Thursday, January 8, 2009 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM
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Dawn at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM, January 8, 2009
It's up!
I wake up in the middle of the night and my eye catches a reflected blinking green light on the ceiling. That's the indicator light on the USB720 modem - indicating data is moving. I have a connection!
The race is on... to get to the laptop, connect to a couple of banks and credit card accounts and get my online banking done before the the signal drops again...
Success! Phew! That takes the pressure off for a while.
By breakfast time the signal has disappeared again. Could a pattern be developing here where there is night time access for some reason? That would be better than nothing and might be enough to keep me from leaving the park in search of better access. I really don't feel like moving. We'll see.
Night camp
Site 7 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM
- Verizon cell phone service - good signal
- Verizon EVDO service - very good signal and access speed ( I have to qualify this - during my January 2008 visit the signal and access speed was excellent - in January 2009 it was practically non-existent during the day and slow at night with unpredictable short periods of excellent access)
- Go to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park website
- Go to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park on my Nightcamps map
- Check the weather here
It's No Use Arguing Tastes with a Cow
By what appears, furthermore, to be the compensating justice of Nature, the treasures of the earth are always hidden in the most unattractive, dismal, and dreary spots. At least all the mining places I ever visited are so located, and Bisbee is no exception. To get away from the cramped little village and its unsavoury restaurant, I established my first camp four miles south of it on a commodious and pleasant opening, where we could do our own cooking. But here a new annoyance, and rather a curious one, was met with. The cattle of the region evinced a peculiar predilection for our wearing apparel. Especially at night, the cows would come wandering in among our tents, like the party who goes about seeking what he may devour, and on getting hold of some such choice morsel as a sock, shirt, or blanket, Mrs. Bossie would chew and chew, “gradually,” to quote Mark Twain, “taking it in, all the while opening and closing her eyes in a kind of religious ecstasy, as if she had never tasted anything quite as good as an overcoat before in her life.” It is no use arguing about tastes, not even with a cow.