Too Crowded For Me

Staying over night in Plano Texas north of Dallas. Driving around on a Sunday it was obvious this town is too crowded for me. I can tolerate the congestion I'll be up against the next 4-5 weeks, but gimme that rural life any day of the week! The LA area should be a real treat! It's been thirty years since I travelled those roads.

About that Holiday Inn Express. I shouldn't be handling any brain surgery today. Don't get me wrong, nice place, but who empties dumpsters at 4:30 AM? There are restaurants and businesses in front and behind the hotel, so it was continual banging for about ten minutes. And about that musty smelling water.... The local water source goes on to note this.

Why does my water smell and taste bad?

"This may take place during the summer months. A combination of low water levels in our reservoirs and high temperatures are excellent conditions for the growth of algae. The algae then creates an oil which permeates the water and creates an almost muddy, musty smell and taste. However, the water is safe to drink. The City of Plano purchases its treated water from the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD). According to the NTMWD, they treat the water for algae, but can remove only about 90%. The condition will persist until cooler weather arrives. Again, the water is safe to drink, but may not be very pleasant to taste."

Cool traffic graphics at this link. I'm sure other metro areas have similar but it's the first time I've looked into such. I wonder how accurate it is? Only time will tell as my plans have changed to reach Midland, TX later today instead of the 8 1/2 hour drive to Roswell, NM.

Dallas - First Leg Of Trip Complete

I had a good story together until I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express today. Woke up from a nap freezing my bejemas off. Lousy thing was blowing cold air! So they transfer me to a suite. Whoa boy! It's always hard to get in a mood to put together something when disruptions like this happen.


I'll complete Monday morning. In the meantime the trip has been fine except for some rain Saturday while travelling through Alabama and Mississippi. The truck needed a bath anyway. Boy that's some interesting crap isn't it? I gotta go get some dinner. Plan to visit the Southfork Ranch Monday.


Btw, congratulations Eagle fans. I actually listened to the game on the road today. Can they finally be for real?? After how many years of disappointment? Have the Phillies had an effect on their quest for a first Super Bowl ever? Could it also be a Pa. Super Bowl?


Travelling west from Vicksburg MS to Louisiana over the mighty Mississipp.

Technology When It Doesn't Work

Grrrr. I hate this stuff. It looks like I'll be on my third laptop now. Tried doing some stupid windows update and didn't realize it would take so long. As you can imagine my impatience took the best of me. I shut it down.

Now it says it's broken, can't be fixed...blah, blah. So I thought "hey I have that other Toshiba laptop, it works...only six years old and it says satellite!" Bah hum bug . Can't get the Verizon wireless installed and I'm not about to test the waters with hotels along my route and their so called free wireless internet. I can't count how many problems I've had with that in the past.

Yea hooking up to a hardwire (actual high speed cable) is the answer but try asking a hotel clerk if they have that. They'll say. "Sure, we have high speed internet." They don't understand. Oh well I've been meaning to grab a new laptop used strictly for video so I can keep things more organized. Organized me?

I may try the Geek squad down in Cumming this afternoon to see if they can tell me what's wrong with #2 laptop. It kinda stinks going on the road tomorrow without all the saved webpages I have. Tried to handle the task of saving those to a CD as well. I know the steps...C:\Documents and Settings\Me\Favorites but the lousy desktop I have doesn't recognize the cd that's sitting in there ready to copy!

Grrrr. Then there's the case of the Mini DV camera. No problem, works like a charm... but...that's what started this thing. Sure it will capture video on my desktop but not laptop #2 regardless of what I tried to do. It has the right firewire connection etc but the lousy laptop only wanted to capture the images from the live web cam that I never use!

Grrrrr! I need a real vacation.

Fleeing To Warmer Weather

I'll be on the road starting Saturday January 10. Time to flee these hills in search of warmer weather for about six weeks. Where will my travels take me? The map below gives one a better idea.

Legend:
Thick blue line- Areas I will be driving west
Red line- Amtrak Sunset Limited
White line- Driving from New Orleans to home.

Locations:

A- Ellijay, GA - January 10
B- Dallas, TX - January 11-13
C- Roswell, NM - January 13-15
D- Arizona January 15 -February 2
E- Las Vegas, NV - February 2-7
F- Burbank, CA - February 7-11
G- Monterrey, CA - February 11-14
H- Mountain View, CA - February 14-17
I- San Diego, CA - February 17-20 (Tentative)
J- Tempe, AZ - February 20-25

Above dates may be adjusted to catch earlier eastbound train from Arizona. Schedule only runs three times each week. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday. Along with that I have to time the train with my truck that will be transported from Tempe to New Orleans.

Return Trip

Train

Start: Maricopa Arizona Wed. February 25 11:17 AM
End: New Orleans, LA Friday February 26 4:00 PM

So maybe you're wondering? What's in Roswell, New Mexico? Aliens! I love science fiction..and I've always wanted to visit the place.

...and what's in Mountain View?

...and while I'm near the Bay Area...

Monterrey... Is that spelled right? Blogger spell checker says so.

Hurricane Ivan Remants

For those unfamiliar, Hurricane Ivan ravaged Alabama and Georgia back in September of 2004 dumping as much as twelve inches of rain in some areas over a two day period. I had been meaning to talk to my neighbor about "what's the highest level you've seen the creek?" He's a newcomer too, but a native of the area.


Although he wasn't here during Ivan a few references were helpful from Ray and Pam (neighbors at the top of the hill) who founded our little community back in 1989. According to their first hand experience about 1-2 feet of water would be in my current storage area. Nice to know in case I need to prepare.

I always wondered how some of this brush (below) got into the middle of the woods and why there are bunches of small twigs (above) lodged in some trees that overhang the creek. It must have been Ivan. With that in mind it looks like my new pathways would be washed away quite easily.