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Tim Kreitz Adventures

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Life in the Midland-Odessa Oil Boom Hellhole | A Rider's Perspective
A short podcast from my perspective as a longtime motorcyclist on the quality of life in the Permian Basin of West Texas, where the unprecedented oil boom has forever changed the face of Midland-Odessa and other oilfield towns.

 
I spent a tone-o-time in the oil patch back in the Tertiary Injection days in the 80s. It was a boom back then but West Texas being as big as it is, traffic between Midland and Orla and eastern NM was nothing.

My last trip through in 2013, I was floored with the amount of traffic on US287. We were in my wife's FX37 which has a ton of 55 to 90 zip but still had to carefully pick our time to leapfrog.

Thing that shocked me were the number of brine tankers and drill stem haulers running nose to butt, leaving very little space to pass one or two trucks at a time. Instead you might have to overtake ten at a time. Actually think it's an entertainment thing for the drivers to act this way to see who they can put in the ditch.

I avoid the area anytime I head west out of TX now.
 
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Yep, that stretch from Orla into New Mexico is Russian Roulette now. Here's a recent photo:

244345
 
We were out in Odessa about Easter. Waited in line at Walmart check-out for 30 minutes, and the shelves were missing a lot of food items. Spent like 25 bucks on two hamburgers and drinks. Motel was 140/night. I'm sure it is worse now. My son and his wife live in Pecos and it is crazy down there too. I saw all those trailer compounds out in the middle of nowhere. All the natural gas flares visible at night. When this boom is over what will it leave? I saw a lot of pipeline work going on from Midland toward San Angelo. It is crazy.
 
Windmill said:
When this boom is over what will it leave?
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That's the big question. My thought is that we should probably get out while the getting is good. My wife retires in a couple of weeks and I have a wide variety of job skills. It may be time to head either east or west.
 
Tim, I wont see the locomotive but I hope you get some footage for your channel.
 
Me, too. I plan on going either way. Even if the weather turns bad, I'll make the drive. :)
 
StromXTc said:
Tim, I wont see the locomotive but I hope you get some footage for your channel.
Click to expand...

thought you were aiming for end of this month to be back on two wheels? I’m planning on Hondo 5th November to see it . My 3 wheel buddy should be back from his hip replacement and gonna ride.
 
Southtex...Yes, I told you I just needed to ride to beeville to get my inspection on the bike , that's all, before the end of the month. Not ride halfway to Hades (or Hondo) and back. We will see. After 4 weeks of daily rehab I should be in pretty good shape but don't want to push it.

I'm going to have to get with it however, need to do a job in San Antonio next Wednesday. I did drive one of our big fire trucks today for inspection . Getting back on the 🐎

Are you going to a hotel in big bend? Taking BMW? Hope you have good weather. I would have loved going with ya 😔
 
Yeah, definitely don't overdo it for sure, especially after all that time and effort in rehab.
 
CONTENT UPDATE: With a little help from the late Robert M. Pirsig, we ride our motorcycles to a place we've never been before and enjoy a Sunday ride that is completely in the moment. No plans, no schedule, no hurry, just good times exploring flora and fauna in the red dirt country of West Texas on a beautiful autumn day.

 
Tim, do you still marvel at your texas drawl on video? I'm like , is that me , when I catch myself on video? Do i really sound like that?

Fried okra, mashed potatoes and chicken fried steak OMG ...what's not to like?
 
I have calmed my accent down a lot over the years, but I purposely leave enough of it in my speech so that everyone will know I am a native Texan. :) BTW, that restaurant immediately became on of my faves in West Texas. I'm going back with the wife as soon as we can get that way again.
 
NEW CONTENT: As far as the government is concerned, most of us ride drunk on a pretty regular basis. Do you ride impaired? If so, here's a probable reason why.

 
Nukes in West Texas? Yep! Well, there used to be. In this episode of the Vann Cave podcast, we discuss the Atlas silos, PAVE/PAWS, etc., of West Texas, recalling our several failed attempts at being granted access in hopes of making motorcycle trips to see them:

 
TWTim said:
Nukes in West Texas? Yep! Well, there used to be. In this episode of the Vann Cave podcast, we discuss the Atlas silos, PAVE/PAWS, etc., of West Texas, recalling our several failed attempts at being granted access in hopes of making motorcycle trips to see them:

Click to expand...
Another good episode got my cold war geek on:twitch:. My attitude was that there was no sense in worrying about it because it would all be over in a matter of hours. Kind of similar to today when they talk about how many will die just due to mass power outages.

Remember the scud / Patriot missile exchanges in Gulf War 1. Man that was awesome

27°31'40"N 98°06'39"W. Speaking of weird facilities check this one out. I believe it is a Raytheon facility and those are Tower antenna arrays. I want to say one time I heard that it might be related to submarine Communications. I also understand that there is the ability to communicate globally using the Earth as a type of sounding board for those communications.

I'm not into UFOs, however that could be another one of your Topix, those West Texas UFO stories

I guess you could add me to your early morning news radio audience haha

PS, nuclear grenade? I hadn't heard of that one. I guess it would be certain death 4 it's user. I wonder what the yield on something like that would be?
 
TWTim said:
NEW CONTENT: A Harley Dyna Wide Glide, a Triumph Bonneville and two knuckleheads vs. a wind storm, a leaking tire, and eminent failure. Sometimes just trying to have a good time turns out to be a challenge.

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"ya never urinate into the wind"

words of wisdom....!
 
StromXTc said:
27°31'40"N 98°06'39"W. Speaking of weird facilities check this one out. I believe it is a Raytheon facility and those are Tower antenna arrays. I want to say one time I heard that it might be related to submarine Communications. I also understand that there is the ability to communicate globally using the Earth as a type of sounding board for those communications.
Click to expand...

Thank you for those coordinates. I will be going down a geek trail on that one for sure. We visit near there every year or two, so I definitely want to check it out in person at some point, if possible.

StromXTc said:
PS, nuclear grenade? I hadn't heard of that one. I guess it would be certain death 4 it's user. I wonder what the yield on something like that would be?
Click to expand...

My understanding is that the atomic hand grenade used a metastable version of the nuclear isomer hafnium-178, but I don't think one was ever actually exploded, so there are probably no real yield numbers. And you are right; the main problem with the atomic hand grenade was that, in normal combat situations, a soldier could not throw one far enough to not to be killed by it. LOL. However, the grenade's design did lead to this:

248001
 
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TWTim said:
Thank you for those coordinates. I will be going down a geek trail on that one for sure. We visit near there every year or two, so I definitely want to check it out in person at some point, if possible.



My understanding is that the atomic hand grenade used a metastable version of the nuclear isomer hafnium-178, but I don't think one was ever actually exploded, so there are probably no real yield numbers. And you are right; the main problem with the atomic hand grenade was that, in normal combat situations, a soldier could not throw one far enough to not to be killed by it. LOL. However, the grenade's design did lead to this:

Recoilless_gun_155mm_Davy_Crockett3.jpg
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That's incredible!

A nuke RPG
 
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StromXTc said:
Another good episode got my cold war geek on:twitch:. My attitude was that there was no sense in worrying about it because it would all be over in a matter of hours. Kind of similar to today when they talk about how many will die just due to mass power outages.

Remember the scud / Patriot missile exchanges in Gulf War 1. Man that was awesome

27°31'40"N 98°06'39"W. Speaking of weird facilities check this one out. I believe it is a Raytheon facility and those are Tower antenna arrays. I want to say one time I heard that it might be related to submarine Communications. I also understand that there is the ability to communicate globally using the Earth as a type of sounding board for those communications.

I'm not into UFOs, however that could be another one of your Topix, those West Texas UFO stories

I guess you could add me to your early morning news radio audience haha

PS, nuclear grenade? I hadn't heard of that one. I guess it would be certain death 4 it's user. I wonder what the yield on something like that would be?
Click to expand...
one more thing
www.popularmechanics.com

You Can Own This Former ICBM Silo in the Arizona Desert

The ex-Titan II silo hosted a missile fitted with a nine megaton thermonuclear warhead.
www.popularmechanics.com www.popularmechanics.com
 
We were visited by congressional candidate Brandon Batch on the podcast this week. He's a very bright young man with a desire to challenge the system in some interesting ways. This one was a lot of fun.

 
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