Since David and I have been at Hueco, we've had a number of friends swing by to do some climbing. A week here, a few days there, the people have been coming and going, making it very hard to take rest days due to the fact that it was always someones last few days in Hueco, and you can't spend your last few days at Hueco Tanks resting. With that said, David and I have been going for almost a month now with no skin on our fingertips. No bueno! Well, Friday saw the departure of Lesley and Sean, leaving David and I with no other agendas than our own, and the one thing we could both approve of was
several days of rest.
Day one wasn't really anything worth remembering, just sitting around the rock ranch, not spending money. Day two, things got a bit more interesting. On the eastbound side on Montana (main highway leading to the Tanks), only half a mile or so from the road, there's an enormous sand dune, usually occupied by four-wheelers and other 4x4 vehicles. We have snowboards, but no snow, so sand serves as the next best. We tuned the van off the highway and started our ascent up to the dunes. Shortly into our climb, the rear-wheel drive Ford E-350 sank. It sank good! After about 20 minutes, we had dug out the rear tires and constructed a runway of stone, enough to get us onto firmer ground and back the van down the hill. Didn't work. The tires slipped right back off the rocks and into the sandy abyss. After several more failed attempts to free the van, a kind chico cruised up and towed us out. Finally, at the bottom, all we had to do was turn around and floor it back to the main road. David threw the van in reverse, cut the wheels, drove backwards about 4 feet, then we sank. Again. Luckily our friend with the 4x4 hadn't left yet and was kind enough to give us another tow.
We weren't about to let that epic ordeal spoil our day of sandboarding, even though the sun was already setting. David and I trekked uphill, battling the soft sand for what seemed like an hour, when in actuality it was only 15 minutes. Finally, with the sunlight fading away behind the distant peaks, we reached the top. It took me all of twenty seconds to swap my shoes for boots and pop myself into the bindings of my Burton Challenger. I rose to my feet, pulled down my goggles, and hopped onto the slope... Then I sank. It seems the only thing this sand dune is good for is burying stuff. Mental notes were taken but not pictures. It seems that I need to hire a photographer to follow us around on these instances when my hands are actually needed for something.
Today, being the last rest day, we took a little adventure to the salvage yard to find a new rear light for the van, since the last one had a nasty run-in with a firm shoulder while the van was stuck. Lucky for us, Montana is packed full of salvage yards! Salvage yards and drive-in adult theaters. There's some pretty good burrito stands on Montana too, but todays adventure brings us back to the salvage yard. There were many options for pull-a-parts, but the one that caught our eyes was the one that used the 'bookmobile' as the office. Lucky for us, Ford has made some pretty crappy vans in the past (except for ours, of course), so our options for a taillight were endless! We chose to pull from the one with the 'Amor por Juarez' sticker through no real elimination process other than the fact that peace in Juarez is a wonderful idea. And there we have our winner! A few minutes worth of manual labor and a little haggling, and we now have a brand new, second hand taillight for ten bucks!
That's it for the rest day activities. Tomorrow, it's back to the Tanks, and with three days worth of fresh skin, there's no reason as to why we shouldn't crush anything and everything! I now leave you with yet another panoramic. Sorry it's so small, if ya click on it it'll bring you to a larger file.
