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I quit the over the road trucking job June 30. The communication problem seemed to be getting worse, and I couldn't deal with it anymore. The money had been falling off, and putting up with the poor communications weren't worth it anymore.

Photos are shown in the order I took them starting left to right then down and left to right. The first two are of the Hajjimobile with all the stuff I had in the truck, plus my glider, the Northwing T2 I bought from OB1, the Santana tandem and my Bianchi road bike which wouldn't fit in the truck. I carried my HG harness, and my complete PG rig with me.

The Canadian Escarpment sign photo was taken southeast of Las Vegas, New Mexico. I had hoped there would be a site suitable to launch one of the gliders and get a flight in on the way home. I should have gotten the altimeter out to check the vertical rise from the valley floor to the top, and spaced it. There is more than one highway which climbs up onto the escarpment, but I don't recall if any of the other roads have a launch site that would be easily accessible. I would estimate the vertical to be fifteen hundred to two thousand feet above the valley floor.

The photo with all the trees is south of Taos, New Mexico. I stopped in Taos and had lunch at Michael's Kitchen, undoubtedly the best Mexican food in Taos. Their food is so good, you can have it without having a beer to go with it. They don't serve any alcoholic beverages there, and they still stay very busy. Michael's is a couple of blocks north of the Square in Taos, on the west side of the highway going thru town, if you ever get a chance to stop there.

The next two photos are from the Rio Grande River Bridge west of Taos, where I made my second bridge jump in 1982. The LZ I used is the triangular shaped area in the center of the photo. It looks pretty flat, with not much obstructions from 700 feet above. Looks can definitely be deceiving.

The Buttes are the Brazos Buttes, which are west of Taos on US Highway 64, about fifteen miles East of Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. I camped out at a picnic area overlooking these Buttes at the site where I took this photo of them the night before I jumped the Rio Grande Bridge. The Aspen trees in the area are currently plagued with web worm, and appear to be dieing, which is really sad to see. This area is definitely one of the prettier parts of Northern New Mexico, in my opinion. This range extends north to Cumbres Pass, where you can ride the Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad that runs between Chama, New Mexico, and Antonito, Colorado. I think the scenery on this train is even more fantastic than the scenery on the Durango train, sixty five miles West of Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

The next photo is of the sign marking the Continental Divide where US 64 crosses it west of Chama, New Mexico. North of here along the Divide (about fifty miles) is Wolf Creek ski area in Colorado, where they usually get some of the most inches of snow in the lower forty-eight. Most of the "Fourteeners" in Colorado aren't very far off the line of the Divide as it moves north.

I got back to Salt Lake Tuesday evening July 3, and stopped by the Point on the way to the house. I had flown at Wallaby Ranch the week before, and the velcro on the lower zipper on my HG harness wasn't holding. I had replaced the zipper some time back and used 1 inch velcro, instead of the regular 2 inch velcro. I had tried to "knee out" before I took the zipper out, and wasn't able to break it loose, so I thought I would use 1 inch instead, and it wasn't holding anymore. I got in a nice 45 minute flight on my paraglider. I had bought the G Sport from Dale Covington over Memorial Day weekend, so now none of my gear is borrowed. I slept most of the day on the 4th, then flew my hang glider Friday morning after adding more velcro to the zipper. A group of us were going to do some platform towing on Saturday, but the 2nd pilot to launch had problems and ended up in the hospital. My theory is he went thru a fairly large dustie immediately after launch, and couldn't compensate enough to overcome the problems the dustie caused. He doesn't remember exactly what happened yet, so we don't know for sure what the exact cause was. Hopefully he will eventually regain memory of the incident, and shed some light on it. Memory loss is pretty normal if there is head trauma involved on a deal like this. I hope to get the photos from the camera downloaded sometime soon, and update some of the older posts awaiting photos.

While I was at Wallaby, I was visiting with Mike Barber, and he commented "I won't live somewhere that has a traffic report." Traffic within a 15 mile radius of Wallaby is usually light enough that there is no need for a traffic report. The last time I was in Washington state, it seemed like most of the state was laid back enough that it might be possible to not feel the need for a traffic report, even in Seattle! I attribute the phenomena to the use of medicinal marijuana. Use is common enough to offset the crack in the public water supply. I think there is a conspiracy among the auto manufacturers, oil companies, and auto repair people to put large amounts of meth or crack in the public water supplies in most of the United States. This causes people to drive in various states of altered consciousness, creating more sales for each of the three groups. The various medical related businesses and professionals may also be involved in this conspiracy. I think the insurance companies are receiving kickbacks from the people involved in the conspiracy, also. Of course the insurance companies keep raising their rates to compensate for the increased costs, so they may be gaining profit also, and be directly involved in the conspiracy.

Drive safely, the life you save could be mine!

Write if you find work!!!