It Takes A Team

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Wagonteamster

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3/30/10, Muleshoe, TX - In contrast to yesterday, today was a very quiet day on the road.  Typically, everything on the road runs in streaks. 

After pulling out of the roadside park this morning, I drove over to a neighbor’s house and filled up the water jugs and the tank on the wagon.  A man had stopped by the night before and said I could use his hydrant for water.  Then, I swung by the gas station and picked up some more gas for the generator. Just resupplying these items takes an additional half hour, if I’m in a primitive camp the night before.  Setting up and taking down a primitive camp takes about an additional 45 minutes each day.  So when I don’t have a place to plug in and get water, it costs me an additional hour and 15 minutes.  When I’m already busy for 14 or 15 hours a day, this really detracts from the relaxation time, or time set aside for sleep.

Just before noon, I passed a very large geodesic dome. Near the dome was a very large electrical substation with multiple medium voltage transmission lines running off into the desert. Since I couldn’t read any signs, the only thing I think this facility could be is the High Energy Super Collider (for particle physics) that Congress pulled the purse strings on (someone please correct, if I’m wrong).

I once had the opportunity to have a few beers with a couple of the guys from the Princeton Physics Lab. Even though I use to teach simple Physics classes, I found that they spoke a language from another planet.  They would move from muons, to gluons, to dark matter so fast, that I was looking around for an intergalactic translator.  However, after a couple more beers, we all could communicate quite well.

Passing out of the desert region of the accelerator, I was pulled over by the first car of the day.  It was a couple of nice people from cable channel 6 in Muleshoe to do an interview. In the past couple of years, I’ve been interviewed about 50 times for TV news, so I pretty well have the routine down pat. After we were finished, my interviewers were kind enough to find a place for me to spend the night.

Tonight we’re at the Muleshoe Livestock Auction and Roping Arena, about a mile east of town.  Coincidentally, this is the same place that John McComsey stayed at with his two mules, when he drove through here last summer. As the water was turned off over by the Roping Arena, I’ve got the team bedded down up in the pens, next to the cattle that will be auctioned off this weekend.

I got into camp a little early today, so it was nice to have a little bit of extra down time.  I’m currently well supplied, the team is in great shape and it’s a nice peaceful night.