started 2/19/13
Keith was starting to notice that his laptop computer was slowing down with nearly 400 pictures in the web page so he decided to start Part 2.
We left Yuma at O Dark Thirty this morning. Had a
real nice chat with Ralph - K7YUM on his repeater as we headed out of
town. Later the sun started to rise so Joe snapped a few photos...
Here are some shots of that solar array we talked about
before...
Each row of panels looks like it goes back about a half a
mile and these rows go on for three or four miles and are still under
construction.
OK - this one was cropped pretty tight and is a bit grainy
now, but maybe you can get a better idea about them...
Joe is learning all bout his new GPS!
GREEN crops! Obviously they are well irrigated...
Yep, we are back at what we learned from Chas is called
Texas Canyon where all the big boulders are located.
This is an old Mercury that someone is going to make into a
treasure.
Reminds us of that Country Western song about the Mercury!
Not a very good photo of the sign showing that we are
entering New Mexico.
Cruisin' up the road...On The Road Again!
Dang! Just like that we are in Texas!
Texas rocks...
Border Patrol check point...
Interesting late afternoon shadows...
Crappy photo of entering the Central Time Zone...we just
lost an hour! It is now an hour later than it was!
We stopped for dinner in Van Horn, Texas. This is a
great little restaurant.
After dinner we drove for a couple more hours and stopped
for the night in Fort Stockton, Texas. About 800 miles today...
Here are a few more sunrise shots...
We stopped in Menard, Texas for breakfast at the Branding
Iron!
We arrived back at Hoss and Margareth's a little after
1PM. Joe is admiring Hoss's antenna system...
It's beautiful even if it is a bit cool - the temperature
was in the mid 60's so, by Hoss's definition, it was fit for human consumption!
Enjoying our walk with Hoss...
It feels good to be on our feet after all those hours sitting in the van!
Visit time...
Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum! That is what Ron - AA5RT
says when he gets on Tweedy Road. He has stopped by for a short visit
before dinner this evening.
Where else?
Heading inside!
Placing orders...
Here are Gail and Wil - WB5YFX! They are joining us
for dinner - Yee Haw!
Getting ready for a wonderful Bunkhouse BBQ dinner!
Joe, Hoss and Margareth
"I know you are all wondering why I called this
meeting."
Gail, Wil and Ron
Wil is trying to remember which button makes the camera
take the photo...
Here's Rick - the Chief Cook, BBQ Man and owner of the
Bunkhouse BBQ!
After dinner, Will shows why no one can understand what he
is saying on the repeater. A teeny tiny HT! UGH!
During our morning walk Joe poses for a photo op at our
turn around point for this morning's hour long walk!
Joe receives a call from his wife, Cathy, who tells him it
is snowing at home with a chance of up to 3 inches of snow today in Calumet, OK.
Joe is getting ready to head towards home.
Joe's shirt says "Sarcasm, just one of my many
talents!
Here's Joe getting ready to head out. He has placed
the mag mount antenna on top of his car!
Joe called us this afternoon to let us know he got home OK and had no problems with road conditions!
Joe, it has been great! Many thanks, sir!
Here's Annie on Margareth's lap!
After dinner this evening Hoss and Keith got on the 40
meter sked and could hear nearly everyone! Yee haw!
Joe - WA5FLT actually checked into the net this evening too! I guess
some of my agitation paid off! :-)
Hoss took this shot of Keith during his transmission!
Great sked this evening!
There was a threat of rain but after looking at the radar I
decided to take a short walk to the west out of the driveway this morning.
Here is an interesting gate.
I went down to the intersection at the other end of Tweedy
Road.
After making it back to The Lazy K Ranch I could feel that
the rain was coming and made it under the car port out front when it suddenly
dumped! we got nearly a half an inch in about 10 or 15 minutes!
This is something you just don't see down here very
often! Standing water!
As you can see about 15 minutes later it had cleared off
and I finished my walk.
This is Hoss and Margareth's place from a different angle
as Hoss and I headed out this afternoon for his walk.
We elected to go west like I did earlier in the morning and
we got to see Waylon...
and Willie!
Here are Hoss and Keith finishing the afternoon walk!
I took an early walk Friday morning. Here's another
shot of one of the donkey's on Tweedy Road.
Here are some more donkey's from one of the neighbors.
Margareth snapped this parting shot of Hoss and Keith
before Keith headed out towards Oklahoma.
Joseph - WA5FLT and Cathy came over to Oklahoma City to
meet Keith for lunch at Ted's!
Yo, Joe!
Here's Cathy and Joe!
We had a dandy lunch! It was great to have an opportunity to see Cathy!
Looky here! Snow from that storm last week!
Here's the exit to Stillwater! Look out! Keith
is coming!
Here's Jim - W5JCS!
This is Carolyn and Jim! Carolyn is Jim's mom!
The portrait on the wall is Carolyn from a few years ago...
Here are Carolyn and Keith...
Having some fun here! Jim's sister called on the
telephone and he told Keith to answer the phone!
Jim on the phone...
Dan - K5FVL and his wife, Jeanne. They have stopped
by to pick us up to head towards dinner...
Jeanne, Dan, Keith and Carolyn...
Dan and Jeanne
Carolyn and Jim
We had a delightful dinner at Joseph's!
It was cold Saturday morning! Yes, we had frost on
the pumpkin! Here's Jim and Carolyn's place!
Hey Jim! This tower has not grown an inch since we
planted it two years ago! Aren't you fertilizing it? To you Oklahoma
guys - Please assist on the agitation here!
Jim and Keith had a dandy breakfast at Granny's Kitchen!
Here's our waitress, Mozel, with Keith!
Mozel took this shot of Jim and Keith!
After breakfast we stopped at a favorite place of Jim's to
meet up with his coffee buddies...
Here are Bill, Leland and Charlie!
Keith, Jim and Cecil...
This is Bill's shirt...
After the visit with the coffee buddies, Jim and Keith
stopped by the adult toy store.
We stopped by the house and visited some with Carolyn and
then headed out east of town towards Yale, Oklahoma.
Here we stopped to see what was going on with the Civil War
Re-enactment.
It turns out that we just missed seeing the battle, but we did get to visit
with some of the soldiers and hear some of the weapons being fired.
Here's a Confederate soldier posing for a photo with Keith.
Man! That is one heavy gun!
His cartridge pouch...
Here are some folks in period dress...
This young lady was playing some neat folk tunes...
The lady on the right was discussing details of upcoming
re-enactments that are planned...
Jim snapped this shot of Keith...
Here are a couple of cannons and a caisson.
W5JCS and a cannon!
WA8ZWJ and a cannon!
After leaving the re-enactment site we headed into town to
Eskimo Joe's.
This sign says it all!
Here's looking at you!
Jim says "Pistols Firing!" This is taken
after the mascot "Pistol Pete" who would fire his pistols when the
team made a touchdown!
Didja know that Garth Brooks lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma
for a while?
He went to school while he was there...
Liz and Stan - N5JFQ stopped by for a short visit before we
headed out for dinner.
Dinner was at the Hideaway!
Tad - KC5DPT and Paige!
Liz and Stan - N5JFQ
Here's a crappy shot of Aaron - AD5JK and Kristen...
This is Ken - K5KC and Lynn - W5LC.
This is Lillie, Neal - N5KCO and grandson, Dakota!
Joseph - WA5FLT!
Fantastic Pizza! Wonderful company!
Getting ALL FED UP!
Lotsa pizza!
After dinner smiles!
Dan - K5FVL and Carolyn...
Group shot! What a great time! It was fantastic
seeing everyone. Fun time for sure! Thanks to Jim for organizing
things!
Jim took this shot of a sign in the restroom! 18
languages!
Get the point? WASH YOUR HANDS!
After dinner - on the way out the door extended visiting!
Shucks - Stan has to deal with left overs!
What a blast we had! Incredible!
It's a little before 8AM and Jim came out to watch Keith
tune the screwdriver antenna in preparation for the 20 meter sked later this
morning.
Keith is ready to head east!
Jim gives Keith the IOOK salute as Keith prepares to back
out of the driveway. SALUTE!
Many thanks to Jim and Carolyn for their wonderful hospitality! I
really enjoyed my stay!
Time went quickly as I traveled across eastern Oklahoma talking with the IOOK gang first on 20 meters and then later on 40 meters.
Welcome to Missouri!
This is the entrance to cousin Bob and Sue's farm near
Nevada, Missouri.
Some neat decorative items are placed near the entrance of
the driveway - all FARM related, of course!
Bob and Sue's...
A new planter Bob recently picked up...
Keith arrived at the farm a short time before Bob and Sue
returned from lunch. Here's Bob!
A little while later Doug dropped by. He is Lara's
husband...
Cael and Trenton are playing computer games...
Caleb is playing games too!
This BIG smile belongs to Landon!
Here are Grandpa (caught him with his eyes closed!) and
Catie (Catherine).
This is "Bob's Room". This is a neat
likeness of Bob painted on the wall. Of course it reflects his love of
farming.
This is Keith's bedroom this trip.
Neat painting on a rock...
Sunrise here at Bob and Sue's this morning.
They loaded a truck with corn today.
When we got back from lunch it had started snowing...
Cody posing for his photo OP!
Cody is learning to play Cribbage...
This is Max! He is a foreign exchange student from
the Ukraine.
Hanging out after dinner.
Lincoln and Trin's boys have been staying with Nana and Grandpa while they
are in Kansas City at a farm show.
According to Bob we got about 6 inches of very wet heavy
snow last night!
After breakfast (schools were closed today) Bob went out to
move snow. Here he has already made a couple of passes.
Clearing the parking spots...
Clearing another place in the parking area...there is a
cement pad there...
Max is getting out after having been riding with Grandpa
while Cael talks with them.
Bob clearing the area in front of Keith's van...
Cutting it close! That big tractor is quite maneuverable!
A bit better look at the blade Bob is using for snow
removal Missouri style!
After clearing the snow from Bob's place and Lincoln's
(about 1/2 mile away) as well as the road up and down in front of their place we
headed down to Doug and Lara's. On the way we went past an irrigation
system that is very similar to one that will be set up on Bob and Lincoln's
place in the spring.
The major difference between this system and the one that will be installed
for them is theirs will be able to be moved from field to field. The pivot
point for their system will be from a trailer that can be moved from field to
field. This ought to help them improve growing conditions even in times of
a draught.
Then we headed up to Walker, Missouri (17 miles away) so
Bob could clear parking area for a relative's pig farm set up. While we
were waiting for Cody and Max to arrive with the tractor, Grandpa set up an area
on an abandoned road for the boys to sled down.
As you will see, this is a mighty long hill, so to get back up the hill he
pulled the boys behind the pickup. Here he is tying the sled to the hitch
on the pickup.
Caleb says "Thumbs Up" he is ready to go up the
hill!
Caleb's first trip up the hill!
Once Cody and Max arrived with the tractor, Grandpa went
off to clear the parking and driveway area at the pig farm. In the mean
time Keith drove the pickup up and down the hill for the boys!
Waiting at the bottom of the hill for the boys to finish their ride down the
hill!
Here's a shot of part of the hill with the boys coming
down. Actually there is about this much more hill beyond the crest that
you can see here.
Not a lot of shots were taken here because Keith was busy driving the
truck! We did this for about an hour and a half!
After returning to Bob and Sue's we had a late lunch and then decided to play some cribbage. Cody is learning Cribbage so he wanted to hone his skills.
Keith handed the camera to Max and asked him to take a shot
of Keith and Cody. Max decided to do a self shot first!
Here are Keith and Cody playing Cribbage!
Max snapped another shot if himself before handing the
camera back! Har!
Later the boys went outside to play some in the snow!
Max is on the deck throwing a snow ball at Cody who is laying down and
Trenton is on the side back there.
Bob returned from picking up Sue at work. Because the
roads were so bad, he had taken her to work in the morning.
After some in depth consultation and deep thinking, Keith decided to head out of town this evening instead of waiting until morning to leave. The primary reason for his early departure was the fact that most of the farm roads are quite slippery and have a lot of wet mud that will freeze tonight and tomorrow morning it might be pretty slow going - that is - if anything will be able to move on the ice in the morning! Plus there is a threat of some more snow during the night.
So, Keith is doing this update from a motel room in Jefferson City, Missouri about 3 hours closer to Dayton than he was at Bob and Sue's!
Many thanks to Bob and Sue for their warm hospitality! I had a great time and enjoyed getting to know the boys a bit better than in past years!
There was about an inch on snow on the windshield and maybe
a half an inch on top of the van this morning.
Once I got out and moving I was really glad I had left Nevada last
night! The roads had a slick slime of ice on them even though the air
temperature was 35 degrees. The first 50 miles or so my highest speed was
probably 50 and that was on the Interstate! Of course the right lane was
better than the left simply because of volume. Later the roads did clear
off and I had smooth sailing. Of course, there was almost a constant
drizzle of rain or flurry of snow most of the day.
Since Keith was 3 hours closer than usual, Bob - N0BIX met
him at Bob Evans for a late breakfast rather than our normal lunch place.
Here's Bob - N0BIX!
Then Bob took a shot of Keith - WA8ZWJ!
Here's Keith transferring photos from the laptop to Bob's
thumb drive.
Bob and Keith visited while Keith played computer.
Our waitress took this shot for us!
We must have had a good time! We were there almost an
hour and a half!
As soon as Bob pulled out of the lot Keith heard his APRS
signal and snapped this shot of Bob's data from his packet burst.
It was raining when I crossed the Indiana state line...
It snow flurried nearly constantly from Indianapolis until
I got home. So, that is melted snow obscuring the Ohio state line sign.
The temperature was in the mid to upper 30's and the road conditions were
just wet....never slick thank goodness!
Welcome to Ohio!
After I got under the Arch I identified on the 442.850 machine and Dave - WB8WIQ answered me! We had quite a nice visit! then Marian - WD8CJD called me and we also had a nice short visit! What a nice way to be welcomed back home.
I arrived home about 5:15 PM. Even though I had a
great trip it was good to get back home! I think Marian is happy to have
me back home too!
I did check into this evening's IOOK net but I had adjacent QRM and was afraid that if I transmitted too much I would interfere with that conversation. So, I let it be known that I was listening and tried to hear what I could. Conditions were not the best this evening.
I want to thank everyone for their warm hospitality! Everyone was so nice to me! Thank you seems so small compared to how great I feel!
I want to also thank all the photo contributors for this incredible batch of photos! They are N0BIX, NJ6T, NN3V, W5JCS, WA5FLT and WA8ZWJ!
A total of 4,469 miles were driven this trip!
Finally, I want to thank YOU! You have had the intestinal fortitude to sift through all the photos and read my diatribe and I have received a lot of nice comments along the way and I appreciate it. It is hard to believe that the trip has once again come to an end.
Tomorrow I will try to get back into my routine.
My very best 73 to all!
