West Texas on Fire

It had been barely a week after the big "Rock House" fire was put out when more around here started. Sunday was Mother's Day and after we had a lovely meal with the family, we stepped outside and there was ash falling from the sky. To the West big clouds of smoke were rolling up and casting a haze on a once beautiful day. If my information is correct, the fire started at a road side park inbetween Alpine and Marfa (probably some tourist thinking they would have a BBQ) It spread very quickly to the north due to the wind and soon Sunny Glenn was being evacuated. I don't know much about this fire but yesterday when I was riding I sat and watched two giant helicopters fly back and forth from the fire, carrying water. I think it has been mostly contained.

Sunday afternoon T and I went out to the ranch to hang out and on our way there we say more smoke. Supposedly there had been a fire started East of Marathon that T had seen driving into Alpine Saturday  night. It was much closer to Marathon then and T thought maybe it was on the Longfellow (the ranch where he works,) No one had called him so he wasn't to worried about it. By the time I left Sunday evening, the fire was on the ranch, but I didn't know where. Yesterday T was out fighting the fire and he called me at noon and said the Red Mill, the farthest south camp on the ranch had burned and they had just got done saving Ft. Chadbourne, (where he used to live) He said that they were headed up to West Pyle to save it as well. The wind was blowing the fire that direction.

I haven't been able to get a hold of T at all today, besides a text message he sent me saying he was just checking in....

From where I am at in Alpine, smoke can be seen very clearly to the east. Apparently there is yet another fire on the back side of Iron Mountain. My brother and I were supposed to day work for a guy who lives there today but he called and cancelled. I don't know much about that fire except that it's in some pretty rough country.

Last night my mom and I decided we would go take a look at the fire that happened on Sunday because it was mostly put out. Well, when we got to the outskirts of town we looked behind us and there was literally a black mushroom cloud of smoke. It was in town. My mother wiped her little car around and sped that direction, wanting to see what was on fire. It toke us maybe 3 minutes to get there, along with every fire truck in Alpine. By the time we got there, whatever it was had been burned to the ground. It toke 3 minutes... Today I found out that it was a shed of some body's that blew up. I don't know why, that is all I heard.


Ok, that's enough about fires, I don't want to think about them anymore.

Last week, or Saturday I guess, my parents were driving home from Garden City Kansas from a show when they noticed their truck smoking. They happened to be in Plain view Texas when this happened so they pulled into the Ford dealership there, hoping to have someone look at it. It was 2 in the afternoon and the diesel mechanic looked at the truck, saying that they had a cracked fuel injector, hence all the black smoke. The mechanic, however was leaving. So, my parents called my uncle here in Alpine to come get them and he started on his way up there. I kept getting texts from my mother who was very bored, while they waited in the Ford House for my uncle to get there. He wouldn't be there till about 9..

At about 7:30, the Ford house closed and kicked my parents out so they decided to go eat at a restaurant across the way. While they were in the restaurant eating, the diesel mechanic showed up, asking for my dad's truck keys. He felt bad that it was Mother's Day the next day and they were stranded there. My dad reluctantly gave them to him, knowing that a job like the one the mechanic had ahead of him would take a good 4 hours, minimum. Unbelievably, the mechanic was able to fix the fuel injector in 1 hour, one handed. My dad said he was on the phone 90% of the time. That's literally amazing if you ask me. My parents were able to make it home, at 3 in the morning.

Well, last night my boss called me and said she and her husband were stranded in Balmorhea, Texas because there truck had broke down. She called me because I was the only one she could think of that had a big enough truck to pull a 28' goose neck flatbedd trailor. So at 9 at night, my dad and I came to their rescue. Everything went good, we were able to pick them up and haul them back to Alpine, except.... when we got to the 3 way stop in Alpine, my dad heard a funny sound. When he toke off, black smoke was blowing out the exhaust.. Unbelievably, another fuel injector went out.. My dad was not very happy

So among fires, and trucks breaking down... it's getting very old..