Morning coffee

[RICH MUISE]

Great to hear Jim. I'm not a big ocean beach person except for the skimpy bikinis. I'd love to have a cabin on a mountain lake though. Anyways, good to hear you got in a long ride in the 'chero before winter.

[mustang6984]

Hey...my new place isn't a cabin, but the lake is a short walk from the front porch...and I have ALL the fishing poles we need...

[RICH MUISE]

Before I forget again, If I lived where you do now, new on my bucket list would be a trip to Jerry's in Springdale!
My wife got a call from the VA hospital this morning. They are expecting a shipment of vaccine real soon, and wanted to let her know she'll be in the 3rd group to receive it. First group is hospital staff, second is 85 and older, third is 50 and older. Everyone else is in 4th group.

[RICH MUISE]

Heading up to the mountains in NM tomorrow with the '57. Should be 500+ miles, a one-day trip.....probably the Taos area.

[RICH MUISE]

Left at 7 am, got back at 9 tonight. 14 hrs of great weather, beautiful scenery, mostly dry roads. 670 miles. All the parking lots at the ski resort I went by were packed full, and the chair lifts were all full. Saw a flock of about 100 wild turkeys just north of Tucumcari. about 2 1/4 tanks of gas.....didn't check the mpg., but not bad since a bunch of it was mountain driving. Never saw one person outside in New Mexico without a facemask....even just walking down the street. The good and the bad......the skiing was obviously doing well, and the square in Taos was packed full of cars......not a parking spot to be foundbut it was sad to see all the casinos shut down, especially the new one they just finished in '19 next to the Santa Fe Opera. New beautiful casino, parking lot and sidewalks overgrown with weeds.

[hiball3985]

Good for you Rich I wish I could do that much mileage in a day but 300 is about my limit. Things here are shutting down again, the spread is going crazy and the hospitals are maxed out. I think the casinos are still open but that could change any day again.

[djfordmanjack]

Taking a collector car for an extended drive....lucky you Rich !

Its all around freezing point here all the time. not cold, but really annoying, damp foggy, ugly, ugly, UGLY....

My friends in Germany are already locked. Austria is going into another lockdown from Dec 26th until the end of Jan. Friends and family are all doing well, but now we have to hurry up, to sit down and wait. some more.

[RICH MUISE]

In north Texas, we're kinda in between the guys who could do car stuff all year, like Florida, Az. and Socal and the guys who lock down for the winter. Where I was yesterday, it was down to 9* the night before, had some reservations about trying a few mountain passes between the snow caps, but there were only a few curves sheltered from getting sunlight at any time where it could have been bad, but all of those roads, particularly the curves were heavily sanded and had no issues.
The casinos I've been in since Covid have a pretty good grip on it. They check your temp. when you go in, and scan your driver's license so they can notify you if covid has been tied to the casino. They have separated the machines in various ways. Sometimes it's just spacing between a fewer number of machines, sometimes it's just shutting down every other machine and removing their chairs, and other times its plexiglass shields.

[RICH MUISE]

roadtrips on the highway..........Sunday I drove a total of 330 miles on I 40. One of the things that I always take note of is the truck traffic. I think it's about as good an indicator of the general economy as you can get. In the morning leaving Amarillo about 7 am, there were miles and miles of almost bumper to bumper big rigs. I guess probably mostly the ones that spent the night in Amarillo. I was probably 20 miles out before the traffic started to thin out a bit, but there still was a pretty steady flow of traffic heading east towards Amarillo. I've done tons of trips on I40 over the years, and last Sunday all day was probably the heaviest I'd ever seen. It was the same way when I hit it again later coming home. Aside from the truckers there were tons of travelers, probably Christmas related, all the 220 miles back home.
A few weeks ago I took my dog out for a 3 or 4 hour drive thru small towns, ranch and farm country north of Amarillo. Once again, it was hard not to notice the hustle and bustle going on out there. Texas is a big beef raising area, so you've got the huge  cattle ranches, the grain growers, and the cotton and food growers, the feed lots, etc, all serviced by big trucking. Also we are a gas producing area, so you'll occasionally see helium fields with their tons of piping. Anyway, ranching trucks active all over, hay and cotton trucks, cattle trucks. It's really quite something to be out in the flatland areas in what you'd think was the middle of nowhere, and see all these big rigs farm trucks and equipment moving in all directions as far as you can see. A really good feeling for me, we're gonna be OK type thing! Only thing on the downside were the hundreds of oil derricks not pumping. I'm sure that's temporary.

Anyway, back to the I40 talk, a few observations: lots of household moving trucks headed east, mostly with California plates on the cars being towed. Never saw one headed west. U-Haul and Penske had about the same numbers, with U-Haul being obviously household, and Penske having probably commercial due to the loading dock height of their overhead doors. Fed-Ex trucks outnumber UPS anymore at least 30 to one. Amazon trucks increasing in quantity everytime I take a different trip. I probably saw at least 20 of them Sunday. Only saw one Yellow Trucking. They use to be really big. I saw at least 8 Hobby Lobby rigs.....quantity was probably season related. Love's is apparently the only gas stations that have their own tanker trucks. Locally here Toot n' Totum has their own. I just don't see trucks like Shell, etc anymore. They must have decided it was more cost effective to pay outsiders.
Any observations  you guys make on roadtrips, or am I just weird?  Probably wouln't notice if I had a lady along to keep me amused.

[CobraJoe]

... Rich,  you're going to hate all those Cali plates heading East and settling in Texas and then trying to make it like California. 

All the MassHoles headed North to the lovely state of Maine because they loved it so much; eventually they tried to change it to Mass, trying to stop the hunting of innocent Black Bears, slaughtering those poor little Coyotes and trapping those cute, little Beaver.

[hiball3985]

... Rich,  you're going to hate all those Cali plates heading East and settling in Texas and then trying to make it like California. 

Thats exactly what has happened to Arizona  NM and Nevada  , the voting proved it.

[FiveSevenLiter]

Merry Christmas to all from the Great White North.

[CobraJoe]

...and right back at ya' from Cape Cod.
 

[terry_208]

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I hope all is right in your area of the world.  May you enjoy the warm company of family and good friends.

[RICH MUISE]

Wish we could.....I'm missing our relatives. We're playing it on the safe side so we'll be around to share next Christmas with them.