A tool run, some light off-roading to the foothills, and a phone drop!

 This morning's task was to replace the gear oil in Mariko's Transfer Case with new 80W90 oil.  Why?  I'd found the oil in the transfer case contaminated with water last month.  I had changed it out then, and this change was to ensure no water remained.

I found I was missing the 24mm socket I'd used in my garage.  So before I could do the swap, I drove into T or C and the Autozone Auto Parts store there.  Before I got to the store though, I stopped Mariko at nearby buildings to take pictures of their murals:

Socket purchased, I drove back to the campsite and spent the rest of the morning draining out the old fluid (which looked OK) and pumping in new gear oil with very little spillage.

Relaxed during the afternoon's first half, as I waited for the sun to be lower in the sky to produce some nice shadows on the foothills to the northwest.

Once the light seemed right, I drove out with Mariko and found a new trail which put me in a better angle to the foothills in question.  First though, a view of the foothills from FR139, the main access road.

I drove a bit further from the above location.  I must have set the phone down somewhere outside the Sammy while folding up the tripod.

Of course, I noticed when I was a 1/2 mile down the road and closer to the foothills.  I backtracked after a hurried search of the Sammy, nothing.

I went back to the spot where I'd taken the above picture.  Nothing.

Going back to where I'd turned off to head towards the foothills, I finally spotted the phone in the road where I'd done a three point U-turn to turn into the trail I'd spotted before!  It was laying face down and I could see thread marks from where apparently Mariko had driven over part of it.

Dammit!

I was feeling a bit bummed at my carelessness as you might imagine.  Still, the phone seemed to work so I went back onto the side trail for pictures, I planned to file a claim on the phone once back at camp.

The trail wandered north and got me pretty close to some good angles to the foothills:

Following this side trail, I eventually ended up back on NM Highway 1 and pavement.  I did some wandering on a dirt trail to the east, and found the actual location to Mitchell Point, which apparently is just a cluster of houses.

Made it back to camp, and started the process to file a claim as I'd bought the protection plan with Asurion via Verizon.  I was at the point where I was to enter my credit card info and hesitated, not wanting to pay the $99 deductible and then, a lightbulb went off in my brain!

I stopped the claim process and examined the phone.  I'd remembered that I had installed a glass screen protector shield on the phone when I initially bought it.  I carefully peeled it off and damn if it had done its job and fully protected the phone's screen!

NO damage to the phone's screen!  I was again a happy camper!

After dinner, caught this fading view of the clouds after the sun had set:

What a day....I really have to be more careful with the darn phone!