Driving along Hwy 70 the other day, I could see the derrick from miles away but could I get there from here?
Then I saw the rig sign.
(click any pic for larger view)
The drilling rig wasn't far off the hwy, either.
The location was fairly active, several drilling mud company people, Halliburton representatives, some others and the drilling crew was "trippin' in the hole" and had a derrick full of pipe.
There were too many vehicles in the way to back up far enough away so I had to take two different shots to get the entire rig.
The first thing I did was find the tool pusher; he's the man in charge of the rig and I would need his permission to even be on the location much less take photos.
Come to find out, he was from Pampa and had gone to school there. He loaned me his hard hat and told me to take all the pics I wanted but admonished me to not venture out on the floor. I had another couple of hurdles to overcome; the steps, not so much of an obstacle, but I also needed to obtain the permission of the evening tour driller to come onto "his" rig. (It's "his" for his eight hour shift, much like a ship "is" the captain's while he's in command)
Nice rig, nice steps. I've worked on so many piles of junk where you might stand a good chance of breaking a leg trying to get up to the rig floor. Climbing the stairs is just like going up any other, but if you're in a hurry to get down*, you can swing your legs up and over each hand rail and slide all the way down!
*In a hurry to get down because of a blowout, the rig is collapsing, one of your fellow roughnecks has threatened your life and you don't think you should hang around to find out if he's going to follow through on the threat, you've got trouble and need to go wake up the tool pusher/company man/whoever needs to be contacted or maybe your old lady packed you a sandwich made with mayo on a blisteringly hot summer day and now you need...you REALLY NEED...to make it to the Port-a-Potty at the edge of the location. All kinds of reasons to slide down the handrails, but I always did it because it was fun. Well, and the reasons listed above, some of them happening to me multiple times.
To be continued.....
Part II
Part III
Then I saw the rig sign.
(click any pic for larger view)
The drilling rig wasn't far off the hwy, either.
The location was fairly active, several drilling mud company people, Halliburton representatives, some others and the drilling crew was "trippin' in the hole" and had a derrick full of pipe.
There were too many vehicles in the way to back up far enough away so I had to take two different shots to get the entire rig.
The first thing I did was find the tool pusher; he's the man in charge of the rig and I would need his permission to even be on the location much less take photos.
Come to find out, he was from Pampa and had gone to school there. He loaned me his hard hat and told me to take all the pics I wanted but admonished me to not venture out on the floor. I had another couple of hurdles to overcome; the steps, not so much of an obstacle, but I also needed to obtain the permission of the evening tour driller to come onto "his" rig. (It's "his" for his eight hour shift, much like a ship "is" the captain's while he's in command)
Nice rig, nice steps. I've worked on so many piles of junk where you might stand a good chance of breaking a leg trying to get up to the rig floor. Climbing the stairs is just like going up any other, but if you're in a hurry to get down*, you can swing your legs up and over each hand rail and slide all the way down!
*In a hurry to get down because of a blowout, the rig is collapsing, one of your fellow roughnecks has threatened your life and you don't think you should hang around to find out if he's going to follow through on the threat, you've got trouble and need to go wake up the tool pusher/company man/whoever needs to be contacted or maybe your old lady packed you a sandwich made with mayo on a blisteringly hot summer day and now you need...you REALLY NEED...to make it to the Port-a-Potty at the edge of the location. All kinds of reasons to slide down the handrails, but I always did it because it was fun. Well, and the reasons listed above, some of them happening to me multiple times.
To be continued.....
Part II
Part III
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