Tuesday, May 17, 2022
I fell asleep last night with winds rocking the RV and flashes of lightning all around us. Jane said I slept through the worst of the storm. For all its fury, only a few tenths of an inch of rain had fallen and the ground was dry when I went outside in the morning. Only a slightly darker color to the red soil hinted that it had rained; that’s too bad for the local farmers. We said our goodbyes and thank-yous to Lileesa as we were leaving the vineyard.
We drove southwest along pleasant rolling hills and shrubby vegetation. As we were nearing Lubbock, we encountered a fierce crosswind along a stretch of open road and our wheel speed sensor warning light came on which disabled the cruise control and ABS. We continued driving but were upset because both wheel speed sensors had recently been replaced under a Mercedes-Benz recall. As it turns out, the crosswind had confused the sensor which reset itself later after we restarted the engine, and all was well.
In Lubbock (home of Texas Tech and Buddy Holly), Jane insisted that we visit the American Windmill Museum. I’m glad she did. This museum houses the largest public display of windmills in the world. I suppose I was ignorant about the importance of windmills, especially in the West, for providing water and was unaware of the various types, brands, shapes and sizes. All was elucidated to us as we spent two hours pondering windmill displays and information. The museum also houses a miniature house display, an operating model train of the Santa Fe line, including the Lubbock station, an extensive millstone collection, millstone etching tools, a giant mural, a couple of giant marquetry walls, two collections of windmill weights (one exclusively crescent-shaped weights), a gift shop, and many windmills outside on the museum grounds. Whew! This was another museum that exceeded Jane’s and my expectations.
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| Windmills on Display in the American Windmill Museum |
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| More Windmills |
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| Mural in the American Windmill Museum (note door for scale) |
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| Various Windmill Weights |
Display of the Garrison Family Millstone Collection
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| Part of the Outdoor Display at the American Windmill Museum |
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| Jane enjoys the Shade offered by the Prop of a Wind Turbine |
After our visit at the AWM, we proceeded to our campsite, the Oswald Vineyard. We signed in and proceeded to our site. This vineyard is another Harvest Host member but they offer the option of an electrical hookup (for $15). Fortunately, we opted to plug in to allow us to use our air-conditioner without employing the propane generator, because it was a scorcher; nearby Brownfield tied its record high temperature of 101 F today. After parking the RV, we headed into Brownfield to eat but didn’t find a restaurant to our liking and so bought groceries instead.
Back at the vineyard, we had a nice wine-tasting with one of the Oswalds and bought two bottles of wine (a 2017 Roussanne and a 2017 Aglianico) as well as a homemade loaf of bread. For supper, we had a delicious shrimp pasta dish Jane made with wine then settled in for a peaceful evening. The outside temperature quickly dropped so we stepped outside around 9:00 pm and gawked at the horizon-to-horizon starry sky.
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| Wine Tasting at Oswald Vineyard with Christophe |
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| Boondocking (almost) at Oswald Vineyard |
