Good Grief! Where has the Time Gone??

Here it is:  vacation time again.  I just realized that it has been eleven months since the last time I posted anything!  So much has happened, but I have been so busy....
A quick synopsis:

• I am still working off the ranch, but my wife is not. She is now permanently disabled due to her knees. Now, if we can only get the Social Security Administration to agree...
• We have expanded our operation to include chickens. We built a coop to keep them safe at night, but let them range freely during the day.
• The children are taking on-line classes this semester. This way they can keep up while we travel. I wish this option was available when I was in college...
• We rented out the double-wide, but the new tenant defaulted after the first month and we had to evict her. Now, we have to find another tenant.
• We actually had some decent rains this year. Our pastures are still green at the end of August! The state, however, is still in a drought: replenishing the aquifers will take much more rain than we have gotten.

The economy, while it has improved, is still bad. I keep hearing economic pundits complain that the consumer, which comprises 70% of economic activity, is still not spending. This leaves me wondering what planet they live on. Since wages have been static and the prices not included in the "market basket," are rising, where are we supposed to get the money to spend on non-essential items? The official inflation rate does not include food, energy, taxes, medical and education. Jobs have increased, but not for veterans, part-timers and the long-term unemployed - three groups not included in the standard employment rate. All the pundits are trying to do is make us feel better without making the reality better. As W.C. Fields said - lies, damn lies and statistics.

Anyway, it is time for vacation. We are headed to my mother-in-law's place in California to celebrate her 80th birthday. My wife's best friend will take care of the flock and the herd while we are gone.
Gotta run for the New Mexico state line.....

Vacation 2013

We are headed out on vacation, again. It is not totally a pleasure trip. We are driving out to visit my mother-in-law. Last spring, my wife's father died and now, her mother wants to reduce har "footprint" and move into s smaller place. The plan is to rent out the old homestead in the canyon for enough to pay the rent on the smaller place and have a little left over. This, of course, means going through more than fifty years of accumulated stuff and memories, keeping some, giving some to my wife and her siblings, giving some to friends and charities, and throwing away whatever is left over.

We plan to arrive on Saturday, just in time for a big shindig that my brother-in-law is running for the other residents of the canyon where the homestead is. No, this event is not being held in our honor, but it is a good time for my wife to chat with people she knew when she was growing up.

Sunday, we will be the guests of honor at the church's monthly pot-luck dinner. A week later, my wife and I will mark the thirtieth anniversary of our wedding in that same church.

I will try to be good about recording our vacation this year.....

Magic Mountain

We took our Six Flags Fiesta Texas season passes and headed for Magic Mountain. This theme park is known for its roller coasters! Check out their web site at http://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/index.aspx.

Our Rides

We rode the following rides, in the order I remember them:

X2

This is one of their newest rides: I don't remember it being there when we visited Magic Mountain a couple of years ago. It also had the longest line of the day.

It was definitely different. You sit at the same level as the track. The seats, each of which are equipped with loudspeakers, tip back and forth through almost 360 degrees.

This picture of X2 is not from our trip. It is just a great picture from MSNBC.COM

Viper

This is a tall coaster with lots of loops. Think of what it would be like to ride a corkscrew with irregular coils.

Roaring Rapids

This is the most aggressive white-water raft ride I have been on. The only problem? My wife and daughter got soaked, while I stayed dry!

Goldrusher

Sandblasters

This sounds more intriguing that it is. These are your standard bumper cars.

Ninja

The Tram - I forgot the name

Grand Carousel

Like most older carousels, this was originally configured with two benches. Unfortunately, one was missing and, from the marks on the floor, had been missing for quite some time. This meant that the other was always full.

Revolution

Riddler's Revenge

This ride is a strange one: you can either stand up or sit down while riding it! The entire seat moves up or down to accommodate you, although is appears to lock into position once you reach the top of the first climb.

The picture at right is from About.com: California Travel.

Terminator® Salvation™: The Ride

While we were waiting for this ride, a 5.4 earthquake struck Palm Springs, CA. For safety reasons, Magic Mountain shut down all of the rides for about half an hour. We thought the earthquake was just the ground vibrating due to the ride.

This ride includes a “station fly-through” in which trains come screaming through the loading area in front of and above people just just before they board.

Strange Observation:

Part of the fun of a theme park is people watching. In addition to the usual families with children in tow (or should I say groups of children with parents in tow), theme parks also attract large numbers of dating couples. California is ethnically and racially a very diverse state. Thus, I expected to see great diversity among the park patrons.

Among the couples, I saw many white couples, black couples, latino couples and oriental couples, where both were of similar ages. I saw quite a number of older men with younger women, but I was surprised by the number of young men with older women. I also saw many white men with black, oriental or latino women.

What struck me as very strange is that I did not see any black, oriental or latino men with white women. I wonder why.

Arrive in Los Angeles

We were early! We arrived at Union Station almost an hour early. This points out, again, one of our economic problems. No freight traffic. On the way in to LA, we passed an intermodal yard with hundreds and hundreds of empty cars for carrying containerized freight. Last time we made this journey, the yard was busy with containers being loaded and unloaded from rail cars.

Waiting for the Sunset Limited

We arrived in San Antonio at about 10 PM. Now, we had to wait for the Sunset Limited. Since there was no space available on the Texas Eagle coach car bound for Los Angeles, we had to wait in the San Antonio station waiting room. It is one of the most depressing railroad waiting rooms I have ever been in. It reminds me of a high school or community college lounge, replete with plastic-and-steel furniture and vending machines.

If my wife had been feeling well, this could have been fun, as the station is right near the entertainment district of San Antonio. We had plenty of time. The Sunset Limited does not leave until after 5 AM.

It's Time to Leave on Vacation

We headed to our nearest Amtrak station to catch the Texas Eagle. We stopped at the home of our part-time ranch hand and my wife's best friend, to pick her up. We also stopped at Subway to grab one of their "foot-long" sandwiches for us to split.

When we got to the station, we said our good-byes and my wife's best friend drove away in our truck. She would be keeping it for us while we were in California.

The train arrived only a few minutes late.

Unfortunately, because we could not reserve a roomette on the Texas Eagle, we were riding in coach until we reached San Antonio. There, we would transfer to the Sunset Limited and have a roomette for the rest of the journey to California.

Since my wife was not feeling well, riding in coach was not very pleasant. Although the seats are wide and very comfortable, she could not adjust her seat to be able to lay down, stretch out and go to sleep.

Vacation

We are actually taking a vacation!

I will try to post about our vacation. To get a good start, I will create a bunch of dummy entries, with the goal of filling them in later.