Sunday, August 03, 2003
We Have Arrived!
Hey all,
We have arrived & unloaded the truck, and are now in the process of unloading boxes & making this little house a home! It's been an adventure so far.
The trip out here was mostly uneventful and fine. A few snafus along the way, but we stayed alive & healthy, the cats stayed alive & mostly healthy (one got sick the day after we got here), and the truck survived with little-to-no beating. Adam wanted me to share the story of our biggest snafu with you all, so here goes:
Late Thursday, on the road, we were in eastern New Mexico somewhere between the border of Oklahoma and Albuquerque, and it was dark. Maybe 10pm? We were relatively low on gas, and didn't stop soon enough to fill up. By the time we realized we were really low on gas, we were in the absolute middle of nowhere. Ever been in the desert at night? Pitch black - a darkness I've never experienced before. Ever. The stars were amazing - the sky enormous - but we didn't really have a chance to stop & appreciate them. Exits were scarce along this desolate stretch, and when Adam finally saw one that said "gas", he took it. Just off the exit, it was still pitch dark. A tiny local petrol station was just to the right off the exit, but it was dark & closed - maybe permanently. Instead of getting back on the highway, Adam thought that maybe just over the hill there was more. I was skeptical, but kept my mouth closed...mostly. We got over the hill, and there was nothing. Black. Road. Desert. But we were a few dozen yards down the road before Adam decided it was futile. We couldn't turn around, b/c the street was too narrow. We couldn't back up & do a multi-point turn b/c with the car on the trailer behind the truck there were too many pivot points & we'd just jackknife & be stuck. We kept going. A sign said "gas - 23 miles". We probably couldn't make it that far, but had no choice. After 3 or 4 miles, I was freaking out, so we looked for a place to turn around. Tricky. We tried to use a driveway (there was actually one house about 3 miles down this road to nowhere) and that didn't work. We tried at a spot that looked flat, not flat enough. Finally we got to a spot where, as far as we could tell in the light from our headlights, the ground was flat enough on both sides of this tiny country road to make a big loop. Adam took the chance, looped around, I swore a few times, and we made it back onto the road. We ran out to check that the car was okay, it was. We glanced up at the stars for a few seconds, hugged b/c we actually got turned back around, and headed toward the highway. By the time we got to an exit with a real & functional gas station, we'd gone another 20 miles or so. In our 35 gallon gas tank, we filled up with no less than 35.4 gallons. Yikes. I guess we were literally on fumes.... Scary thought to be stranded on a desolate street in the desert with our entire houseful of worldly possessions, two cats, and no gas. But we made it. :)
Coming through the mountains on the last leg of the trip took 3x longer than it would have in a car, but with the truck & the trailer pulling the car, we could only go about 10 mph. The last 30 miles took over 2 hours. It was absolutely beautiful driving in here. The town of Silver is pretty much surrounded with the Gila (pronounced Hee-la) National Forest, so we drove through a good chunk of that on the way in. Amazing! Beautiful. It felt like Oregon or Washington - lots of mountains covered with pine trees. My expectations of the weather & terrain here have been shattered - it's better & more amazing than either Adam or I had pictured.
I don't have a digital camera or I would send you all pictures of the area & the house. It's a small house & it was very stark when we walked in. It's got character b/c it's old, but there's not much to it. The kitchen is the biggest room - with LOTS of cupboard space. That's the best. We just got the office halfway set up, which is how I've got email back. We have a few cacti in our backyard - little ones, but cacti nonetheless. It's very hilly here - the mountains are crazier than I thought. I didn't know what "high mountain desert" meant, but I'm starting to understand. The horizon stretches further than I ever imagined, and way far off after you look across miles of desert, are mountains. Not mountains like in Washington, but mountains. We have a big clawfoot tub in the bathroom, and a fake wood-burning stove in the main room. We'll probably never get that going, but it's sort of fun. It adds character to the room.
The weather is perfect - sunny, hot, dry. It's not hotter than GR summer weather, and it's not humid, so it's very nice. Not just tolerable - nice. Breezy all the time, which will be fun when we unearth our windchime. :)
There's a long driveway & a carport w/ a big storage shed in the back. There's a big front yard (corner lot) with a great shade tree in the front. St. Francis Newman Center Catholic church is across the street - directly across the street. For you CNA/C3 people - it's nothing like St. Al's. I bet you could fit St. Francis in the front lawn at St. Al's. It's nice too, b/c a lot of the people park down the street and walk to the church, or they live close enough to walk. There's lots of church-related foot traffic down our street, so we get to see people & maybe we'll meet a few more that way.
The next door neighbors have a little weiner dog. Yesterday the guy took his four-wheeler out for a ride, and took the pup w/ him for a few blocks. We had fun watching, but I'm not sure how much the dog liked it. ;)
We got a tip that firefighting might be a good job opportunity for Adam, so he's going to look into that this week. We found a few grocery stores & restaurants, and there's a nice little pocket park a few blocks away w/ benches & basketball courts & gazebos. There's actually some grass in the park too. ;)
It's greener than I expected here. En route through Oklahoma & eastern NM it was desolate desert and we wondered how anything can survive, but it's not bad at all in Silver. There are still trees & grass, just not as much or as green as GR.
We have a great open front porch w/ a railing, and we've got a few chairs out there. If any of you want to come by for a drink or a slice of watermelon or a popsicle, you are welcome to join us out there on the porch.
I guess that's about it for now. If you've got specific things you want to hear about, go ahead & ask & I'll be happy to update & fill in flavor text details as much as I can. I have to go unload some boxes before Adam gets impatient from doing it w/o me. :)
Love you all - stay in touch. So far we've (sort of) met a meager 8 people. Janine (my NM email contact through whom we got the contact for this house) & her boyfriend Nick, Judi (the real estate lady), Father Marcos & another guy from St. Francis, a waitress at Pizza Hut and a waitress & the manager of a little local Mexican restaurant. So we need to stay connected to long distance friends!!
Bethany Joy Lange (and Adam :))
We have arrived & unloaded the truck, and are now in the process of unloading boxes & making this little house a home! It's been an adventure so far.
The trip out here was mostly uneventful and fine. A few snafus along the way, but we stayed alive & healthy, the cats stayed alive & mostly healthy (one got sick the day after we got here), and the truck survived with little-to-no beating. Adam wanted me to share the story of our biggest snafu with you all, so here goes:
Late Thursday, on the road, we were in eastern New Mexico somewhere between the border of Oklahoma and Albuquerque, and it was dark. Maybe 10pm? We were relatively low on gas, and didn't stop soon enough to fill up. By the time we realized we were really low on gas, we were in the absolute middle of nowhere. Ever been in the desert at night? Pitch black - a darkness I've never experienced before. Ever. The stars were amazing - the sky enormous - but we didn't really have a chance to stop & appreciate them. Exits were scarce along this desolate stretch, and when Adam finally saw one that said "gas", he took it. Just off the exit, it was still pitch dark. A tiny local petrol station was just to the right off the exit, but it was dark & closed - maybe permanently. Instead of getting back on the highway, Adam thought that maybe just over the hill there was more. I was skeptical, but kept my mouth closed...mostly. We got over the hill, and there was nothing. Black. Road. Desert. But we were a few dozen yards down the road before Adam decided it was futile. We couldn't turn around, b/c the street was too narrow. We couldn't back up & do a multi-point turn b/c with the car on the trailer behind the truck there were too many pivot points & we'd just jackknife & be stuck. We kept going. A sign said "gas - 23 miles". We probably couldn't make it that far, but had no choice. After 3 or 4 miles, I was freaking out, so we looked for a place to turn around. Tricky. We tried to use a driveway (there was actually one house about 3 miles down this road to nowhere) and that didn't work. We tried at a spot that looked flat, not flat enough. Finally we got to a spot where, as far as we could tell in the light from our headlights, the ground was flat enough on both sides of this tiny country road to make a big loop. Adam took the chance, looped around, I swore a few times, and we made it back onto the road. We ran out to check that the car was okay, it was. We glanced up at the stars for a few seconds, hugged b/c we actually got turned back around, and headed toward the highway. By the time we got to an exit with a real & functional gas station, we'd gone another 20 miles or so. In our 35 gallon gas tank, we filled up with no less than 35.4 gallons. Yikes. I guess we were literally on fumes.... Scary thought to be stranded on a desolate street in the desert with our entire houseful of worldly possessions, two cats, and no gas. But we made it. :)
Coming through the mountains on the last leg of the trip took 3x longer than it would have in a car, but with the truck & the trailer pulling the car, we could only go about 10 mph. The last 30 miles took over 2 hours. It was absolutely beautiful driving in here. The town of Silver is pretty much surrounded with the Gila (pronounced Hee-la) National Forest, so we drove through a good chunk of that on the way in. Amazing! Beautiful. It felt like Oregon or Washington - lots of mountains covered with pine trees. My expectations of the weather & terrain here have been shattered - it's better & more amazing than either Adam or I had pictured.
I don't have a digital camera or I would send you all pictures of the area & the house. It's a small house & it was very stark when we walked in. It's got character b/c it's old, but there's not much to it. The kitchen is the biggest room - with LOTS of cupboard space. That's the best. We just got the office halfway set up, which is how I've got email back. We have a few cacti in our backyard - little ones, but cacti nonetheless. It's very hilly here - the mountains are crazier than I thought. I didn't know what "high mountain desert" meant, but I'm starting to understand. The horizon stretches further than I ever imagined, and way far off after you look across miles of desert, are mountains. Not mountains like in Washington, but mountains. We have a big clawfoot tub in the bathroom, and a fake wood-burning stove in the main room. We'll probably never get that going, but it's sort of fun. It adds character to the room.
The weather is perfect - sunny, hot, dry. It's not hotter than GR summer weather, and it's not humid, so it's very nice. Not just tolerable - nice. Breezy all the time, which will be fun when we unearth our windchime. :)
There's a long driveway & a carport w/ a big storage shed in the back. There's a big front yard (corner lot) with a great shade tree in the front. St. Francis Newman Center Catholic church is across the street - directly across the street. For you CNA/C3 people - it's nothing like St. Al's. I bet you could fit St. Francis in the front lawn at St. Al's. It's nice too, b/c a lot of the people park down the street and walk to the church, or they live close enough to walk. There's lots of church-related foot traffic down our street, so we get to see people & maybe we'll meet a few more that way.
The next door neighbors have a little weiner dog. Yesterday the guy took his four-wheeler out for a ride, and took the pup w/ him for a few blocks. We had fun watching, but I'm not sure how much the dog liked it. ;)
We got a tip that firefighting might be a good job opportunity for Adam, so he's going to look into that this week. We found a few grocery stores & restaurants, and there's a nice little pocket park a few blocks away w/ benches & basketball courts & gazebos. There's actually some grass in the park too. ;)
It's greener than I expected here. En route through Oklahoma & eastern NM it was desolate desert and we wondered how anything can survive, but it's not bad at all in Silver. There are still trees & grass, just not as much or as green as GR.
We have a great open front porch w/ a railing, and we've got a few chairs out there. If any of you want to come by for a drink or a slice of watermelon or a popsicle, you are welcome to join us out there on the porch.
I guess that's about it for now. If you've got specific things you want to hear about, go ahead & ask & I'll be happy to update & fill in flavor text details as much as I can. I have to go unload some boxes before Adam gets impatient from doing it w/o me. :)
Love you all - stay in touch. So far we've (sort of) met a meager 8 people. Janine (my NM email contact through whom we got the contact for this house) & her boyfriend Nick, Judi (the real estate lady), Father Marcos & another guy from St. Francis, a waitress at Pizza Hut and a waitress & the manager of a little local Mexican restaurant. So we need to stay connected to long distance friends!!
Bethany Joy Lange (and Adam :))
