Report from Chile

[tlanders]

What a day. After working 15 to 16 hour days all week, and working
this morning, this afternoon I had the joy of renting a YZ250 and
went riding in the foothills of the Andes!!!!! OF COURSE I GOT LOST!!
Where can you get a GPS when you need it??? Finally a 17 year old on
a Kawasaki found me and we went riding together (a much better idea)
for another hour until it started to get dark. The guy who took me to
this national park rented a Honda XR250R and I expected to ride with
him but he had never ridden before and chickened out. It was very
difficult terrain, mud, big rocks, lots of trees with big thorns on
them, exposed roots on the hills (shades of Hillbilly GP), wild
horses, streams, very steep mountainsides, just perfect for ISDTRR
practice. So he just waited by the pickup at the bottom of the
mountain. This is the same guy, Jose, who drives me to the jobsite
every day. The hotel is 1.75 to 2 hours away by pot holed pavement
roads where the cars and trucks are all over both sides of the road
trying to miss the pot holes, and then another 45 minutes of a
recreation of the Dakar Rally!!!!!! A dirt road (?) with water holes
as deep as the floor boards, cows, sheep, mules, dogs, rabbits, big
rocks, DEEP ruts both parallel and 90 degrees to the road, and BUMPS,
BUMPS AND MORE BUMPS all negotiated at break neck speeds. When I
suggested to Jose that that we were actually on the Dakar Rally, he
laughed very hard. The next day he went faster, then he told me that
he liked the idea that we were practicing for the DAKAR rally and now
wants to enter it and win!!!! When we get to the jobsite, my kidneys
are on the floor board.

The job is difficult. I am starting up the equipment thta we built in
Missouri that collects and conditions the biogas produced from a
digester that is processing the poop from 125000 pigs in the middle
of nowhere (my customers discription of the location). I finally got
the 700 HP boiler running yesterday and tomorrow I start working on
the rest of the system. The controls are complex with 5 different PID
loops, but I designed it all so hopefully I have designed it to be
simple to operate. Monday they are going to quit early, my
customers's company is in a soccer tournament. I brought my soccer
shoes and they said they are going to let me play. YEE HAH, as Ron
Winget would say!!!!

I pray that Iron Man DeBell and Burma Wolf are healing fast and that
Phast Phil buys a reliable bike like a PENTON. I'm looking forward to
getting home and riding with you guys again. I probably will not get
this internet access again, I hope to be home this Saturday.

Love, Teddy