We were minutes away from resuming our trip today (Friday) when I tested the theory against pouring a cup of coffee (with creamer and sugar of course) on to the keyboard of the laptop; the machine got 8 to 10 ounces center mass. Luckily for me, my stepson here in the Denver area has his own IT engineering and service company, and a quick 911 call to him got full and immediate attention.
He and I got everything drained out and cleaned up, and the laptop is back up and running. (All log contacts and photos from the last two weeks' portable ops had already been backed up on a thumb drive as well as a second laptop, so other than pride, I wouldn't have lost anything except for the day's travel that got eaten up.)
But now we're ready to hit the road again tomorrow afternoon (with the coffee safely somewhere else...). Our route tomorrow (Saturday) will take us initially to the DN80/DM89 line, hopefully for the AO27 pass that rises here at about 06/1925Z. I'll definitely be on during the next AO27 pass at 06/2103Z either from that line (if I miss the previous pass from there) or the DM78/DM79 line for AO51 at 06/2357Z.
While southbound into Texas, I'll operate from all grids on both sides of the 104W longitude line. There have been several requests for contacts with the DM7x and DM8 grids; those grids look to be particularly in demand. As we head south; our next day off will be in the vicinity of Carlsbad Caverns in DM72. After that, we'll move over to Big Bend Nat'l Park alongside the Rio Grande River in DL88 where we'll camp for two or three days.
Focus will continue on afternoon AO27 and AO51 passes. I'll run grid lines where possible, but as before, grid lines will be run only where accessible.
73,
Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC Longmont, CO / DN70