Our RV Adventures

Our vehicle count seems to have settled down for now, with today’s count of 181 pretty much the same as yesterdays. We’ve been told that our last remaining frack still has a few more days to go. But we’ll see. Everything always seems to take longer than planned out here in the oil patch.

For the first time since we’ve been at this gate I heard coyotes (the 4 legged furry kind) about 5am this morning. I used to hear them every morning at last year’s gate. They sounded like they were right across the road, and probably were. But I never saw one.

We talked to our son Chris today about his bike trip out west. He and his fireman buddies went all the way out to Monument Valley in Utah. His best description of the trip was “Cold”. Cold on the bike, cold in the tent.

I finally remembered to ask one of the computer support guys for the password to the rig’s Wi-Fi network. My Verizon data signal here is sometimes iffy, so hopefully this will help.

For dinner tonight we had more delicious food from Ama’s catering. Frack Food, as we call it. This time it was really good Beef and Cheese Enchilada’s with Rice and Beans. And one more thing that made it even better.

This past spring when we were orbiting back and forth between the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails and the Colorado River Thousand Trails, we met up with Greg and Lynette McHenry. And somewhere along the line Greg McHenry gave us a jar of his homemade hot sauce. Well, as can happen, the jar was put in the refrigerator and slowly worked its way to the back, while we were dealing with all of Jan’s breast cancer stuff.

But recently Jan was trying to clear room in the frig for all the Ama’s we’re getting and came across the jar of hot sauce. So we’ve been using on all the Mexican dishes we’ve been getting, including tonight’s enchiladas, as well as the fajitas a couple of nights ago.

And this is some Good Stuff. Really good, as in ‘Greg should bottle and sell this stuff’ good. We’re really sorry we didn’t find this earlier. Of course we would have already run out by now.

So, never mind.

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Thought for the Day:

Never underestimate the power of ignorant people in large groups.

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Well, our vehicle count dropped again, down to 183 from yesterday’s 202. That’s always nice. The new workover rig came in this morning, but except for the rig itself, which is all on one big truck, we didn’t get a lot of traffic from it, just a few extra workers.

Early on, before our two fracks started up, someone had mentioned that there could be a problem fracking too close to a current drilling operation. At the time we thought that might delay the fracks until the drill rig in front of us finished up and shut down.

But then then both fracks began and we didn’t think anymore about it. But today someone said that they alternate. When the fracks start actually fracking, the drill rig shuts down for that period. Which explains the long periods of inaction I see regularly across the street. You learn something new, and all that.

“You fall good” is what Jan said when I did a face plant in the gravel this morning. When I get up in the morning, normally around 11:15 to 11:30, I fix coffee and bring it out to Jan. I’m usually just wearing shorts, a T-Shirt, and Crocs. We sit out for a while and talk, and if anything comes in the gate I get up and log them in so Jan can take a little break.

Well, this time when I got up I didn’t realize that Mister, who came out when I did, had gotten his leash wrapped around my feet. So when I got up I took about three steps, and SPLAT!

Now it’s been about 50 years, but between judo-jujitsu and learning to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, I guess my body hasn’t forgotten how to hit and roll. So the only damage was a small abrasion on my left knee as I rolled off to the left.

The last time this happened was a couple of years ago when we were in Lake Tahoe. We had stopped at one of the scenic pullouts along the lake, and as we were walking back to the truck, I was fooling with my camera, and stepped off a high curb that I swear wasn’t there before.

Without thinking about it, I pulled the camera against my body, and was apparently already rolling when I hit the pavement. Before I knew it, I had rolled over completely and come up on the other side. What’s really strange is that I don’t even remember hitting the ground. But I was stiff and sore the next day, believe me.

Today was a two-fer, or maybe a three-fer, with Ama’s frack food delivery. They actually deliver food twice a day to the frack site. Once around noon, and then again in the evening. This way both shifts get to eat. Normally when they drop off food for us, it’s from the noontime run. But today we got food dropped off both times.

Jan says we’ve got to eat faster because we’re running out of room in the refrigerator. And in trying to do that, we didn’t split tonight’s meal. We each had our own, and boy, was it good.

It was a grilled chicken breast, stuffed with cream cheese and HOT jalapenos, and wrapped in bacon, along with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and mashed potatoes. And not to forget, banana pudding for dessert.

Man, I was really stuffed when I waddled off the bed a little later. And I still am. I guess we shouldn’t try to eat like oil rig workers.

Lowell sent over this photo of Landon’s Halloween costume.

Note the thick rubber collar around his neck. It’s to hold his space helmet.

NEAT!

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Thought for the Day:

A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you’re responsible.

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