Road Trip Reports

Quest for #700
By Jimmy Woodard

June Ketchum and I left OKC about 6 PM Friday night (August 4), and headed to Albuquerque to pick up Tracy Wohl, then proceed directly to Tucson and Madera Canyon. I wanted to try for the Aztec Thrushes at Madera for my #700 lifer.

Just past Santa Rosa, New Mexico, my car began to lurch and the engine malfunction light began flashing. We pull over, check the owner’s manual, and discover the trouble could run from a missing gas cap all the way up to a bad catalytic converter.  We decide to drive on.  The light stays on but doesn't flash and the car runs fine.

Near Albuquerque, the lurching begins again and the engine begins missing.  We pull over again. I can't find anything obviously wrong, so we head out again. The light stays on.

The car dealer in Albuquerque opens for service at 8 AM.  We try to get a few hours’ sleep in the car.  It rained for several hours.

At 8 AM, we pull in for service. The dealer diagnoses a corroded plug wire which caused arcing and a short.  We call Tracy and she comes down from Santa Fe.  We go birding while the car is being fixed.

At 11:30, and after a tune-up and over $200 of repairs, the car is ready.  We pick it up and head for Tucson.  Two hours later, south of Truth or Consequences, the engine light comes on again.  At this time the car is running fine.  We pull over and call the dealer. He's unsure of the trouble.  No other repair shops are close enough for us to make it to before they close.

We reluctantly decide to turn around and head back.  We get back to Albuquerque around 6 PM. Tracy picks up her car where she left it and we follow her to Santa Fe for the night.

Next morning, we bird around town and up on the mountain at a ski resort, where we find several Red Crossbills, Mountain Chickadee, Steller's Jay, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. We head back down the mountain to a nature center in town.

At 2 PM, June and I leave for OKC.  We arrive in Yukon at about 11 PM.  The engine light stays on the whole way, but the car runs fine all the way home.

So, the search for #700 goes on. It was not meant to be for me to get it this past weekend.  Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.  This time he got us, ate us, and through the bear’s digestive process, our remains, deposited unceremoniously into the woods, will eventually be recycled!

P.S.  When I took the car into my dealer on Monday morning, the engine light was off. It has stayed off since the trip!  The car is still running fine.  It's a mystery!

Editor’s note:  When I related Jimmy’s car difficulties to my mechanic hubby, his comment was, “He should have called me and I’d have told him to continue his trip!”  It seems the error code the vehicle’s computer stores with a malfunction, takes several separate start/drive/stop sequences to clear.  Jimmy’s car was fixed in Albuquerque, but the mechanic didn’t know or didn’t tell Jimmy about the error code sequence.  Oh, well.  Better luck next time, Jimmy!

The saga continues:

Strike Two!

By Jimmy Woodard

June, Tracy and I tried for the Aztec Thrush again this weekend (August 11-13) but did not see it either Saturday or Sunday.  No other birders did either.

June's friend, Mike, flew us out there in his 1963 Piper Comanche 4-seater.  It was a lot of fun to fly.  It was smoother than a commercial flight.

We left Duncan at 8:30 on Friday morning.  We arrived in Albuquerque around 1pm due to strong headwinds and dodging few storms.  We picked up Tracy and flew onto to Tucson, dodging more storms. We flew over the Very Large Array.  Our top speed was about 130mph, and we made it to an altitude of 12,700 feet for a short time, crossing over mountains into Arizona.

We stayed in Tucson with Shawneen Finnegan, noted bird artist and Tracy's friend.  We were at the Aztec Thrush spot at 8AM on Saturday morning.  We stayed till about 1PM, had lunch, and then returned for another couple of hours of searching and waiting.

The thrush never showed, but the Berylline Hummer and a family of Trogons put on a show.  There were lots of Black-headed Grosbeak, Western and Hepatic Tanagers, and Hermit Thrushes.  At times, there were up to 40 people waiting and watching.

We tried again for two hours on Sunday morning before flying out.  We had no luck again.  The rain started just as we headed down the trail.  We left Tucson about 10:30.  We had more storms to dodge, but made it to Albuquerque around 1:30.  We dropped off Tracy and headed for home.

Mike took us south past Roswell to Childress to dodge more storms.  We saw some impressive lightning, but had no real turbulence.  We passed by Eldorado, Frederick and Lawton, and landed in Duncan about 7 PM.

It took us about 7-8 hours flying time to go from Duncan to Tucson.  That's about the time it takes just to drive from OKC to Albuquerque.  This is a much easier way to travel and bird.  We all need to have a private plane available for our birding adventures!

So, I’m still holding at #699.  Maybe that Jacana will stay in the Rio Grande Valley till next weekend?