WUZombies
Adventurist
My randomness for the day is in Brazos County, Texas where I live. My home is out of the city limits and involves a short drive to a highway for another short drive into town. Reaching the highway this afternoon I saw a really sweet rig headed westbound. I waved, they drove and turned to follow as I happened to be traveling the same direction.
No extra antennas to be seen, I wanted to say hi, but outside of running them off the road it wasn't meant to be. My dualband was on a local 70cm repeater that is popular with those of us in the area and I was enjoying quite the geeky conversation about open frequency communications using one time pad ciphers when I watched that sweet rig pull to the shoulder and turn on their 4-ways.
"KG5IQN, I'm stepping out for a moment, be back on channel in a bit" and I pulled to the shoulder in front of the stopped rig.
The radio traffic on the P-band a few years ago would have been "42, dispatch...I'm out on a 46, copy the 28..." I would have stopped behind a disabled vehicle, activated the lights on my motorcycle, which automatically activated the video and the wireless mic on my duty belt, but I have no such things anymore, which is nice. My life has changed but not my general goofiness, which is good, although the source of much humor on the part of my wife.
So parked in front of the rig, I still cut my wheels like a patrol car for my safety, I gave a friendly wave and walk back.
"Are you broke down or lost?"
An accent that sounded vaguely Austrialian to me replied that they were lost. The rig is a E450 cutaway with large RV box, lifted with 4-wheel drive. At first glance it sort of looked like a U-joint conversion, but also had mud tires, an aluminuness (or good analogue) with a mounted winch. As much as I wished I could have stayed and chatted for a bit, I couldn't as I was running out of my planned "extra" time to make an appointment on time (read: early), so I had to leave. They were pulling a boat, not being a boating type outside of canoes and innertubes to float the Guadalupe River on, I assume it was expensive. This evening it dawned on me that they back the boat down the ramp in their massive off-road adventure RV, which must be some sight to see.
In my part of Texas we seem to be short on adventures and long on d-bag diesel tuners "rolling coal" in $70,000 trucks their daddy bought, so my minor excitement for the day was a chance to help a kindred spirit and his wife along their way for their own adventures untold.
No extra antennas to be seen, I wanted to say hi, but outside of running them off the road it wasn't meant to be. My dualband was on a local 70cm repeater that is popular with those of us in the area and I was enjoying quite the geeky conversation about open frequency communications using one time pad ciphers when I watched that sweet rig pull to the shoulder and turn on their 4-ways.
"KG5IQN, I'm stepping out for a moment, be back on channel in a bit" and I pulled to the shoulder in front of the stopped rig.
The radio traffic on the P-band a few years ago would have been "42, dispatch...I'm out on a 46, copy the 28..." I would have stopped behind a disabled vehicle, activated the lights on my motorcycle, which automatically activated the video and the wireless mic on my duty belt, but I have no such things anymore, which is nice. My life has changed but not my general goofiness, which is good, although the source of much humor on the part of my wife.
So parked in front of the rig, I still cut my wheels like a patrol car for my safety, I gave a friendly wave and walk back.
"Are you broke down or lost?"
An accent that sounded vaguely Austrialian to me replied that they were lost. The rig is a E450 cutaway with large RV box, lifted with 4-wheel drive. At first glance it sort of looked like a U-joint conversion, but also had mud tires, an aluminuness (or good analogue) with a mounted winch. As much as I wished I could have stayed and chatted for a bit, I couldn't as I was running out of my planned "extra" time to make an appointment on time (read: early), so I had to leave. They were pulling a boat, not being a boating type outside of canoes and innertubes to float the Guadalupe River on, I assume it was expensive. This evening it dawned on me that they back the boat down the ramp in their massive off-road adventure RV, which must be some sight to see.
In my part of Texas we seem to be short on adventures and long on d-bag diesel tuners "rolling coal" in $70,000 trucks their daddy bought, so my minor excitement for the day was a chance to help a kindred spirit and his wife along their way for their own adventures untold.