May, 2011: On the Road Again

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I've cut this into segments so pages don't have so many images apiece.

Council Bluffs, IA 5/11

Mountain in Wyoming, about 9000 feet

Roughly 600 miles from home. Slow start from home but that was to get us to I-65. 600 miles puts us right on schedule, in spite of 2 traffic jams (one in Chicago, of course) at 1/2 hour each and one frog-choker of a storm. Beautiful lightning, dark as night but at like 7:00, but no flooding. Slowed to 40 MPH for the worst part. Took about 13 hours to get here with some 15-minute rest stops and a couple of quick meals. Hope Nebraska is clear. A bit less than 1000 miles to our next "turn" in the road. Really empty in places. Not much to talk about.

Rawlins, Wyoming 5/12

This 600 miles was easier (faster) than the first. Speed limit 75 most of the way. Some rain but not a downpour. (actually almost 650 miles)

Wyoming Wind Farm

Now in Mountain Time zone. Kathy has been taking pictures and writing notes everywhere. She drove for an hour or so in a fairly boring part of Nebraska and I went sound asleep. I was surprised after we left Cheyenne, that the transmission shifted out of overdrive back into 3rd, and stayed there (3500 RPM). I totally forgot about the 8000-foot pass between there and Laramie. We have some more passes, I fear, between here and Ogden. Nearby mountains are 11000 feet. Lighted sign warned motorists to turn off cruise control due to possible icing of bridges. Saw fresh snow (not very deep) all over the pass, many patches lower down that have not yet melted from winter. Not actually too cold, like in the 40s. No snow here in Rawlins. And they do have motels, restaurants and flush toilets.

Felt like home to be near places like Laramie, Medicine Bow and Sinclair. Sinclair? Yeah, as in Oil Company, a huge modern refinery with whole trains of tank cars parked there. Oil pumps looking like big birds out in the fields, nodding up and down. (Don't get me started...!) Oddly, we're in Carbon County. Wonder where that name came from?

Sinclair Oil Refinery, Wyoming

Gas mileage all shot to pieces between the rain and the mountain passes. Still over 24, though.

Boise, ID

Temperature was about 40 in Rawlins this morning, got up to 87 in Boise and I was peeling off layers. Start with the heater on, end with air conditioning cold enough to make my hands ache on the steering wheel.

Mountains above Ogden, UT

Folks back East (especially congress critters) just don't understand how big this country is. Also how beautiful. Mountains above Ogden had fresh snow about halfway down.

Some people wonder why America has nothing like the Dead Sea. Well, we have thousands of little "dead seas" in the form of "alkali" pools in the spring that dry up white and powdery. Also, of course, the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley of California. Malheur Lake in S.E. Oregon is another with no outlet, but drains a bit by seepage. I think Soap Lake, WA is another. (Don't know what's at the bottom of Death Valley, don't plan to find out.) The Great Divide Basin, mostly in Wyoming, has lots of these alkali beds as the water has nowhere to go even though it's at about 6500 feet above sea level. White stuff on the Google satellite view is alkali, not snow. (Water only runs downhill, you see, can't get over the ridges.) Started seeing lots of alkali beds just after we left Rawlins where we spent the night. Saw several herds of pronghorn antelope, quite common in the Basin. Also lots of oil pumps and a few mines here and there. Crude oil has to be trucked out, which is now profitable at $100.00 a barrel but not at $40.00. (Trust me, they will truck even more out at $150.00 a barrel.) There are interesting topographical features in the satellite view as you pan across and up and down and zoom in on some of them. The colors and textures are fascinating. I could waste hours....

There is also the Great Basin, which you might miss because it covers most of Nevada, Utah and parts of a few other states, extending from the Salton Sea to the Great Salt Lake and containing cities like Reno, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. It's so huge ("ginormous" as the kids would say) that you're like a fly on the wall. Death valley is the lowest point of it and it's hundreds of miles across. (Sign at the California border: "Salt Lake City 700".) Viewed best from the International Space Station.

Gassed up at Little America, Wyo. It's a bit changed since the last time I was by there. I'm (re)learning a lot of geography; it's been 50 years or more since I've been to many of these places. Antelope look about the same, though.

Crude oil tankers (trucks) all look the same color, nondescript brown (tractor, 40-foot tank or trailer and 20-foot "pup" trailer, usually with triple or quad axels). Finally figured out why. Doesn't matter what color you paint them at the factory, the roads to the wells and storage are all dirt and the dust just flies whenever they drive on them. Everything has a thick layer of dust. They ought to take some congress critters for a ride out to the wells. (No, I didn't mean one way, but it's a thought!)

Little engine never missed a beat even at 3850 RPM going up the passes above 6000 feet. Thankful for new oil change of BG synthetic oil & transmission fluid. Gas mileage 24+. This country is hard on cars. Son Jon relates going East out of Boise at Christmas time (same way we came just now, opposite direction); road bare and dry, then suddenly at 75 MPH just like a line drawn across the road, it became solid ice. Could be scary in the winter. In Wyoming, they have gates (like RR crossings) they just lower on the Interstate when it gets bad. "Bad" of course is a relative term, like blizzards that blow trucks off the road and bury cars. "Back home it'll chill ya; out here it'll kill ya."

Continued