Tag: Oil Drilling

Virtual Travel – New Mexico

Architecture, Art, Festival, History, Museum, Nature, Sciences, Sports, Transportation, Water Features

Welcome to New Mexico. As you will see by the length of this post, New Mexico was one of the last states I got to but has become one of my favorites.

2019 05 27 191 Carlsbad NM.jpg

 

2015 09 22 16 Tucumcari NM

 

 

State Capitol – In my opinion (!) the New Mexico State Capitol is the very finest in the country. Located in Santa Fe, which is amazing by itself, this is the only round capitol in the country.

It was designed to represent the Zia sun symbol when viewed from the air. This is the symbol on the New Mexico State Flag.

2015 09 21 81 Santa Fe NM

 

Unique State Symbols

Official Litter Control Mascot – Dusty the Roadrunner.

 

State Cookie – Biscochito

 

 

State Guitar – New Mexico Sunrise Guitar

 

 

 

 

New Mexico Cultures

1946        1973 Acoma         2007 Abo Ruins

 

 

Santa Fe – It seems as though New Mexico has a better respect for all of the cultures that exist in their state than most, and Santa Fe as the capital and cultural center embraces all of those.

Art and culture abound everywhere in the city. It has been recognized by UNESCO as a ‘Creative City’.

In addition Santa Fe was established before the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and is home to the oldest public building in the United States (photo on bottom row – with bell at the top).

 

2015 09 20 161 Santa Fe NM

 

 

Albuquerque – Easily the largest city in the state with a metro population of around 1 million, Albuquerque is cultural unique like Santa Fe, but with a much more urban feel to it.

 

Hotel Andaluz – We were lucky enough to spend our one night in Albuquerque at the Hotel Andaluz. This historic hotel was opened in 1939, with an extensive remodel occurring in 2008.

 

 

 

Artesia – This small town celebrates it’s oil industry history with a collection of sculptures around town.

2019 05 28 19 Artesia NM

 

Clovis – This small eastern New Mexico town is legendary for the recording studio there that was the place where Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and others had their start. Our amazing good fortune had us show up, unannounced, to a tour with a cool guy named Dave who had been a backup singer in the studio.

There is a museum in town as well, but the studio is the true museum – with most of the original equipment still there. For this posting I have included a photo of nearly every piece of original equipment.

2019 05 28 231 Clovis NM Norman Petty Studio

 

 

 

Quirky New Mexico

1947 – Dude Ranch         1950 -Taos Mountains

 

As you travel across the state you always come across something unusual and interesting.

2015 09 20 106 Northern New Mexico.jpg

 

2015 09 20 132 Santa Fe NM.jpg

 

2015 09 21 137 Albuquerque NM

 

The baseball team in Albuquerque is called the Isotopes, and have adopted the Simpsons as their mascot since Springfield’s team in the show had the same name.

 

 

2015 09 21 168 Albuquerque NM

 

 

2019 05 27 266 Carlsbad NM

 

The town of Portales has a retired fighter jet in the median strip.

2019 05 28 182 Portales NM

 

 

Roswell – I have had the good fortunate to travel in every state, and in 22 foreign countries but never have I seen a town play up their legend more than Roswell. And we loved it! Nobody is alien in Roswell.

 

And to top it off they have an ‘airplane boneyard’

 

Outdoors

1958 – Cristo Rey Church     1974     1992/1994 Pecos National Historic Park

Government State New Mexico 1995.jpg

 

 

Rio Grande Gorge

2015 09 20 124 Rio Grande Gorge Bridge NM.jpg

 

2015 09 20 128 Santa Fe NM.jpg

 

 

View from Sandia Peak in Albuquerque

2015 09 21 109 Albuquerque NM

 

 

Lonely Eastern New Mexico Highway.

2019 05 28 177 Roswell NM

 

 

Carlsbad Caverns – America’s best cave.

2019 05 27 200 Carlsbad NM Carlsbad Caverns National Park

 

 

 

 

Roads

2003 – US 84 near Abiquiu     2014/2015  Las Cruces

 

Government State New Mexico 1947 1.jpg

 

2019 05 28 343 Clovis NM

 

 

Rio Grande Gorge Bridge

2015 09 20 114 Rio Grande Gorge Bridge NM.jpg

 

 

Cool freeway bridges in Santa Fe

2015 09 20 134 Santa Fe NM.jpg

 

2015 09 20 139 Santa Fe NM.jpg

 

 

Sandia Peak Tram

 

 

Trains in the plains.

2019 05 28 340 Clovis NM

 

 

Route 66 in Tucumcari

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across America – May 2019 – Random Scenes Part 1

Architecture, Art, History, Nature, Transportation

The following are interesting scenes that didn’t fit any of the other postings.

Lajitas, Texas – The only place to stay was a golf resort, but it had a great sunset.




Texas border area – We saw a few instances of the border patrol in action, including going through 2 checkpoints along the highway. Strangely the checkpoints were at least 40 miles from the border.





Marfa, Texas – This town is an artist enclave for New York artists. How and why a bunch of New York artists decided to go to a small west Texas town is far too long for this blog.




Fort Davis, Texas is a historic town with a former frontier fort. Today it has a couple of cool re purposed buildings.





Pecos, Texas – For about 100 miles in any direction from Pecos were new fracking oil wells. The landscape was filled with these towers burning off natural gas, as well as truck traffic jams and RVs parked in the desert for the workers. The high pay also caused our most expensive hotel night in Carlsbad, New Mexico as the demand for housing far exceeds supply.









Roswell, New Mexico – While I have a posting for the UFO industry of Roswell, there was also a very cool airplane ‘boneyard’.







Portales, New Mexico – When we were driving into town the billboard for Burger King said ‘next to the airplane’. They weren’t kidding.



Hereford, Texas – Beef capital of the world. I think they are correct.





Canyon, Texas – A Giant Cowboy



Amarillo, Texas – Much cleaner energy source.



Canadian, Texas – Lonesome train blues.



Near Shattuck, Oklahoma – Folk Art along the Highway.





Fairview, Oklahoma – We were looking for some Good Eats, but needed to find somewhere else.



Jet, Oklahoma – One of our disappointments was being unable to check out the Salt Plains National Refuge – where you can dig around for crystals in the salt flats. Much of Oklahoma was flooded, and it flooded the salt flats.

The cows however were making the most of their new beach.





Somewhere in Oklahoma – The Perfect Farm Photo

Part 2 in a second posting.






Morgan City, Louisiana – May 2019 – Offshore Oil Rig Museum

Architecture, Sciences, Transportation

Deep in the bayou country of Louisiana is the town of Morgan City.



Located on the Atchafalaya River, it is located less than 20 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. With the offshore oil industry centered off of Louisiana and Texas, Morgan City is an important industrial town of support companies.



One of the highlights of Morgan City is The Rig Museum. This museum has a nice collection of diving and submersibles that has been used in the industry since it’s inception.



While outside are some retired items.



The highlight though is located outside in the river. It is the world’s first offshore oil drilling platform.



The rig is named Mr Charlie, after the financial backer of the venture when they started up in the 1950s.





While it might be dwarfed by today’s platforms, the main deck is still an impressive 50’+ above the water, offering a great view of the bridges and docks of the river.



Our guide, industry veteran Bryce, was very thorough in explaining the design, and use of the rig. Here he shows us a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) used in the construction of platforms.



Everything is supersized in this industry, including this massive hook.




The drills bits aren’t available at the local Home Depot.



The pipes come in 30′ lengths.



The drill itself – with all of the large equipment, all of it in movement in the ocean, an oil platform is a loud, dirty, dangerous place for the crew to work.



Drilling requires pressure and water.



Drilling mud is also used to carry rock cuttings to the surface, as well as lubricate the drill bit. There is a massive storage for this that at times requires somebody to descend this long ladder into the mud hold.



Oil platform workers work 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. If the weather is poor and a boat can’t come pick you up, or the helicopter can’t land on the helipad atop the rig, you throw your stuff and you into this cage and hang on as they hoist you into the air.

Our time with Bryce at the Rig Museum was insightful. The next time I stopped to fill the car up with gasoline, I thought more about the work that went into getting that product to market.