Made it... (barely)...
Apr. 21st, 2002 09:02 pmSo, where did I leave off? It doesn't matter.
Galina and I went to the dancing event and had an enormously good time. I nursed an Avalanche beer over the course of the night, while Galina made a hat trick of some gin-and-tonics. The appetizer we ordered (a sampler) had some good points, and enough bad points to make me want to stop talking about it.
The format of the evening consisted of a local dance competition, followed by a dance exhibition by local amateurs (some, as local as Albuquerque), followed finally by a performance by the young couple from Denver who will be traveling to somewhere in England (Blackpool?) to compete in some world-class competition.
We left around 10:30 pm and by the time Lee and I got all packed and on the road, it was about 11:30. I napped for most of the road down to Clines Corners, where we took on more fuel and some coffee. Lee continued to drive, heading east on I-40 to the Route 84 exit, and then south. A few miles down this road, we stopped to switch seats, but waited while a set of headlights behind us passed, as I wanted to see if Ikaya-Zhang was still visible in the northern sky.
Well, the headlights came to a stop behind us! It turns out the trucker driving the rig decided we might be out of gas or broken down, and stopped to help. When I got out of the van, I was struck by just how cold it was outside, and realized that about the last place I'd want to be broken down would be this particular road at this particular time. Once the heater's warmth left the vehicle, the van's interior would quickly begin to resemble an icebox.
After the trucker left, we paused briefly to look at Casseopeia as we switched places, and Lee thought she saw a fuzzy patch just below it.
I drove down to Ft. Sumner, turned left and watched the sun rise as we passed Clovis and the state line, and then stopped the car a few miles inside of Texas to take an hour's nap. Lee drove pretty much the rest of the way, past Lubbock, hanging a left at Sweetwater and a right at Abilene, and on down to San Antonio, where I took over the wheel and brought us home to Pearland.
We just pulled in a few minutes ago, and I am very, very tired. Work tomorrow starts at noon, and I have to be at JSC in time to take care of some administrivia. There is one beer in the fridge, to which I think I will help myself to. Then, it will be sleepy time (assuming that the, um, aroma, associated with Lee and Dwayne's cats can be ameliorated, or gotten used to...).
Cheers...
Galina and I went to the dancing event and had an enormously good time. I nursed an Avalanche beer over the course of the night, while Galina made a hat trick of some gin-and-tonics. The appetizer we ordered (a sampler) had some good points, and enough bad points to make me want to stop talking about it.
The format of the evening consisted of a local dance competition, followed by a dance exhibition by local amateurs (some, as local as Albuquerque), followed finally by a performance by the young couple from Denver who will be traveling to somewhere in England (Blackpool?) to compete in some world-class competition.
We left around 10:30 pm and by the time Lee and I got all packed and on the road, it was about 11:30. I napped for most of the road down to Clines Corners, where we took on more fuel and some coffee. Lee continued to drive, heading east on I-40 to the Route 84 exit, and then south. A few miles down this road, we stopped to switch seats, but waited while a set of headlights behind us passed, as I wanted to see if Ikaya-Zhang was still visible in the northern sky.
Well, the headlights came to a stop behind us! It turns out the trucker driving the rig decided we might be out of gas or broken down, and stopped to help. When I got out of the van, I was struck by just how cold it was outside, and realized that about the last place I'd want to be broken down would be this particular road at this particular time. Once the heater's warmth left the vehicle, the van's interior would quickly begin to resemble an icebox.
After the trucker left, we paused briefly to look at Casseopeia as we switched places, and Lee thought she saw a fuzzy patch just below it.
I drove down to Ft. Sumner, turned left and watched the sun rise as we passed Clovis and the state line, and then stopped the car a few miles inside of Texas to take an hour's nap. Lee drove pretty much the rest of the way, past Lubbock, hanging a left at Sweetwater and a right at Abilene, and on down to San Antonio, where I took over the wheel and brought us home to Pearland.
We just pulled in a few minutes ago, and I am very, very tired. Work tomorrow starts at noon, and I have to be at JSC in time to take care of some administrivia. There is one beer in the fridge, to which I think I will help myself to. Then, it will be sleepy time (assuming that the, um, aroma, associated with Lee and Dwayne's cats can be ameliorated, or gotten used to...).
Cheers...