Journey To The Eclipse
Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2017 9:31 pm
The trip to catch the eclipse was beautiful, too. I wrote about the generator brush spring fiasco, and then straight to the eclipse post, but the trip there was quite beautiful in its own right, anticipation of the Greatest Celestial Event over U.S. soil since 1918 notwithstanding.
Very happy that the crushed-by-visegrip spring still had enough in it to keep that re-installed old brush against the commutator, I drove north on I-15 pretty hard to try to make up for the eight hours I had lost. The engine sounded better at high rpms and attacked the hills with more gusto, and I certainly didn't have to worry about head temps:
I did not know that my 500* Gloss Black Rustoleum Engine Enamel was busily throwing itself off the pulley back there and depositing little black drops and blobs and scatters. Here's when it looked satisfactory just after the brush spring job:
This valley had a vast gorgeous sweep up on the opposite bank as we descended around the curve of the mountain on our side:
It was a big curve. I think the limited velocity of an old VW bus makes for absolutely perfect sight-seeing. The landscape unfolds with a controlled tease:
Well past the big curve, we are across the valley floor and I cannot imagine where the road is supposed to go as the mountains approach. I do not see a ribbon of road going around the base, and I do not see a road climb. No, the road veers right into the mountainside:
They trust the stability of this geology:
There was a lot of heaved sedimentary layers through this pass, all strafed with stripes and stripes of blast drillings:
Sometimes, when my camera gets confused, the results are lovely, some aquatic evocation here :
The very worst billboard placement in the whole world, Saint George, UT:
I don't really remember the Salt Lake City traverse. I tried to catch the Mormon Church building because I am attracted to alabaster temple architecture, but the traffic required paying attention. Interstate 80 was a big climb that actually required 2nd gear in a few spots, emergency flashers in the breakdown lane as speeding trucks in the truck climbing lane thundered past at 35 mph, yeah, life is humble when you are of unusually modest propulsion . . .
I peeled off of I-80 at Rock Springs and drove up US 191 to WY 28 to Riverton. I had read, from my weather link, that my originally chosen Lingle WY spot was likely to have 23% morning clouds, and this Riverton/Shoshoni spot was only going to have 15%. I am glad to have gotten off the interstate, because this was a beautiful drive:
The harbinger was the color:
It was like wading out to the breakers:
The gentle slope of the hill to the left was like the sandy beach:
This was a hill climb, and my picture-shooting was badly taken by passing motorists. They did not understand that I was actually flat-out floored.
So here we are about to make it past the "breakers":
Here we are past the "breakers" and you would not know coming from the other direction how exquisite this little bit of landscape is:
The downhill side opened up a whole new bit of scenery. Who knew Wyoming had such Utah-esque geology?
And here are all the RVs at the Riverton town line the afternoon before the eclipse..
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=13423
Very happy that the crushed-by-visegrip spring still had enough in it to keep that re-installed old brush against the commutator, I drove north on I-15 pretty hard to try to make up for the eight hours I had lost. The engine sounded better at high rpms and attacked the hills with more gusto, and I certainly didn't have to worry about head temps:
I did not know that my 500* Gloss Black Rustoleum Engine Enamel was busily throwing itself off the pulley back there and depositing little black drops and blobs and scatters. Here's when it looked satisfactory just after the brush spring job:
This valley had a vast gorgeous sweep up on the opposite bank as we descended around the curve of the mountain on our side:
It was a big curve. I think the limited velocity of an old VW bus makes for absolutely perfect sight-seeing. The landscape unfolds with a controlled tease:
Well past the big curve, we are across the valley floor and I cannot imagine where the road is supposed to go as the mountains approach. I do not see a ribbon of road going around the base, and I do not see a road climb. No, the road veers right into the mountainside:
They trust the stability of this geology:
There was a lot of heaved sedimentary layers through this pass, all strafed with stripes and stripes of blast drillings:
Sometimes, when my camera gets confused, the results are lovely, some aquatic evocation here :
The very worst billboard placement in the whole world, Saint George, UT:
I don't really remember the Salt Lake City traverse. I tried to catch the Mormon Church building because I am attracted to alabaster temple architecture, but the traffic required paying attention. Interstate 80 was a big climb that actually required 2nd gear in a few spots, emergency flashers in the breakdown lane as speeding trucks in the truck climbing lane thundered past at 35 mph, yeah, life is humble when you are of unusually modest propulsion . . .
I peeled off of I-80 at Rock Springs and drove up US 191 to WY 28 to Riverton. I had read, from my weather link, that my originally chosen Lingle WY spot was likely to have 23% morning clouds, and this Riverton/Shoshoni spot was only going to have 15%. I am glad to have gotten off the interstate, because this was a beautiful drive:
The harbinger was the color:
It was like wading out to the breakers:
The gentle slope of the hill to the left was like the sandy beach:
This was a hill climb, and my picture-shooting was badly taken by passing motorists. They did not understand that I was actually flat-out floored.
So here we are about to make it past the "breakers":
Here we are past the "breakers" and you would not know coming from the other direction how exquisite this little bit of landscape is:
The downhill side opened up a whole new bit of scenery. Who knew Wyoming had such Utah-esque geology?
And here are all the RVs at the Riverton town line the afternoon before the eclipse..
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=13423
