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Old 05-01-2008, 07:57 PM   #18
Manual Garcia O'Kely
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 96
Default Report Two

Report No. 2, 5/1/08, Dateline Ruidoso, NM

Alright. From Houston onwards to dateline location.

Vehicle fuel economy: Sucks. No other word for it, I'm getting an average of 18 mpg with the trailer.
This car usually gets 25 unladen. Today it's been nothing but headwinds and the average is below 14 -
seriously, I could drive a Ford F-150 and would probably be getting better mileage at this point.

From Houston, we headed West, towards Austin. We made a fairly fast run there and found a State Park
only 13 miles from downtown. So we unhooked and went into Austin in the evening for sightseeing and
dinner. I had never been to Austin before, so I was impressed by the town and the surroundings.
McKinney state park was pretty open. We took US 290 to stay off the interstates...

Had my first radio night! I managed to get the BP up and on the air, made two contacts, a nice one with
a fellow in S. California, the other a quick q with Columbia. That was cool. The FT-897 does not seem to
want to make 100 watts on 20 meters which I find very upsetting. Maybe I just need to stay off 20?
I used the BP with the TRSB and balanced coils for a true dipole - managed 2:1 easily then used the
tuner to take the edge off.

The next day we took a late start to do laundry and such and headed west on 290 again, visiting the LBJ
birthplace site - which is worth a visit. We also went to Fredricksburg, a very well preservered 'western' town,
lots and lots of old buildings on the main street. North on Hwy 16 and then East on 29 took us to Ink Lake
State Park. This was one of THE best sites we have had - a bit windy but right on the shore of a large lake
and we had a huge section of the camp to ourselves - 180 sites but not a single empty one come summer.

Heading West again we then made west on 29, then US 377 to Del Rio, TX. We noted that the Border Patrol
is a big business in these parts we saw 3 checkpoints and were stopped once ourselves. Odd.
From Del Rio, we went west on US 90 to Seminole Canyon State Park. A very small, and very windy park.
There are petroglyphs for viewing on a guided tour and this was a very breezy place all night, as well
as little or no sun protection.

Today, it was US 90 west to Sanderson, TX, then US 285 north thru Ft. Stockton, with a brief stop in Langtry, TX
the home of Judge Roy Bean. Another interesting stop - his saloon is still standing as is his house and it's
a free self-guided tour. We continued on 285 all the way to Roswell, NM where we turned back West on
US 70 up to Ruidoso, NM. We decided at about 5:30 that we had had enough of the wind for the day and got a nice
Motel room for the night. We are going to let someone else cook dinner and do the dishes too!

At this point, the wife is plotting our next moves, which will include the VLA outside Socorro, NM.

Even with the absurd winds we are getting, the camper is still a dream to pull from a handling standpoint.
Hard to complain about that.

Been too windy the last two nights to rig the antenna. I can't wait to get out of this wind -
I'm going a bit wind-mad at this point.

Well, no pics since I still don't have a card reader, but they will come - actually not taking much....
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