Excellent Adventure

Hello from next to nowhere!

This past weekend Sherry flew back to Louisiana with her granddaughter leaving me with some time to fill. Not that I was glad that Patience(the granddaughter) was leaving but I am too old to play parent anymore. This year of course we had a ready made playmate for her in Lena. She's the 3 year old Iraqi child living with us. So at least I didn't have to entertain Patience all day, everyday, day in and day out...no, I could push the almost 5 year old off on the not quite, almost, 4 year old and let her Mother worry about things. Somehow it did not work out as smoothly as that though. On the upside, Lena became much more proficient in English although most of the time I still can't understand her. Then again, how many 3 year olds can I understand?
So, like I was saying, I had this time to fill this weekend and after 3 or 4 weeks of over 100 degree temps I decided I could forsake yard work and go to the great American southwest desert. How much hotter could it be?
First of all, I've been here for 13 months now. I thought I had an idea how big Texas is. It's 5 hours to Dallas, 3 to Houston, 8 to the Louisiana border. These are all assuming good conditions. My intention was to drive to Big Bend National Park. It is situated on the Rio Grande, west of SA-TX and on the map it looks like a bit longer that Houston. The thing is that there is East Texas and West Texas. That's how the maps divide the state. Scale is slightly skewed because there seems to be fewer towns and cities in West Texas. Turns out, that is a gross understatement.
I dutifully google-mapped my route to the Park and was dismayed when it said the ride would be 7 hours and that one-way mileage was 450! Now think for a minute how many towns and cities you would pass if you were to drive 450 miles in any direction. I could count the number of towns (believe me, there were NO cities) using my fingers and have some left over. Not only that. I certainly did not think of it at the time but, after about an hour of driving west the speed limit goes to 80 MPH and Google assumes that in the travel time. I was driving a 2005 Chevy Malibu and I set the cruise control at 78. It took 7 hours to get there.
The Park is the size of Rhode Island. Something difficult to appreciate by looking at a map of Texas. According to Park literature Big Bend National Park is the least visited National Park in the country. It is like nothing I have ever seen. The geology of the area is desert lowlands throughout ancient volcanic ridges and mesas. The scale of everything is not what an east coast person can easily grasp. I stopped at an overview and the information posted there said that a certain landmark was 14 air miles away and it looked to me like it was maybe 4 or 5 miles! The park has bears, mountain lions, rattlesnakes and a long list of other things that can either be enjoyed or kill you. Fortunately, I didn't see any of the big things. One of my goals in going to the park was to obtain some night sky photos. I hoped it would be pretty dark there. Another understatement.
I parked at another overview shortly after sunset and waited for darkness, and waited and waited. Seems that when you are on high ground in an area the size of a small state that has maybe 200 lightbulbs (including indoor lights) the sunset can take a long time. Fully 90 minutes after the sun went below the horizon I could still see significant light in the western sky. However, it did get dark and my photos were disappointing. There was a strong wind and even holding my tripod down couldn't steady the camera enough for time exposures.
There were more stars then I ever saw. Some constellations were difficult to pick out because there were so many stars in and around the usual outlines. When I looked around, I guessed that I could see 15 or 20 miles in three directions. North to North east was blocked by mountains. For 3 hours I saw NO LIGHTS, no people...nothing! The available light was a moonless sky. My guess is that if there were a full moon visible it would be like a flood light in your bedroom. Every time the thought of a creature or boogeyman lurking in the vegetation surrounding me popped up I fought it down. I was 30 miles from the Visitor center (which was closed) and the Park camping centers and lodge. No sense Freakin' out and running screaming into the night. No one would hear me. Then my cell phone rang! It was God. He said we needed to talk. It was then that I realized I shouldn't have eaten those roadside "raspberries."
Just kidding about raspberries and God. But my cell phone did ring. Now, I had driven through this area during daylight and I had not seen a utility pole or any sign of communications. How could I be in such an isolated place and have my cell phone ringing?
It was Hani, Lena's father, and he wanted to make sure I was Ok. Not that he or anyone else could help if I needed it. The concept of time and space, the kind we live in, not Einstein's, is different when you are out in the great American southwest.
I am sure I am not overstating how isolated this place is. When you exit the park enroute home there is a road sign with 2 towns listed. The nearest is 39 miles the next is 97 miles and believe me, there is nothing else out there. The highway is a straight line with ridges on either side ranging between 500 to 2000 feet above the valley floor I was driving on. The ridges are 5 to 20 miles apart. There are ranches along the way. Although I saw several "driveways" I only saw a handful of homes and they weren't what you might see on "Ponderosa". The dwellings I saw were small and most did not have any trees around them. Leaving them to the mercy of an unrelenting sun.
So anyway, if your still awake and reading this you can see some photos at my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mckora/
I doubt if the photos capture the scale either.
It was great fun to be in a place where I was alone for hours at a time. Even when I was in a populated area the numbers were small. It was 4:30PM or so when I arrived at the park. I left the park the next day at about 10:30AM. During that time I may have seen 50 people.
I highly recommend the park. Come when you have time. The closest City is El Paso, 330 miles by road. So you need time to visit.

I understand that the Northeast USA is having a cool-wet summer. They say that down here the average is very misleading because any given year will either be very hot and dry or much cooler( like the high 80s)and very wet. Those extremes average out to nice looking numbers though. Since we've been here the hot dry has ruled.

October 2008

Hi ya'll,

Just thought I'd drop you all a note and get everyone updated. Turns out that issue that put me in the ER right after we arrived here in sunny San Antonio wasn't epididimytis. After 3 ultra sounds and one CT scan it was determined that I have 2 hernias and a lodged kidney stone. Cool! Here I thought I was some kind of low pain tolerance wussy. To now like ...Holy Crap!!! Anyway, I go in on Tuesday (Election day) for the hernias. They do a laproscopic procedure blah, blah, blah... In case you are interested, I did the early voting here in the bright red state of Texas. I did my best to give it a slight shade of purple.

So, not to be left bored with ourselves but on Tuesday one of Sherry's co-workers told her that the Iraqi citizen who acted as the translator for the ER in Baghdad when he was there, was now in SATX. Turns out the guy had taken him up on his offer of "if you are ever in the USA look me up." Well, Sherry's buddy has 3 kids and the Iraqi has his wife and 3 year old daughter. So guess where they are now. The guys name sounds like Hanni, the daughter's name sounds like Lenna and at the moment I forget the wife's name. So they are both trained Physicians. He obtained his MD in Iraq in 2003. He tells me that working as a Doctor in Iraq is a very dangerous occupation. So he took the opportunity to work with the Americans as a medical translator, which was a lot less dangerous, at least during working hours, and actually paid better, because he actually got paid.

They arrived here yesterday after traveling for 5 days to get here. Baghdad, Amman, NYC, Charlotte NC, SATX. So they have slept a lot so far. They both speak English very well. The little one is as precious as any 3 year old girl.

They are hoping to obtain their MD credentials here through some kind of training. In the meantime they'll be looking for work and a place to live.

So remember, while the economy may be going to hell in a hand basket... THERE IS STILL A FREAKIN' WAR going on.

Oh yeah, back to the mundane. Sherry and I went to Sea World on Saturday evening. I actually went on the roller coaster. I was proud on myself in that I actually breathed during the ride. I had to though, because I needed air to keep screaming. My eyes were closed for virtually the whole ride. I am sure to you roller coaster enthusiasts(Gerry) that this ride was way down on the thrill list. Heck, it looked so sedate, I thought I'd be able to take pictures on the ride just by looking at it. (Turns out they won't let you bring cameras on the ride.) From the first peak you can see my house. Just about the time when I was zeroing in on my house we stopped going up and I looked down...that's when the screaming started... I don't remember much else. After the ride they have that place where you can buy a picture of yourself on the ride. Sherry saw it and said, "You should get that. It looks like you are smiling, I don't know how they did that."

Well, you all take it easy. Oh one more thing. The weather here is absolutely heavenly. Blue sky, low to mid 70's. I'm telling you I love this.

Early July 08 DMV

Hi Everybody!
I finally got my own computer up and running. Now I get to sit in the one room of the house that we call "the office". I am getting it set up the way I always wanted. There is a walk in closet in the room and I have it full of photos. Probably a few thousand. Somehow I wound up with Aunt Rita's slides. I was going through some of them over the weekend and found her pictures from the cruise she took with Aunt Gert to Europe. Her pictures of Paris were particularly nice. Having just been there myself I was impressed with the quality of her photos. I am setting up my scanner and slide viewer, so once it all gets going I'll post some pictures on my Flickr site.

I applied for my Texas driver's license yesterday. The woman who processed my forms asked if Texas was the only state where I had not previously had a DL. Turns out it is the 6th different state I will have a driver's license in. Dosen't count Illinios twice either. After going through all the nonsense they gave me a paper form and told me my license would be mailed to me. So I have a "temporary" license with no photo. Kind of like the old NJ licenses. They have a computer system in the DMV office that reminded me of the early 1980's. Slow, monochrome, ancient looking devices. But hey! there's no state income tax! Of course the sales tax is almost 7% (it might be more), Real estate taxes are 3% of assessed value and I am sure there's a bunch more that I just haven't come across.

It finally rained here for a few days. In the last 5 days we've had 2+ inches depending on your location. When it rains it gets extrememly humid. The temps drop a bit but it stays very uncomfortable.

Sherry's granddaughter Patience will be leaving us on Saturday. The fun of being a grandparent kind of gets drained a bit when there is no parent around. It is a lot like work in fact. But she is precious and very verbal so for a 3 year old it is easy to get her to do things.

Week One

Week one: The angle of the sun is more severe the further south you go. Everyday the temp has slipped over 100 degrees. To be caught out in the open during the afternoon is an experience in the total lack of mercy of nature.
"It's a dry heat" . Yes, it is. Kind of like breathing fire. Yesterday,(Thursday) our household goods arrived. I went out and bought 32 pints of water for the 4 man crew. By the time the day was over I had made a 2nd run and 48 pints had been consumed,by the crew. the temp topped out at 102 degrees! On the upside the crew guys told us that this was unusual heat. Normally it would be in the low 90's this time of year.
So now we have a 2 car garage full of stuff along with boxes of stuff in every room in the house. Sherry's bed room furniture was too big for the room. So we have it in our living room and "game room" on the 2nd floor. The bed is set up ok in the B/R. It comes apart quite well. The dresser and armoire are huge and heavy. It took all 4 movers to get the dresser upstairs. It is very nice to sleep in the bed again. We ate at the diner table with a home made dinner tonight. Just a routine spaghetti dinner but it really tasted great!

We went to Seaworld on Tuesday. They pretty much have it down on how to keep a crowd from wilting in the afternoon. One cool thing was the ride that is a lot like the old Log roll ride. When the cart is going down the one steep drop the bystanders can watch from an area where you can be drenched. At 4:00 PM that drenching sure felt good.

We actually received a measurable rainfall this morning. Maybe 1/10th inch. But it was good for soaking the entire lawn.

Oh well, I've bored you enough. Next week I start my search for a j..j..job. So I can w..w..work.

First Long email

June 13th 2008
Hey Everybody!
We arrived in San Antonio around 3:00 PM yesterday (Thursday) Sherry said the mileage was close to 1700 from Baltimore. The trip started Saturday morning and we stopped in Charlottesville till Monday. We had a great time there. Sunday was David Christopher’s 5th birthday. That seems so hard to believe! Saturday night we had a gathering of the Virginia part of the family. We got to see Rich, Sally and the girls briefly. Mary, Danielle and Heather stayed for the evening. David and Kristen stopped by after Dave got out of work. Judy stopped by after her work also. So with all of us gathered we had a lot of fun. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to get the promised group photo. I think that the unbelievable heat had something to do with that. My goodness that was one miserable day weather wise! Kinda’ sapped the energy out of me by 9:00AM just loading up the cars for the trip.
We left Baltimore with 2 cars loaded with stuff, 2 dogs and one cat. When we left C’ville we had a little less stuff and only one dog. PQ has been on her best behavior ever since. By pre arrangement the cat went to Dave and Kristen. While we were all together on Saturday, Sherry talked to Danielle and Heather about Tibby and they agreed to a trial night before deciding to keep him. Tibby seemed to do all the things we warned them about and for some reason they decided to keep him anyway. So minus a 100 lb dog and fat cat in a carrier we had some room in at least one car.
Our next stop was Roanoke to say goodbye to Sherry’s dad and step-mom. We left after a couple of hours on our way to Knoxville, TN. Sherry’s brother Bobby let us stay overnight as long as we promised to take everything we came with.
So Tuesday morning we hit the road with some serious mileage to get through. We pulled up to Slidell, Louisiana around 6:00PM Central time. What I observed on this leg was the USA is boring on Interstate highways. We drove from Roanoke to just outside of New Orleans and essentially drove though woods that looked like I-195 in NJ. I am serious! If you really want to see the country you have to get off the Interstates. If you check my Flickr site I posted a few photos from the driver’s seat. One thing I enjoyed a lot was the clouds. In Baltimore and surrounding areas it is very rare that you get a clear view of clouds on the horizon especially in warm weather. This trip, the sky was full of those fluffy clouds and it was a pleasure to see clouds and blue sky on the horizon. On Wednesday we headed out of Slidell with one addition. We picked up Sherry’s granddaughter Patience. We’ll have her till around mid July. She’s a precocious 4 year old.
Fortunately for me she travelled with Sherry. When we stopped for the night just East of Houston, Sherry’s first words were “ I need a break!”
OK, an observation from that leg of the trip. Bayou country in LA is very impressive. Even on the interstate. If you take I-10 west of the Mississippi River you will be on the longest elevated highway I have ever been on. It is at least 20 miles long. I had been told about this just last week by Sherry’s former neighbor in Baltimore. He said when the tide is out it is wet lands but when the tide is in, it is all water. We drove over water the entire time! I was so impressed I called Jennifer’s cell and spoke to Chris about it while I was still driving over it. Despite that I only saw one narrow corridor of these famous swamplands. I have a whole new respect for the Cajuns and those who inhabit the area.
We finally arrive at our new home in the afternoon and all we really wanted to do was sleep but as we have no refrigerator we had to do our hunting and gathering with that in mind. We also bought a new refrig with a Saturday AM delivery. Sherry bought us a flat screen LCD TV and accessories also but that won’t be delivered till next week. Our household goods are scheduled for next Thursday.
So with all that done we finally went about inflating our mattresses and settling in for a good sleep. About 5 hours into that I was rudely awakened by what I at first thought was Kidney Stones!!!! My 2 brothers have given explicit descriptions of their experiences and it felt like that. So around 6:30AM we headed off to the ER at Lackland AFB. The Doc’s all leaned toward a flair up of my old buddy epididymitis. Even though I had NEVER experienced such pain from that but apparently I did not exhibit enough kidney stone symptoms. For instance, I was able to talk coherently. They got me an Ultra sound and did a very though check over gave me some Cipro and Vicadon and sent me packing. Sherry’s good friend Penny is the nurse in charge of the ER and told me next time I want to see her to try and be a bit less dramatic. She didn’t know we had arrived in SA till she saw Sherry in the ER. Oh, the Docs got me a Urology referral also. The vicadon seems
to do the trick which also makes me think it wasn’t kidney stones.
So I spent my first full day in this town either in the ER or sleeping. Sherry took great care of me this morning and spent the afternoon getting all the things done that one needs to do when you move into a new town. Post office, keys to the neighborhood pool/playground and more hunting and gathering. So far the heat here has been the “dry” type but nonetheless hot. I’ve been writing this in the evening (it is now 9:20PM) sitting outside on our little patio. There is a delightful breeze and the sky is clear, just a beautiful early summer evening. A few more vicadons and I’m sure the grass will start talking to me but I better save them just in case.
So while I am very sad to leave the East coast and living geographically in the middle of my family, along with leaving all my friends in Baltimore, to say nothing of my beloved Camden Yards, this new adventure will be a great experience….Texas…..me…makes me laugh!

Ya’ll take care,
Joe

PS : Saturday morning 6/14 we came across our first scorpion! It had attached itself to a towel Patience had brought outside. When Sherry brought it inside the house the bug fell off much to Sherry’s dismay. If you call dismay screaming throughout the house.

General FYI July 2008

Hey Guys!

Well, how fast time flies when your roasting in Texas! It cooled off a little in the beginning of last week. Since then it's back up to the upper 90's. Saturday we drove to a bit North of Austin to meet Patience's Mom for the trade off. She got her child back and Sherry and I got to realize we really miss having her around. We also found out by extrapolation that Dallas is about 5 hours from my house under Saturday morning driving conditions.
We are acclimating. Last night around 8:30 Sherry and I went for a walk. The temp was between 85-90. `I said to Sherry during the walk that back in Baltimore we'd have said it was too hot for a 1 and a quarter mile walk.
Despite the fact that we live very near a super market that cast a lot of light at night I can still see more stars than I could in Baltimore. Plus the near full moon cast shadows in my yard. Now back on Conway Street the moon was something you noticed only if you looked directly at it. San Antonio is at latitude 29.40 . That is pretty far south and it makes for a Sun and moon that sits higher in the sky, constellations are all higher in the Southern sky than I'm used to. FYI , Los Angeles is 34.3, Charlottesville is 38.0, Hazlet is 40.45, Chicago is 41.86, Omaha is 41.2. Your geography lesson for the day. It takes minutes for my eyes to adjust to daylight when I walk outside the house. Sometimes I reach for my sunglasses only to discover I am wearing them.