My newest rambles

 

Terry and I decided to look into a new hobby.

 

Its something we can do together, and since prospecting for gold really is just not my thing, he can do that, I can crochet, and together we can Rockhound.

 

We were in Silverton Co, because I really needed a new book to read, and the nook charges so very slowly with the generator we have, so we also got a book on Rockhounding.

                                                 

 

While looking through the book, we found there are a BUNCH of places right in the area we are in right now.  So we decided to head out to one of them, in Eureka Gulch, it’s a pretty drive, and of course its been years since we were up there, looking for a geocache.  Yes, just another of my hobbies.  We really enjoyed the drive, but of course we were thwarted in our quest by…….snow!  Still in the higher elevations the roads are sometimes still covered with snow.                                                                

Its fine though we were able to see things we had forgotten were up there, like a tram house on the side of the mountain. 

 

               

And of course, a waterfall……I am a real sucker for waterfalls!

 

                  

A day or so later we decided to go up to the Aspen Leaf Mine, which we had never heard of, because it is on a road we have never travelled, which is awesome because the road never travelled is the ones we are looking for.  We took the rock hammers and the guidebook and off we went, to new things to explore.  And Let me tell you, I wish we had done this before, it was an amazing trip up to the mine and there were many buildings around it, I love looking at the ruins of the places the miners lived and worked, I have a vivid imagination when thinking of what each building was, (there are some clues in some, like the boarding houses and cook shacks, like the old rusty stove) I imagine the person who was responsible for feeding the men from the boarding houses and making sure they did not go hungry, because there sure are not any McDonalds up there, and I imagine supplies did not make it up there everyday, you had to make sure the things you got were useful and used.  Waste not want not was a lived by adage up there where you only got to town once a month, if you were lucky and it wasn’t winter….

 

                

 

                

 

                

 

                

 

On the way down, we stopped a few times and got pictures of the tram towers they had built up there to get the gold ore to the Mayflower Mill, (We are planning to do a self guided tour there soon!) And its amazing the work that is standing there rusting away, they were hardy folk to go up in those mountains, with that thin air and do the things they did!

 

              

 

               This one is on the side of the road, there are still ore cars on this line, all the way to the mill….one wonders if there is still ore in them and if so, can I have some?? 

 

             

 

             

Just a small tram tower by the road, the story goes that some of the miners would ride in those ore cars up to the mines!  Brave souls!

Hello Darlings

 

 

Nice to see you, its been a long time.  In the time since I wrote to you last, we have been in Albuquerque NM and then back to Alamogordo NM for a month.  Then we travelled to The La Plata Canyon west of Durango Co.  Terry decided on that area because of some research he did. 

 

Note:  Durango Co does not allow overnight RV parking by city ordinance, so if you plan to go through there, be sure to go through, lol!

 

Back to my thoughts lol.  We arrived in the La Plata Canyon area and drove down a dirt road for miles and miles until we found the camping spot Terry spied on Google Earth, (his favorite thing to do) and pulled in, it is a very nice area, but very claustrophobic, and IMHO not a place for a 34 foot Motorhome.  But we were next to the La Plata River.  And we had campfires,  BONUS!!

 

               

 

We stayed there until This morning June 4, 2014, after talking about it and deciding that we really wanted to be in our old stomping grounds, so we are now back in Silverton Co, at the same place we camped out in 2 years ago.  Our hearts are lighter, we have cell phone reception and its just better all around. 

 

But funny thing on our way out of the La Plata Canyon campsite…..the MH just would not climb the road out of there, so I had to pull it with the Jeep….I have proof!!

 

They say God

 

Looks after fools and suckers….

 

As I said before I renamed this blog “The Misadventures of Terry and Lynn” because of all the events that have happened to us in our travels.  Just the other day, of course, while traveling, the misadventure continued….even my son Chris said “oh the wonderful and misadventures of Lynn and Terry”  See he knows!

 

It all began on a nice April evening and we had decided to go into the town of Sweetwater Tx to plan out our next leg of the trip.  Somewhere between the RV and the Wal Mart, we developed a gash in the lower radiator hose and lost all the coolant in the engine and radiator.  Of course, we found a different issue, and fixed that, thinking all would be good.  We continued on our trip to the great land of WIFI so that we could look up routes etc.  The clatter from under the hood seemed a bit better so we figured a tad bit of oil and all would be good.  We started back to the RV and about 4 miles down the road it was horrible, there was no way we were going to make it back to the RV with the Jeep under its own power, so thankfully, I am the biggest brat when it comes to having things like smart phones, tablets, computers, I was able to look up a tow company and get the vehicle back to where we needed to be.

 

The next morning is when the gash was discovered and the fear of our little nest egg being depleted.  We were not telling each other but the fear of the engine being wasted was in the forefront of our thoughts.  We decided to continue on our way to Carlsbad NM.  We got there that evening and looked at each other and said what neither of us really wanted to…..what are we going to do if the motor is wasted?  Do we want to continue to Carlsbad Caverns and then to the next stop that we had mapped out, or bypass that to go to our friends in Alamogordo NM that have a big garage and the tools needed to replace the motor…well we made the decision to go on to our friends.  It was the best one we could have made, because how could we enjoy the Caverns and the Guadalupe Mountain range if we were concerned about the Jeep?  We couldn’t to be honest.

 

Saturday we arrive in Alamogordo and Terry gets the bright idea to see if the Jeep would start…(it whined at us on Friday morning and sounded like it was giving up the ghost) and it did….shocking all of us, because all 4 of us just knew we were going to have to replace the engine…..so today, Terry and Jerry did a replacement of the lower hose, added water, and ran the engine…there is no oil in the water, no water in the oil, and no need to replace a motor.  God does indeed look after fools and suckers, I still have not decided which we are yet.

WASP and what it means to us.

Today we visited the WASP Museum in Sweetwater Texas.  It is at the site where one of the original hangers was.  The hanger was built in 1929. 

Terry’s mom trained there in 1944 to be a WASP, these women were the first to fly military air craft, they would ferry aircraft, towed targets for the men to shoot at, with live ammo, and various other duties.  She was one woman I would have liked to have met, but I came into Terrys life 2 years too late.  It was very jaw dropping to walk where she walked.  I know many people have had that sort of experience, visiting historic sites and thinking about Uncle So and So, Grandpa, etc, so I am sure those of you who have done that understand. 

Because I do not recall learning about the WASP program in school, and I have been told that my 11 year old nephew has never heard of this program, I thought I would give some history about it. 

First off, WASP stands for Women Airforce Service Pilots (I am sure when it first started the “force” part was not included in the name, but I digress).
Way back before the US was in WWII President Franklin Roosevelt believed it was just a matter of time before we were drawn into the war…and how right he was, so he ordered the Armed Forces to be placed on a war footing. 
Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love understood that male pilots would be needed on the front lines, and that Women aviators wanted to help in the war effort by serving as test pilots and ferrying aircraft from Factories to Air Bases, but alas the resistance of the military leadership scoffed at the idea, and in my words “those pretty little ladies cant fly these planes, they are not built for it”, and even though The FLOTUS was a fan, it took the attack on Pearl Harbor to change the perception of how women could help with the war effort.

Thus began the WASP program, and 25,000 women applied to be WASPs, but because it was very tough training, military style, only 1074 graduated.  The WASP program only lasted a couple of years, from about 1942 to December 7, 1944, when the final graduating class graduated and was sent home.

These women, although flying every type of military aircraft at the time were not even considered members of the armed services, in fact they had to pay for their “uniform” out of pocket.  Several of the women were killed while serving and were not given any type of military benefit, not even a flag, the women in their classes, would actually help pay for services, again out of their own pockets. It took until 1977 for Congress to recognize that these women were in fact military, and deem them eligible for all benefits afforded to them as such.  In fact,  my mother in laws discharge, is signed by Bill Clinton….

Just as recent as 2010 WASP members were given the Congressional Gold Medal, for their service, it has taken way too long for all of this to come about.

Ok there of course is a lot more information about WASP, but enough of my lecture of the day, I want to share pictures with you. 
                                  
This is at Avenger Field, the US Government actually leased this Airport from the City of Sweetwater, for a grand total of $1.00 a year.
                                     
Terry pointing out his mothers name.  She actually learned to fly in the Ohio Civil Air Patrol, against her fathers wishes.

                                              
                                 This is the Historical Marker.

                                    

                                         

                                
The Fifinella, or Fifi, is the official WASP mascot, the designer is none other than Walt Disney Studios.

        
                      A replica of the housing, 6 girls to a room and their desks.

        
Flight trainer, yep we saw a video of some of the women getting into one of  these to do instrument training.

                          
Hope the women were not claustrophobic…….it’s a tight squeeze in there.

                                 

There used to be a runway here……long gone, just like the housing the women used, and almost every other structure out here.  Mother Nature is taking it back over, and the circle of life goes on.

Below are two links to much more information about WASPs, please read and enjoy.
Museum website
Official Archive With many links from TWU
They do a “Homecoming” every year, for the ladies to have a reunion, unfortunately there are only about 108 of them left, and their stories will be gone with them.   Although several have written books, done interviews, etc, there are many more stories to hear, and I wish I could hear them all.  These women are the ones that made it possible for the women of today to be Military Pilots and for that, if nothing else, I salute them, they are my heroes!

I am ready

I am ready am in the process of being ready.  My feet are itching to get back on the road.  Time keeps slipping away, but not quite fast enough.  We have been parked for way too long.  The winter has been tough, the running joke in our RV is this  "lets go to the coast, he said..." while we have not had near the horrible winter as just a few hundred miles north of us, we have not had ice, snow or all that other wonderful winter weather...but what we have had is the coldest winter in many years down here, very unseasonable cold weather, nights of having a heat source in the water bay of the RV so that nothing happens back there.  

So yes, I am ready to go, the beaches have been empty because of the cold, the dolphins have moved it seems, because they are not showing themselves in the bay.  

I am so ready to go, I am searching for songs about leaving.  I started with Willie....On the Road Again.  I have been taking words from the songs and posting them on facebook, with the words So and so was right.  

Two weeks til we go north, but not North to Alaska.  North to visit with family and friends still here in Texas, then to Colorado for the summer...after that, who knows, we shall have to go the way the wind blows, hope it blows to a warmer winter next season!

The FUN never ends!!

The other night, I was getting ready for travel, so I was cleaning out under the sink.  Now, I have been cleaning up water from around the faucet and had thought, yep we need a new faucet, because this one is old, and its not exactly one that I liked.  I do prefer the ones with a knob for hot and one for cold, the one that came with the RV was the one handle sort that you have to adjust and I never really can get it just right.  So while cleaning out under the sink, I found damp cloth, and told Terry we need to replace said faucet.

Today he was out and about, and came home with a replacement.  My 24 year old son is here with us, so he, being much younger and a lot more limber than we are, was put to work.  And that my friends is where the adventure begins.....first off, I have no idea how long this old fixture has been in place....a long time probably, so he broke off a couple of tabs on the nuts that hold the faucet down.  He then took all the plumbing apart so he could get a better grip on the nut, and boom, he got the old fixture out, and BOOM....issue 1 emerged.  ( I hate to think that our misadventures are now involving my child, but what can you do?)  The water lines are one with the faucet, we need more parts....lol, as usual just our luck.  We need to replace water line going to the faucet...its all good, not a difficult thing.  

Then after getting the parts and pieces, issue 2 rears its ugly head.....the darn faucet wont fit the holes.....time to get the drill out, thank goodness that was a 3 second fix....its amazing to us how a 30 minute job turns into a 4 hour one!!

We replaced a part on the generator, haven't tested it yet, so hopefully, our problems with that are now over, we shall see....I swear, if it were not for bad luck......

Its Sunday, that means....

That it is time, yep, another misadventure task that must be completed before we take off for the summer.  

Its all my fault that our nice relaxing day of sitting here playing on the computers, drinking that sweet Georgia Nectar (Coca Cola) and just enjoying our nice cloudy yet not cold day, (humidity is horrible though).

I had the brilliant idea to start the generator, since we have been remiss on that fact for quite a while, (we have started the motor on the RV though, that is something we do on or around the 1st of each month) and since we will be using said generator for Coffee and charging up laptops etc its a necessity.  Of course Coffee is first on the list.  

Because as the picture shows!

So the misadventure task begins, first we turn off the breaker for shore power, ok.  Then Terry comes in and I hit the switch for the generator to start.....and nothing.....I check to be sure the aux batteries are switched on.....they are....now.  Then I hit the switch again, and NOTHING!!!  UGH, its always something.  Then all of a sudden we hear the generator trying to start, and NO ONE IS HOLDING THE SWITCH!!  OMgoodness!

Terry runs out to see if he can make it stop....well, it did, after the batteries ran down.  

So to make a long story short, we have to replace the switch, and its Sunday....a nice quiet relaxing Sunday, where we are drinking our Sweet Georgia Nectar, with the dash torn apart, waiting on Monday, because its Sunday....