Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

May 27, 2010

Today we were able to finish collection in Great Sand Dunes. We hope this will be the last park with our old truck! I took one last photo of the vehicle in a park to remember the occasion :). I don't think anyone will really miss that truck. This morning it was showing really low voltage with no computer systems on, which typically means an alternator is on the way out. Luckily the truck held on so we could finish this park. The new truck treated us pretty well today.

We had some time in the afternoon to take a quick walk down to the river and walk across it so we could walk on the sand dunes a bit. It was windy and the sand hurt when it hit you (face and legs), ouch! I was not expecting that. I think I will see lingering sand for awhile. My shoes were filled with it.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

May 26, 2010
Today we drove from Raton, NM to Alamosa, CO and started collection at Great Sand Dunes. We had some problems with the new truck in the morning again and then had problems with the old truck in the afternoon. We had about 4 hours of good collection though so I'll take it. It was much warmer here than I thought it would be. Around 3:00pm it was 85 degrees in the old truck and one of the computers started beeping, which means "turn me off now or I'll turn myself off soon"! I tried all my old tricks to cool the truck off but nothing worked. It made our collection day end at 3:30pm. We took a short loop hike by the visitor center and I was able to get some photos. This is a pretty park.

Capulin Volcano National Park

May 25, 2010

This morning was a long drive across the pan handle of Oklahoma. It was mostly wide open range with nothing exciting to look at. Near the boarder of New Mexico we drove through an area that looked like a tornado had passed through not long ago. Many field sprinklers were mangled and broken. A farm shed had the siding and part of the roof taken off and the metal mangled around the fence that was across the road. It was pretty crazy.

About 20 minutes from the park I turned on the computer systems in the new truck to get things ready. Thus begun a long afternoon of troubleshooting. We had more issues than I was hoping. All had a quick fix but some of the problems still linger. Because of the delay we were in a bit of a time crunch at the park so we didn't get a chance to walk around and enjoy the park. They close the gate at 4pm. We were able to stay a bit longer but only to get our work done, so there was no time to hike. I did get a couple of photos. There were some storm clouds in the distance which was neat to see. It was a productive day because we were able to finish the park but a discouraging day because we had some problems with our new truck.

Oklahoma City Hail Storm Video

From May 16th...

I found this on You Tube. If you want to see some crazy hail check out this video. Make sure you keep watching because it seems bad at the beginning of the video but it gets worse! WOW! I've never seen anything like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFv2W7Duqiw

Woodward, OK

May 24, 2010

Today was a travel day. We are on our way to CAVO and GRSA...those are the abbreviations for Capulin Volcano National Park in NM http://www.nps.gov/cavo/index.htm and Great Sand Dunes in CO http://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm . We flew into Tulsa, OK to pick up the collection vehicle after being fixed from our slide into the snowy ditch a few months ago. It was good to be in the truck again. We drove 3 1/2 hours to Woodward, OK. If you have never heard of the town I wouldn't be surprised. It is pretty small but does have a Wal-mart. It seems we are back in the 70s here with a very outdated grocery store and none of the restaurants are remodeled to keep up with the rest of the world. We went to dinner at Wagg's BBQ and it was pretty good. During dinner it started to rain, more like downpour! There is a severe thunderstorm warning and flood warning out for the area. We are hoping that no hail falls because our poor truck doesn't need anymore damage. On the drive back to the hotel the streets were already flooded (one lane of the two) and people here don't seem to be afraid of hydroplaning. CAVO is about 5 hours west of here and hopefully by the time we arrive tomorrow the roads will be dry so we can get some work done.