Postcard from the road

17 October 2011

I'm stuck in PHX waiting for US Airways to clone an aircraft. Oh joy. I'm bored out of my mind so I thought I'd whine.

I'm on my way to Albuquerque for regular doctor & dentist appointments and, more importantly, to retrieve our Highlander. The truck is sick and we rented a car from Enterprise which we'll return when I get the Highlander back to Benson. The KIA Soul was a nice car, but we'd have liked it better if the suspension had springs with more than 4" of travel and mileage better than about 30 mpg. Guess it's not for old toots like us.

The airport delay doesn't threaten tomorrow's appointments, but it does mean I have to reschedule the shuttle. Bummer. I'm assuming all will go OK... this is my first time to use Sandia Shuttle Express. They don't take you to your home, but they stop at all the Roadrunner stops and there's one near the house. A 1 mile walk after sitting for way too many hours sounds just fine.

What a pain not having the truck! We'd planned to drive from Benson to Santa Fe so we both could have our teeth cleaned. Without the truck, we couldn't both fly because one of us had to stay with the dogs. Since the Admiral can't drive more than 30 minutes without falling asleep, that meant I was a better choice to fly, then drive back to Benson. Not bad duty since I enjoy driving anyway.

19 October 2011

The Sandia Shuttle Express turned out to be a great choice: $27 from the Sunport (ABQ) to the Railrunner South Capitol station in Santa Fe. I could have chosen any of several non-neighborhood drop off locations.

Been to the doctor (good for another 6 months) and to the dental hygienist today (yup... still got all 8 of 'em). Barbara has been cleaning my teeth for a few years now and we always take a few minutes to talk about photography. She's a really good photographer who has recently started doing weddings. She has a few prints hanging around the office. I especially liked the shot off the back of the Amtrak... Wow!

I was out of the chair at 1500 and on the road headed South on I-25. Stopped in Socorro for the nite, and tomorrow will take NM-26 from Hatch to Deming in order to bypass Las Cruces.

20 October 2011

I was awake at 0430 so I thought "What the hell? Might as well get going." I was on the road by 0500 and had an easy time getting to Deming on I-10 with nearly no traffic. Stopped in Lordsburg for gas and breakfast (Kranberry's... excellent fresh biscuits, but to my mind sausage gravy is supposed to have some sausage in it; still tasted good), then back on the road. I was at the Dog House by 10ish thanks to the time zone difference (AZ doesn't use daylight savings time). I was starting to fade as I got near Texas Canyon about 20 East of Benson, but the boulder-strewn landscape near the top of the pass is gorgeous and I was quickly alert again to finish the ride.

Tomorrow the KIA goes back. And it was a good thing we rented it. Not only did Celia use it to get me to the Tucson airport (TUS), she had to get Annie to the emergency vet in Tucson at 0100 on the 19th. The Admiral was afraid Annie might have bloat, a very real possibility with berners. It can only be corrected with surgery to remove the twist in the bowel. Turned out she had bad gas (Maalox with Simethicone did the trick), probably from the mesquite berries she sneaks while walking. The Admiral explained it was a $300 fart (cost of X-rays and exam), but better safe than sorry. With bloat you have about an hour to get to the vet for surgery or you'll lose your best friend.

iPad 2 and Google's Blogger editor

I started this post at the PHX airport using my iPad 2 and their WiFi hotspot. I could enter and save text to the blog OK, but it appears the Blogger editor is buggy in its iPad version. Everything was a continuous sentence with no line breaks, and it was like pulling eye teeth to get Blogger to edit what it had just saved. Disappointing. Come on Google... you can do better than that!. I've seen reference to an editor used by Blogspot bloggers traveling with their iPads and had thought it didn't apply to me. Oops! Guess I'd better track it down.