up bright and early this morning, Dennis and I were able to get tickets for the "King's Palace" cavern tour for 10 AM today. While waiting, at 8:30 we started the "Natural Entrance" self-guided tour. That tour is about 1-1/2 miles, beginning with entering the gaping hole in the ground from which the bats exit. The well paved pathway leads, down, down, down 800' or so beneath the surface. The formations, tastefully illuminated, are fantastic. Much more impressive that I expected, far surpassing Mammoth Cave and the other smaller ones I've visited in the Eastern US & Europe. But that hike was a killer. I had no idea it could be so difficult to walk downhill 800' in one mile. It didn't help that I'd already abused my feet with poorly fitting shoes before leaving home. And my leg muscles didn't much like it either! But it only took us an hour to make the tour.
Fortunately, the guided tour began where we ended the un-guided one and there were benches available for me to rest a while. Then we started another mile hike -- but mostly level, only down 80' and back up at the end. That portion of the adventure was even more impressive -- it's really hard to believe that dripping water could create the fantasmagorical formations we saw. By staying near the front of the group of 40, I had no choice but to keep plugging along on my exhausted legs. :-) Fortunately, climbing back up the 750' to the surface was done by elevator, through a shaft excavated in 1931. Else I'd still be down there!
Dennis made a LOT of photos, but this is not the place to show them. I will, however, reluctantly, post the one we had a bystander make of us before some of the scenery. I should warn you, though: A part of the tour was an extended period of sitting in absolute darkness. It's obvious from the photo below that I was still enjoying that episode -- but the bystander made only that one picture -- at least Y'All can see Dennis awake:
Tomorrow morning we'll be off to Almagordo & Holloman AFB, where we'll probably spend the night. Then on to White Sands NM and eventually visit Hal Kading in Las Cruces.
Y'All stay tuned.
Ken & Dennis
Fortunately, the guided tour began where we ended the un-guided one and there were benches available for me to rest a while. Then we started another mile hike -- but mostly level, only down 80' and back up at the end. That portion of the adventure was even more impressive -- it's really hard to believe that dripping water could create the fantasmagorical formations we saw. By staying near the front of the group of 40, I had no choice but to keep plugging along on my exhausted legs. :-) Fortunately, climbing back up the 750' to the surface was done by elevator, through a shaft excavated in 1931. Else I'd still be down there!
Dennis made a LOT of photos, but this is not the place to show them. I will, however, reluctantly, post the one we had a bystander make of us before some of the scenery. I should warn you, though: A part of the tour was an extended period of sitting in absolute darkness. It's obvious from the photo below that I was still enjoying that episode -- but the bystander made only that one picture -- at least Y'All can see Dennis awake:
Tomorrow morning we'll be off to Almagordo & Holloman AFB, where we'll probably spend the night. Then on to White Sands NM and eventually visit Hal Kading in Las Cruces.
Y'All stay tuned.
Ken & Dennis
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