Friday, August 04, 2006

Pre-Worlds (Day -3)

I left the rain-soaked emerald forest of Massachusetts at sunrise on Sunday on my way to the arid plains of Big Spring Texas over 2000 miles away. I was already in New York when Rodger called to see if I was going flying. No flying for me, but I kept busy feeding updated weather information to Rodger and Dennis as I drove the first 11 hour leg of my trip to the family homestead in Ohio. (The gang flew but didn’t go very far).

After spending a couple of days with my mother (which included watching sunsets) I was back on the road. I saw corn and soybean fields in Indiana and Illinois, construction in Missouri, hayfields and pastures in Oklahoma, and small mountains silhouetted by the setting sun in Texas. (Somewhere along the line I spotted the Gecko field vehicle.) I was glad to see the oil refinery at the edge of Big Spring after 20 hours of driving at 1:30 last night.

The day looked good this morning but I found out we were not allowed to fly at the airport after bumping into the French team at Wal-Mart. Rumor is the site insurance only covered the actual meet and the 2 official practice days. I was bummed that I would miss a day of flying but given my lack of sleep and the eventual storms that developed early in the afternoon, it was probably a good thing. I hung out, helped slow up the assembly of the tugs, and caught up with the people that showed up early.

A small rabbit strayed into the hanger that Ellery, John Hesch, and I cornered but we eventually let it run back outside. Later, Rabbit Man Ellery caught the rabbit by himself and carried it around before releasing it. I told Ellery I would be really impressed if he caught one of the prairie dogs with his bare hands!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The rabbits that ate every #@%#^&$ last one of my vegetables in my garden are a lot bigger than that starved little mesquite eating thing in the foto! Good luck down there and have fun. PK