Smog

I guess living in Idaho all of these years I have forgotten what smog was like, as we were headed towards LA it started out in the desert. It was so bad you couldn't even see the mountains. I had forgotten how bad smog smells and gives ya a headache, you'd think with all those wind mills out in the desert they would be able to blow all the smog away?! Just another little theory of mine!

Airplane grave yard

Out in the middle of the Mojave Desert is the airplane grave yard, it's quite a ways from the highway but I was able to zoom in a get a couple of good shots as we drove by. There sure are a lot of big planes just sitting there going to waste.

Death Valley Wind Mills

Wind Mill Theory

We have traveled thru quite a few states already and a majority of some of these states have mountains or areas where they have wind mills, some times hundreds of wind mills. Well nothing prepared me for all of the thousands of wind mills we saw in Death Valley, they were every where, as far as the eye could see. Tall ones, medium ones and even these short ones in between the tall and medium ones. So here is my theory about all of these wind mills we have seen, I think that once we get enough of these huge wind mills going the earth is gonna just rotate off it's axis and move, just take off, which direction, depends on which wind mills are going the fastest that day!

Death Valley Wind Mills II

Refuge in Vegas

There was no way that we could stay in the truck and sleep with the heat, it's Vegas baby, it's supposed to be hot right? So at the truck service desk they told Gary about this hotel called the Silverton, didn't sound bad, all we really needed was a shower, a bed and a pool would be really nice about now. So we got ahold of them and they had a room at a reasonable rate, we were told it was just across the street, good thing we drove over there cause it was across the street but a long ways back probably close to a mile away. We were just expecting a little hotel, wrong, it was huge, it was actually a hotel casino lodge, what ever the heck that is? The parking lot was so big it had a tram driving people up to the front door, it was decorated like it was a lodge in the woods, it had bass fish boats in the parking lot, there was a Bass Pro Shop. It has hundreds of rooms, a pretty large casino area, right inside the front doors there was this huge aquarium and water falls, it was a really nice place. Unfortunately we were so tired that after a quick swim, shower and some dinner we were exhausted and went to bed. Since Gary has worked in the casino for the last 8 years we don't gamble anymore, so when ya don't gamble, drink or smoke Vegas is a pretty boring place, so we were really glad to be leaving Vegas.

The break down!

This day started out pretty good, we got into St. George and met up with Karen, Don, Lily and Vince, we had some lunch and then said our good byes. Gary and I had a little shopping to do at the truckers favorite stop, Walmart. Got everything put away, got headed out on the highway, I was comfy in my seat reading my new In Touch magazine I had just purchased and things were looking pretty good heading towards Nevada. Then less then 10 miles down the road we realized the air conditioner was blowing warm air and the controls for the AC weren't responding and the air kept getting hotter. It's only 28 miles from St. George to Mesquite, NV, but when the AC isn't working and it's 112 degrees outside it might as well be 100 miles. We got to Mesquite and Gary put up the hood and smoke was pouring out of the compressor, it was froze up. Got ahold of road services and they said our only option was to drive it to Vegas to an all night truck stop repair, they had Gary cut the belt off so it would stop smoking. Then we went on the hottest most miserable drive of our lives, it was 4pm and it was registering 112 degrees on the truck but it seemed like the gates of hell had opened up!!!! By the time we drove the 80 miles to Vegas we were soaking wet from sweat just for starters. So I have just posted this red picture, it's the front gates of hell that we saw that day!!

Colorado Rockies

The whole time we were driving thru the Colorado Rockies it was just beautiful, these pictures do not even do it justice. We stopped at one of the higher peeks and had lunch that day, it was just beautiful scenery to have while your having a picnic. After lunch it was so nice we ended up taking a nap for about an hour before we headed on down out of the mountains.

Glenwood Canyon, CO

Gary has been thru this canyon many times in the past 1 1/2 months, he went to Grand Junction CO several times for his last 3 weeks of CAT training. It is a very beautiful canyon just at the beginning of the Colorado Rockies.

Kansas City, Missouri

Once again, I am just a hick from a small town cause going thru Kansas City was just amazing. This place was huge, miles and miles of buildings, businesses, houses and once again all the PEOPLE.




Just a quick side note, I have not been back to the yard in SLC to purchase my hardware to go online while on the road. So when ever I get a chance at rest areas or truck stops I go online and try to up date things. Right now I am just a little bit behind, so bare with me and I will get caught up.

Mississippi

I've seen the mississippi river before, but you don't remember just how big it really is.

St. Louis

I must be a hick from a small town, cause these big cities just amaze me!
Sky scrapers every where, businesses every where, PEOPLE every where! I don't know if I could live some place so big? How do ya put up with pollution, crowding, big town politics? I think I'll stick to my small pow dunk town.

Flood back east

We took I 80 east, we had to detour and go around the flooding, I didn't get the camera out in time for some really good shots, there was a recreation center with baseball diamonds, everything was completely under water. There was still quite a bit of water every where, we went over some bridges the water was beating at the sides of the bridge road ways. We saw houses with water up to there roofs. If looked pretty devastating.