Hi and welcome once again to another adventure. Over the past decade or so the MTNMAD family tradition has been to Jeep on thanksgiving day then hit Denny's for some grub. This year, do to a social status change, we Jeeped then headed home for the traditional turkey dinner. So I guess that's the new updated tradition. Anyway, we headed back to the Central Pacific rail bed to follow it all the way across. We stopped at a small spring and had a rock skipping contest. Bob won and if you look close in the foto you can see the stone in flight after the first skip!
The bridge I am driving across is one from 1865. This was the only one I dared cross so I did. As I said before, the majority of them are all deteriorated to a point that even walking them can be a trick. For some reason, this one is still good enough to cross. Who knows how long it will last? It's truly a sad thing that all this history, especially one as important as the transcontinental railroad, are rapidly disappearing. It is a testament to the workers from back then that their work is still around. You can follow the rail bed to the Sierra Nevada mountains for the most part and that is on the bucket list of things to do.
We made it across the flats to the other side only to be stopped by a locked gate. What the hell? Why do you leave one end open and the other end closed. So, we did the proverbial U-turn and drove back the way we came, 5.2 miles, to the main road and went west on the modern road. I would have liked to have ridden the train back then from San Francisco to Ogden. I'm sure most of the scenery would have been the same. Not much has changed out there over the years. Fact is, I am sure there would have been more human activity out there with all the railroad stops and towns. Now all we have are fotos and remnants of the places they lived.
We went out to the point where the lake and road, at one time, were very close to each other. The background of the above foto was at one time a small island in the lake. In the 80's, it was an island with the only access by means of boat or swimming. As you can see now, its not even close. We got out the pistols and set up some cans and everyone took turns blasting away. Next year, we will plan better and have a larger selection of targets and guns. But, we still had a ton of fun with what we had and made the best of it. The weather was damn near perfect today for our ride and we all added color to our faces.
After shooting, we headed for home stopping at every mud hole we could find. It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand. We stopped at the climbing hill to see who could set the high mark. I sadly must report old yeller got out climbed today by Sam's Jeep. Though I think the new 3.6 Penastar motor in the Jeeps is to high revving for good, slow, rock crawling, I will admit the higher horsepower it has does really well. I just didn't have the power to win today. UGH! Oh well, I will admit when I lose and I lost today. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but oh well, you can't win them all. We made it home and cooked out tiny turkey and it was a great meal. Though I don't like turkey, the whole meal was very very good and I ate too much. Later on my friend Ken stopped by with his woman friend and we told stories of the good old days. All in all, it was a great day with the one exception. Have a great black Friday and I hope all of you enjoyed your thanksgiving day as much as I did! Jeep on my friends!
Welcome to a new adventure. Today the foto's are backwards because google decided to play games with me. So, the fotos don't match what happened so piss on it. As you can see I did encounter some mud on the trip though it wasn't in big mud holes. Most of it was along the side of the road . But I did make the most of what was given me and yes, it was fun!
The above foto shows an original bridge of the Central Pacific railroad. Of course it was new in 1865 and it not quite in the same shape as it was then at this point of time. We are looking south as the tracks cross mud flats heading up into the Promotory mountains. Usually these are behind locked gates but for some reason they were open and hell yes I'm gonna take advantage of it. Years ago, I actually drove across these bridges. OK, I wasn't driving, but I was a passenger and it was a Jeep!
If you look in the foto , in the center, you can see a tail forming in the clouds. I have no idea if it is like a baby air born tornado or what, but it looked really cool so I took a foto. Though extremely rare, we do get tornado's like once every blue moon. I liked it so you get to look at it, so ha!
This is a Spiral Jetty brine shrimp, or as you comic book readers know them: sea monkeys. This is a rather large one that I tried to return to the deep blue sea, but the damn thing was too quick and escaped. So, if you spot it, send it back to the lake any way you can! It isn't considered dangerous, but you never know with wild animals.
As you can see, the Jetty has water all the way around it. Hopefully this will be a wet winter and it will be covered once again by the water. I wish this just because it is so much prettier covered in white salt than its natural black. It been visible for around 12 years now and I think its time to disappear again for a while. Just my thoughts. Any way, I did skip school because like I said, some things are more important. Jeep on my friends!
Today's adventure didn't involve my Jeep or me for that matter. Last night, Bob sent me a text asking for my permission to ask Sam to marry him. Of course I said yes, after the the "you treat her like a princess or else" speech to which he whole heartily promised to do. So, it now seems I am getting a son in law. That's a good thing so best of wishes to you two. May your lives be filled with happiness!
Ahhhh the final day of driving. We left hell ahead of schedule because we really wanted to be out. We had our usual breakfast at McDonald's and headed for home. I really wanted to visit the Cabelas main store but being Sunday it didn't open till 10. What a pisser! So all I got was a foto of it.
As for the name of this town........ ya. What can I say that's not going through your mind now..... Yes, I was born in..........
As we entered Wyoming, these became a familiar sight. I can't say for sure whether they are oil wells or natural gas wells, but they were all over. One thing we didn't see were corn fields. Nope, didn't miss that at all.
What do you see in the foto???? Woo Hoo! Them be snow covered mountains!!! Oh ya..... gotta love the mountains.
Now this is a town you could be proud to call home! Now who is Happy Jack, I do not know. But I am willing to bet he was happy! hahahahaha
Such a lovely sign to see after so long of a drive. The rental truck was fairly new so it had a whole bunch of cool features. It told me we traveled 1876 miles over 29.9 hours getting 8.1 miles per gallon. so, divide 1876 by 8.1 and you get 231.6 gallons of fuel. Now times that by 4.059 and you get a fuel cost of $940. Plus I have to fill it up before we take it back so I'm betting it will be closer to $1000. Wow, that be a lot of fuel. Other than the night in Hell Nebraska, the trip was a good one. Only damage was to a 12 pack of Dr Pepper that had a sharp object land on it totalling out 6 cans. Yes, that hurt. It's a sin to waste Dr Pepper. The truck is 1/4 unloaded so its off to finish that. Jeep on my friends!
I am going to begin by saying this blog site sucks shit! For some unknown reason it likes to erase everything I write and leave me ready to smash my laptop. If it wasn't for school, I just might have done it. And the real pisser on top of that is, and this really makes me mad, I delete it, well what was left, and restart by adding the fotos again, and it puts them in a different order..... even tho I did it just like before. So, what to do? I had a really good blog halfway done before the mishap but I don't think I can remember it so to hell with it. The above foto shows how green the Midwest states are. These things are everywhere. Fact is, they are about the tallest things around.
This foto was taken as we crossed the Missouri River near Omaha. I know the foto doesn't do it justice but hey, it was taken out the window of a freaking truck. Omaha did look like a very nice town with lots of things I would like to see some day. They have the Union Pacific museum there along with some other cool things. Plus I would love to take a ride on the river in a boat. So much I wish we could do, but the lack of time and $$$$ makes it impossible.
Again, I must say that I am not the only person to be bored by the lack of scenic vista's. As we see again, the lovely name of the cities they choose are somewhat....... interesting? Now who in the hell would name their city What Cheer? I give them an A for originality and an F for choosing such a stupid ass name. There were more of them we passed but like I said, I was trying to keep myself awake.
I have to admit, I did lead you all astray last night. In all honesty, all the states were rolling hills. Yes, they were all corn fields, but they really were not as flat as i portrayed them. Where I live, corn and hay are grown in flat fields for irrigation purposes. I am thinking that in the fields from Ohio to Illinois are not irrigated, thus there is no need for a flat field. But, wow! We cross into Nebraska and there we go...... its flat.... as far as the eye can see. I think I like to rolling hills better than the all flat. It breaks up the monotony of the drive. What was really noticeable was roadkill. I thought Utah was the king of road kill but Nebraska has them beat. I saw more dead deer and bloody road than I have ever seen before. In some spots it was like 1 dead deer every mile. Besides the deer, there were a ton of racoons and prairie dogs. And at these sites, you saw car parts off to the side of the road next to the dead animals. I really wouldn't want to drive a small car on the highway after dark! Tonight we are in Ogallala Nebraska. This is a scary town. We ate at the local Denny's and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Oh well, hopefully we shall be home tomorrow and can leave the memories of this place here. Jeep on, my friends!
Welcome to day one of a super long, adventure in another yellow beast. Unfortunately, it's not a Jeep, but Bob will like that it is an International......but not a scout.Do I make any sense at all? I don't think I am due to the fact I drove the above beast 680 miles today. Ya, its not a Jeep. OK, I will think and make this right. I flew out last Wednesday to Akron, Ohio to grab the wife, yes I did, and pack up the household goods and move them back to Utah. We spent Thursday loading said truck and cleaning the house. This morning dawned bright and early..... OK, just remember I am on Utah time.....she was on Eastern time.... so that's a 2 hour difference.so, this mornings 5 am was really 3 am for me, thus the mind loss.
Now I am not lying when I tell you the earth is flat. I am totally serious. I just spent the last 12 hours looking at the flat corn fields of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and now Iowa. Fact is my fellow friends, I am only like 20 miles from West Liberty, Iowa for those of you you get the joke. Just so you understand, how freaking boring this drive is, look at what the locals named their town! I smell red neck in the breeze. Ha ha ha ha! Farmer City.... they are so bored they can't even come up with anything somewhat descent. We also passed towns called London, New Paris and Lebanon. Go figure???
But, on the other hand, there was some cool shit. The above foto is us crossing the mighty Mississippi river. I have flown over it 3 times and today i finally got to see it somewhat up close. And honestly, this is a rather small version of it. The Missouri river joins it at St Louis and makes it bigger. But, I must say, it was bigger than any other river I have seen with the exception of the Rio Plata river that separates Uruguay and Argentina. Now that was a big river. But this was still way cool.
The other really cool thing was seeing in person the famous I-80 Worlds largest truck stop. We came up on it at hour 11 of the 12 hour drive and ya know, I could have stopped but my attitude at this point was hotel and food. It's true stuff though, the place is freaking huge. I remember watching the show on the History channel about it, how it has tons of stuff in it and its almost a city with in itself. Tomorrow is a shorter drive so hopefully we will be able to stop at a few things along the way that are interesting. I will say this, I am Damn sick and tired of cornfields. I have seen enough of them to last me a life time. well, it be late, so I will end, Jeep on my friends!
Welcome to day one of a super long, adventure in another yellow beast. Unfortunately, it's not a Jeep, but Bob will like that it is an International......but not a scout.Do I make any sense at all? I don't think I am due to the fact I drove the above beast 680 miles today. Ya, its not a Jeep. OK, I will think and make this right. I flew out last Wednesday to Akron, Ohio to grab the wife, yes I did, and pack up the household goods and move them back to Utah. We spent Thursday loading said truck and cleaning the house. This morning dawned bright and early..... OK, just remember I am on Utah time.....she was on Eastern time.... so that's a 2 hour difference.so, this mornings 5 am was really 3 am for me, thus the mind loss.
