I've Been Workin On The Pipe Line

Continuing on my journey to work, I've been coming across some pretty interesting sights, maybe not as Orwellian as Durango's but none the less noteworthy. The only reason I was remotely interested in this new pipeline was because of a road sign that stated pipeline crossing.



What exactly is a pipeline crossing? And if the pipeline is crossing the road, how do I cross the pipeline? Surely, they can't run the pipeline up above the road they'd have to run it under the road.





That's when my ignorance took over. I was thinking they would have to close my road to work so that they could dig up the road and put this pipeline in. I was all a fretting that possibility, because a detour to work would add something like 27 miles, one way!





Not wanting my curiosity to get the better of me I stopped one day to ask questions and to take some pictures. I was told that no, they wouldn't have to close the road to lay the pipe, that they have a special boring tool that will create a tunnel under the road for the pipe.




Then I started thinking about those residents on Carter Ave. If you look at my pictures what do you not see? Yep, no houses, no people, no trees...then that got me to pondering how this pipeline that crosses my way to work doesn't interfere with anybody or anything. Now that's a pipeline I can be happy with!

Photo by Durango.

My Sights I'm Seeing On The Road To Work

Very rarely am I surprised at what I see on my way to work. Once there was a cow standing in the middle of the road. I called my mommy so she could call the local law enforcement so they could call the rancher and put Betsy up. I don't really know if the name of the big brown cow was Betsy, but I'd like to think it was.



I was driving along as usual except I was going a bit slower due to the ice and snow on the road and I suppose that's how I come to notice the guard rail. Usually a guard rail protects you from going into the water or to keep you from going off a high embankment. If you knew my area of West Texas you'd laugh a bit at the thought of both suggestions!



Not to let my curiosity get the better of me I pulled over to see exactly what is was that this particular guard rail was protecting. It was a big hole! Now, you can't immediately assume that it's another sink hole and I'll tell you why. A while back I posted about running the dogs at the caliche pit out by the airport. It's a possibility that this hole is an old caliche pit, but it seems way wrong for someone to purposely put it this close to the highway. Also, back in the good old days before tanks, the oil industry stored oil in earth tanks and also transported oil in canals and not pipe.