When we last posted almost three weeks ago, we had just finished the pump and laundry rooms and were waiting for the well guys to come out and get our water diverted to the house.  While we waited for the appointed day, we made those last couple of connections to the pressure tank and then focused on getting a couple of sinks operational.

Unfortunately, what followed led to a fair amount of aggravation and turned a couple of fairly minor tasks into much bigger jobs.  So, what’s new, right?  Way back in June, my first project was dismantling the kitchen; I tore out the cabinets, I took down the massive island, removed the disgusting range, and was left baffled by the plumbing mess I found under the sink.

I decided to disconnect the rubber coupler at the top (for the vent stack) and simply cut away the rest.  It was when we replaced and moved the water supply lines out from the baseboard that we discovered all of the freeze-split, copper pipes, but that problem was fixed already.  Our new focus was getting our new sink properly connected to the drain and vent in a way that made better sense, was more efficient, and maybe took up just a little less space in the cabinet.  For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say that I spent over an hour down at the Ace picking out all of the pieces and parts I thought I might need to get the job done.  It was a partial success.  A couple more trips down for extension tubes, joints, etc., and we had almost everything we needed.  I got the pvc parts all glued up, but when it came time to put the puzzle together, we were missing one critical piece.  And no, the Ace here in Cripple Creek doesn’t stock them.  Sandi made a quick run down to the hardware store in Woodland Park and bought several so we’d be able to get all of the sinks in the house working.

The well guy showed up as promised and took care of his end of things outside while I made the final electrical connections in the pump room.  I wasn’t confident that I had wired the relay properly, but I hoped that together, we’d be able to sort it all out.  Turns out that the plumbing connections that I was confident about all leaked, while the electrical connections that I doubted were all just fine.  He was able to get everything fixed and adjusted without too much trouble and at a pretty reasonable rate.  We charged the system and were very excited to hear water rushing through our new pipes and even more excited to find that there were no leaks anywhere.

The next day, the plumber came out to turn on the hot water heater, and Sandi jumped at the chance to use her own washer and dryer that had been sitting idle in the barn for the past several months.  The first load went great, but when the second load drained, water began backing up through the floor drains in both rooms.  We tried snaking it from both directions, called and talked with Digger Guy, and finally determined that there was a partial blockage somewhere under the house.  A couple of real nice guys from a local plumbing outfit came out on Saturday and did their magic with the right equipment and we’re good to go (no pun intended).

We endured a few days of frozen hoses, so water to the trailer was at a premium.  My quad decided it didn’t like the gas I put in it, so it went on strike until I drained out the fuel and put in some clean, non-ethanol gas.  Walking up and down the hill in the cold and snow got pretty old, pretty quick.

In the meantime, I got a call from an old friend that I hadn’t seen in nearly 30 years.  We’ve kept in touch off and on since we left Germany back in 1986, but I only saw him twice a couple of years later.  Turns out he was working on some oil rigs in the Texas panhandle for a couple of weeks, which put us as close together as we’d been since the late 80’s.  We got out the atlas and discovered Amarillo was a pretty straight shot, about 400 miles south.  Since it was time for a break, we drove down on Sunday and met up with him for lunch on Monday.  We only had a couple of hours to catch up, but it was well worth the trip.  I don’t share a lot of personal reflections, but I’ll put this out there for what it’s worth:

When I got to Germany, I was 19 years old and was just beginning to figure out that something had changed.  I was in a strange, in-between sort of place.  I wasn’t a kid anymore; living at home with mom and dad, going to school, hanging out with friends, or camping out in the woods.  I was technically an adult, a soldier, and I was entering a whole new phase of my life about which I knew absolutely nothing.  Joel and I quickly became fast friends, almost like brothers, and we spent hours at the base NCO club drinking far more Jack Daniels than I care to think about and pondering our futures.  In fact, we had our very own table back in the corner.  There were others that were part of our group, too, (a couple might even be reading this) but mostly, I remember the times that we were there together.  We would wonder about where life might take us; Would we have families?  Where would we settle?  What would we do for a living?  I often look back and realize that we were both essentially clean slates at that time.  We had no real responsibilities yet, we had no real obligations, no bills, no debts, no kids, no mortgages…..  nothing solid aside from a short time left on our enlistments.

In the past 30+ years, I’ve often reflected back to our nights at that table every time something significant has happened in my life.  We figured we’d both get married.  Turns out that between us, we’ve had a half a dozen wives.  It took us both a couple of tries before we actually figured out what we were doing and got it right.  Kids?  Yep.  Between us, more than a dozen kids and step-kids.  Heck, there’s even a few grand-kids now.  Financial challenges? Sure.  Career challenges?  Of course.  We’ve moved around.  We’ve changed our directions.  We’ve made new friends, and we’ve lost people we cared about.

I don’t really have an ending thought for this, just that life can take some very interesting and surprising turns along the way that neither of us could have ever imagined.  I wonder if others have such a clearly defined ‘starting point’ like our table in the corner that they reflect back upon.

So, anybody that knows me understands that if I’m going to travel, I want to stop and see “stuff”.  I get a huge thrill every time I see someplace on TV that we’ve visited.  The Alamo is featured on the Travel Channel….  we’ve been there.  The Golden Gate Bridge, Yellowstone, Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam….  been there, too.  So, since we were in Amarillo, we decided to visit a couple of old Route 66 icons.

First, we found the Cadillac Ranch, which is just some old Cadillacs buried nose-down in a cow pasture.

We braved the bone-chilling cold and wind to get a closer view and a couple of photos.  Graffiti is encouraged and the amount of spray paint is absolutely amazing!  Here’s a close-up of some of the many layers:

For years, I’ve seen the Big Texan Steak Ranch featured on various food and travel channel shows.  They’re famous for their eating challenge where you eat for free if you can devour a 72 ounce steak dinner with all of the sides in under an hour.

We opted to simply pay for a more reasonably sized meal, figuring such a renowned restaurant would surely know how to turn out a decent steak.  We were underwhelmed and a little disappointed, to say the least, but we can now say we’ve been there.  Besides, I got a chuckle out of the garnish on our plates.  I know Texans love their flag.  They wear it as clothing, upholster the seats at Dairy Queen with it’s likeness, and it’s often displayed more prominently than the American flag, which irritates me A LOT, but I digress…

Only in Texas!