Got back to the RV with some trepidation. Received photos from the storage people after the big freeze - and they were not encouraging.... The people were great though and checked/fixed whatever was broken before I got back.
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Icicles from the generator exhaust.
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Burst water pump filter
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Biggest issues were that the water pump filter had burst, but that was easily fixable, and there was water in the muffler of the generator exhaust (due to all the heavy rain I had encountered the previous weeks) - which froze with the cold weather and then shut down the generator.
The irony of the whole episode was that seeing that I did not trust the Texas electricity grid during a cold spell, I asked Kurt (the storage owner) to unplug the RV and startup the generator so that I was guaranteed of electricity for the heating if the propane heating gave out. Seems that the Texas grid stayed up and the generator shut down.... oh well.
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The 3 guys chatting at Barton Spring pools
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The Colorado river walk - just serene...
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Austin's own jenga building
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6th street - note on the door vs guy grooming in window and werewolf dressed for success
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However, the Whale started up faithfully and I moved for Thursday and Friday night to the RV park on the Colorado river in Austin where we stayed back in 2008. It is on the road to Barton Springs pool. Austin is just designed for walking, running, biking - a fabulous city. Did a 5 mile bike (without using the electrics) - to Barton Springs pool, down the river and ended up at a Whole Foods to restock.
Saturday was driving through the Texas hill country - beautiful part of Texas. Stopped for lunch in Fredericksburg - center of the german Texas and saw a description of it as "used to be a little bit of Germany in Texas, but is now full of old rich white retirees" - which is a good description of it. Lunch was great. The fun part on the stretch between Austin and Fredericksburg was what I saw... it was as if I was on a game drive:
- bison
- zebra
- impala
- Scimitar Oryx
- Pronghorn
- bambis ( Axis deer from India)
- many little brown jobs - looked like klipspringers
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Knackwurst, sauerkraut and red cabbage and a beer... that German heritage
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The best photo I have so far... read closely. I love Fredericksburg
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From there on to Encino RV Park .... and then on to Carlsbad, NM.
The road - Route 285 seemed like I was driving through the inspiration for the Mad Max dystopian landscapes. One big energy production environment - wind, fracking and oil. Lucky for the wind part - huge windmills line the ridges of each mesa/mountain. Next was fracking - installations everywhere and the way to spot them was the water? tanks everywhere. And last was the nodding donkey's - some dead/abandoned already, but others were still patiently working and between all of this power lines cris-crossing the landscape.
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Once the donkeys are of no use anymore - they cut their heads off. Unfortunately I never got a pic of a working donkey. Their rhythm is quite mesmerizing.
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From Carlsbad on Sunday it was 3 hours to Alamogordo. Stopped at the Carlsbad caverns on a whim - unbelievable. Leaves the Cango caves in South Africa in the dust - although nothing beats the stalactites of the Cango. The good part of the quick visit was that there is a lift that takes you down 750ft underground so you do not have to do the 1.3mile walk down/up (this is America after all). Once down in the main room, it is another 1.3 mile loop around the room. It is massive and the photos do not do it any justice.
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View from the entrance to the cabin
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Colossus
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The cavern is huge
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Looks like 3 induna's sitting there
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One of the original ladders...
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After that it was on to Artesia driving through miles of pecan nut groves interspersed with oil/gas installations. Lunch was at the local Tex-Mex restaurant. Mid-day and 70F and I was in flip-flops and a short-sleeve shirt.
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Pistachio
nut groves
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I knew that I had to get over a mountain range, but did not think about it much. Poo-poo'ed the ICY markers when they came up, Thought nothing of the "Beware of Snow Plows" further along, but did notice the snow clouds in the distance and the big signs that showed that I was at 4000ft and had to get over 8900 before heading down again to Alamogordo at about 5000 feet. Lots of warnings also about good brakes, but you know the Americans always overdo everything, so...
It started snowing at about 7000 feet and the temperature dropped to about 35F. Within 5 miles the temperature was 33F, there was 2ft of snow on the ground and I had to start watching out for snowplows - they were everywhere. I was still driving barefoot and with my short sleeve on and had this feeling that I might be slightly under-dressed.
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Watching the temperature fall as I keep going up
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At this stage I could still take photos while driving
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It is not as if there were not enough warnings...
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On the other side
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Arrived at the KOA
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Right at the summit, I passed an active ski slope although not too many people were skiing. Beautiful landscape. The drive down the other side was a mess. Salt, slush and doing 20mph in 2nd gear. It took a while and annoyed a lot of drivers behind me, but I made it in one piece, although the whale was coated in red salt.
Finally got to the KOA in Alamogordo that was going to be the base for the next week.
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