somethings are more important than school

 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!

Bout damn time......

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!

the last leg of a long ass drive

 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!

A long effing journey, part dos xx

 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!

A super long, yellow adventure: part uno

 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!

The Greatest Adventure of then all

 I have procrastinated writing this due to school, work and other things but I find that today, at this very time, I am free to do it, so here we go! This greatest adventure began on Tuesday of last week when my better half, known as Beauty, flew into Salt Lake to join me on a joint adventure to......... yup, Ouray Colorado. We left Wednesday morning bright and early and after 7 hours or so of driving, arrived in Paradise. Our 1st stop was at the courthouse of Ouray where we purchased our marriage license. Colorado is unique in that you can buy the license and then just sign it and presto chango, you are hitched. Simple as pie. We took a quick peek at the courtroom above the clerks office just because it was the place where John Wayne played Rooster Cogburn in True Grit and testified before the judge. Kinda cool walking down the famous staircase where Mattie 1st confronted him.

After the quick tour, we headed up Yankee Boy basin to sign our papers at Twin Falls. I didn't add the fall foto on here cuz I brain farted and this thing can be a pain in the ass trying to arrange things. So if you want a copy, just ask and I can email it to you. This is our foto taken by a nice couple at Box Canyon Falls. So you can see for yourself, Beauty and the Beast! After said papers were signed, we headed back down the canyon to our wedding feast. Oh it was a good one. We ate at the Outlaw and wow..... the place never disappoints you. It was the most I have ever spent on a dinner, but it was worth it. Gotta love a good cut of prime rib! After that, it was back to the hotel. 

 Wait, I did add the falls..... top foto. I swear I hate this damn program. I just lost a foto. Anyways, Thursday morning dawned bright and beautiful and we headed up engineer pass to Animas Forks. Animas Forks is a preserved ghost town with quite a few buildings around and some great foto ops. After that it was up Piciuyne gulch to search for another small town. We found it, got some great fotos and managed to sneak up on a Rock Chuck dozing on an old collapsed building. It was fun to film him till I tripped and woke him up. Took off like a bat outta hell. We went over the pass into California gulch, climbed out at California pass then took Corkscrew down to the main road. Tonight's dinner was at a local pizza/sandwich joint. I had a Reuben minus the sauerkraut. Not very good. Then it was back to the hotel where I took a test for school online and aced it. 

 Friday was again, an incredibly beautiful day. We were up and out the door by 8 heading to Black Bear Pass. I love this trail. It's not about your vehicle, but your mental capabilities. We video taped most of it and for the most part its a great film. We did have one spot of video challenge, but we recovered and all went well. Just before the trail turns nasty, we ran into the guy above. He was not the least bit interested in us, but more so the brush he was eating. I did get him to turn his head for the foto, but then it was right back to eating. We continued on and easily conquered the famous stairs and moved on to the switchbacks. They were a piece of cake till number 7 I believe. Since last July, there has been a small land slide about 30 inches

high that makes that switchback a total bitch. But, old yellow made quick work of it and we pressed on. As usual, we skipped Telluride and headed over to Ophir pass. The town itself is awesome and I would love to live there. The pass itself  is steep but the views of the fall colors was awesome. We came down and headed into Silverton. I showed Em the canyon of cable cars and she thought it was cool. Didn't like the idea of having to ride one to work but I think it would have been fun! Beats what the foto above shows. The miners of this mine had to crawl down these ladders to get to work..... and its a long way down if you slip. Saturday was a return to Yankee Boy and some trails I hadn't run. Governor basin was very interesting. There were some other trails we skipped by and went partially up Imogene to a beautiful fall. Don't know the name but is sure was a nice place to hang out for a few. Dinner that night was at O'Briens pub for the 2nd night in a row. The food is great and the price is right! We finally made it to the hot springs Saturday night and they sure felt good. Wish I lived down that way again. That was our adventure. I had 2 more fotos, but blog spot ate them and I am not gonna do this again. So ends my greatest adventure ever..... I couldn't have asked for a better partner in crime and a better place to do it! I love ya Em........ Jeep on my friends!

Yes, life is good

 Well, after driving over 1300 miles in 4 days, I am finally back home and reunited with my girls. The drive home was so much better than the one going over, yet is wasn't much fun. It is so hard to leave the area around Ouray...... it holds you like a bear trap. The beauty of the mountains is unlike anywhere else. Sure Utah has some awesome vistas, and Idaho too, but no where else I know comes close to Ouray! The sad thing is, fotos do not do it justice. You have to see it to believe it. Above I tried to frame the Jeeps with Red mountain as a background. Its an OK foto, but in real life..... it kicked ass!

 This foto of Bridal veil falls also is a good one..... but real life is better. You can get within 50 yards of them at the bottom and as you stand there, you can feel the drops almost like rain. It cools you off and feels so good. It attracts the attention of many tourists. Black Bear pass ends on this road. From the service road that goes to the power plant and down is 2 way traffic. There were cars and trucks parked all over the road as people hiked over to see it from the top. Thank heavens its one way above that road or they would be parking up there too. Some day I will take the hike over to the top and see what cool sites there are. I saw a road as we went up Imogene that goes up the valley from the power plant. It would be fun to take it and see how far it goes up that valley.

 With the altitudes of the mountains around Ouray, spring flowers don't bloom till late July and they were out in full force. I would have loved to had the time to go out among them and take more fotos, but this was a limited time trip so that wasn't part of the plan. I took a few shots from the road and this one was the best. It's such a great sight to see mountain sides and valley's covered in spring time blooms. Sea's of purple, blue, red and yellow flowers, like a carpet covering a square foot to an acre or more for any ones pleasure to gaze upon. The wildlife you can see is also incredible. We saw lots of deer and chipmunks, but my favorite were the Rock chucks. They wander about and sun themselves on rocks like they are tourists too. Years ago on our first trip to Ouray,we were walking among some old mining buildings with some older ladies from Indiana. I was filming everything when all of the sudden there was a horrible scream. We raced out of the building and a rock chuck was observing one of them. It freaked her out! We laughed so hard, we almost peed are pants! Back then, Ouray was a quiet, peaceful town. Now its as crowded as Telluride and almost foreign feeling. The first few years we visited, we hardly saw anything but Jeeps on the trails and a few motorcycles. This weekends trip was like a freeway in Los Angeles. We dodged every type of ATV out there along with motorcycles and even mountain bikers who believed they owned the trail. The well kept secret of Ouray is out. So sad! The trip did end on a funny note. An older couple in their 70's were gawking at my Jeep as we came out out of a store. I told them I charged a fee for looking..... they laughed and the lady asked " did you drive that here like that''? (meaning no doors or top) I said I sure did. The old man asks " what do you do if it rains?" I looked at him seriously and said " I get wet"!
Jeep on my friends!