Chaos Leaves Town

Leaving Salt Lake…

Posted on April 30, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

After visiting with a company in SLC that owes me money, I ended up getting stuck there for several days because of snow. This first picture is me in the only RV park or parking lot where I could find a wireless internet link I could use. I spent two days looking too. Just happened to drive in the place because I knew of the impending storm, quickly hooked up to power, powered up the computer and did a wireless search and bingo!, there was one free wireless internet connection. So I ambled over to check in and pay. Ended up staying there 3 days because of the storm.

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The day I left SLC, I headed south for a while and then east. Up in the mountains I stopped at a small town that had a dinosaur museum. These are the pixs from that visit…

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These things all lived around here…

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Strange, but true…see the raptor just on the right there, getting ready to attack? If it looks familiar it’s because it’s almost exactly like the raptor in the movie ‘Jurassic Park’. The director somehow divined (with the help of consultants and experts) that such a creature might exist. Turned out that this nasty was found here in the area 10 months or so after the movie came out (all according to the plaque next to the display), unknown to science previously.
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Millions of years later, and a mere 12,000 years ago, Indians were bringing these mammoths down…
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Chicken Itsa takes a break nearing the desert, on the way to Arches National Park.
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What a view.
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And another, but this time a rock.
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I stopped at this arch because the big one, the one you know from all the pictures? The area around it, including the RV parks nearby were packed. I’d rather not be trampled by hoards of curious tourists like myself so I went to this arch. Smaller, but still cool. You do have to hike to this one, it’s about a 1/2 mile from the road, but the exercise is good.
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One hundred or so miles down the road I found this arch. Pretty spectacular. I tried to get that color slash in the picture (just testing for it). I was surprised at the color.

A little closer.

And here’s me enjoying it.

Another few miles down the road.

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Posted in From Salt Lake City to Texas | Comments Off

On the Way to Ely…featuring Black Rock Lava Flow

Posted on March 27, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

After leaving Scotty’s Castle, I headed up US267 to US95 and on north to Tonopah. Then east on US6 towards Ely. About 3:30 or so, I passed a wide spot in the road named Black Rock Lava Flow. This is public range land with very, very few houses or people for that matter. Only saw about 20 vehicles all day.

Here’s the sad little plaque they have at Black Rock…

The road was graveled but level so I went the 1 mile off the highway to the little park. The display was totally unimpressive but I took a pix anyway. But the lava flow was kinda cool. Just a jumble of blackish, sharp edged rocks thrust up from the flat valley floor. Probably 2-300 yards in diameter and 25-50 feet high.

So I drove another mile around the lava flow till I found a neat place that faced west where I could pull the rig off the road and spend the night. At the time it was 45F and calm. The sunset was not to far off so I began settling in. Also took a walkabout to check things out. Note that there wasn’t a soul within 20 miles or so except for the occasional car/truck that passed on the highway, two miles away. The silence was perfect.

After I climbed up the lava flow I took this pix of the RV in it’s little protected cubby hole. I couldn’t back up any further because the ground got soft back in that area and I was worried about getting stuck. Think about that. I was sooo far from anything that I’d probably still be stuck there. There is a town shown on the map several miles west that I’d passed earlier in the day named Warm Springs, but it’s abandoned now. I also found a animal den of some kind near where I took this pix, which put me in a very watchful mood for nasty animals. (Do cougars live around here???)

If you’re looking for this place on a map of Nevada, it’s just 2 miles north of the highway, US-6. About 6 miles south of the turnoff for Lunar Crater. I didn’t go to the crater because the road was unimproved and rough looking. Here’s the coordinates:

38.461176, -116.005369

Just copy those, plug them into any mapping app and it’ll go right to the turnoff.

Looking due north over the lava rocks.

Looking due east.

Looking south.

It started getting cold around sunset and at 7ish it was snowing.

Moonset the next morning looking west…one of my favorite pictures out of this group.

And this one is cool too with less foreground light after cropping:

Dawn over the rig. I got up at dawn because this was my first experience with snow in this rig and I’d heard stories about the diesel engine not starting when it got cold. I wanted to be on top of the situation and then while I was looking around, the beauty of the place struck me and I wandered around enjoying the snowfall on the rocks and valley:

Edit: Replaced missing pictures on Oct. 5, ’06 and expanded text.

Edit: Added map coordinates and corrected spelling on May 07, ’21

I hadn’t owned this RV for long so during this winter event, I aware that there is an electrical light type switch on the side of the bed frame, but I didn’t know what it did. Turned out that the switch turned on a 120 volt electrical outlet in a small basement compartment where the engine block heater plug was located and plugged into the outlet. It was all ready to warm up the engine just had to know that the switch was there and turn it on. I’d noticed it before this trip of course, just didn’t know what it was for so left it off.

Anyway, what happened was I tried to start the engine so I could drive to a cafe nearby…if there was one, I didn’t know. But when I tried to start the engine, it turned over slowly and didn’t even try to start. Hmmm – cold. While I was pondering that situation, I started the genset and ran that to warm up the house using electrical heaters, make coffee, have breakfast, etc.. Meanwhile, I read some of the users guides that came with the RV and discovered that the engine did indeed have a block heater. But they didn’t say much about it or how to turn it on. Car type block heaters just hang loose and you plug in an extension cord. Maybe this was the same deal? However, I did have one power switch back in the engine area on the bed frame that I no idea what it’s purpose was but thinking just maybe this might be the switch for it, I flipped it on while the genset ran and I goofed around getting ready to leave. Also looked up my roadside assistance groups phone number and tried to pin down where I was just in case.

And that did the trick. After an hour of the genset running, the engine started right up with no hesitation. Yea! Ok, now I know that the block heater is necessary during cold weather and that switch on the bed stand turned it on. I used it repeatedly during that winter and those that followed. Really makes the engine zip to life quickly. And I only needed to have it on for an hour before trying to start the engine, and it’s designed to be on continuously with no harm. I did find that 30 minutes on time was about all that was needed in the worst of conditions so if it was warmer, I could lessen the on time to as short as 10 minutes and the engine would still start easier. Good to know

After I left this area, I found that there wasn’t any nearby cafe to where I was. In fact, wasn’t until later that I learned this section of highway is named the Loneliest Road in America. Or similar. I believe it.

Out of Death Valley

Posted on March 26, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

On the way out of Death Valley, I was forced by several areas of washed out roads to backtrack on US190 and then north on US267. There were some deaths of people caught in a flash flood a few days before. And the road was badly damaged in some areas. One of the park rangers was telling me he had to drive 300 miles per day to get to work and home again.

The backtracking gave me the opportunity to revisit Scotty’s Castle. I had been there back in the mid ’70s.

The front gate. Scotty was a ‘cowboy, gold miner, etc.’ who was able, though guile and personality to endear himself to the real owner of the castle, who met Scotty when he invested in one of his gold mining adventures. Although Scotty had never found any gold, they became friends and Scotty lived on the grounds. Many reporters of the day were convinced that Scotty had made a fortune from gold mining and owned the castle. He told them that the mine shaft started under his bed. The real owner made his fortune in the insurance business. He built the castle as a get away. Cost $2.5 million in the ’20s-’30s.

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The pool here below left was never finished so it’s never had water in it…all the fancy tiles for the bottom are in the underground passageways. They’re there behind those windows in the pool. There is like a 1/4 mile of passageways. I took both the above ground tour of the house and below ground tour.

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The neat thing about the place is that nearly everything that the owners had stayed with the castle. Even their clothes are hanging from the clothes hangers. All the furniture is original, same with the curtains and carpets. The place is huge and quite impressive.

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This is the courtyard of the house….the gal there in the ’30s style dress is the tour guide.

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This is the main room, Scotty had a room right off of this hall but his dog didn’t like to sleep there so he never would either. The owner later built Scotty a small house on the grounds.

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The whole place is kept quite dark to prevent sun damage so I didn’t get to many pics of the small living spaces, and because of the crowd (around 20 people).

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Posted in Scotty\'s Castle | 1 Comment

Into Death Valley…

Posted on March 25, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

Next morning at about 200′ below sea level. Note that it looks like a desert! Weird!

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It’s been so wet this year that there is still some water hanging around the valley.

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This flower is an example of the billions that are blooming in Death Valley right now. I was here in the ’70s and caught them all blooming then too.

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Deeper into the valley are even more flowers, like these…

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One of the ‘Twenty Mule Team Borax’ plants in the valley. Borax is just lying around on the ground. These facilities were used to process it.

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A little further on, at Furnace Creek. I spent the night at the RV park within walking distance of here.

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On the way to Scotty’s Castle the next morning…these looked like ‘Painted Desert’ rocks to me, but they didn’t come out looking as expected for some reason.

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On the Road to Death Valley

Posted on March 23, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

On the way down that long lonely road…Death Valley is just over those hills.

Stopped at Pinamint RV park.

Off in the distance…nothing.

Just a couple run of the mill plants…

Posted in Heading toward Death Valley... | 1 Comment

Back on the Road

Posted on March 22, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

After spending 3 months or so at Dan’s house, I was ready to get back on the road. Tuesday morning, March 17th, I headed North towards Death Valley.

While dropping down into the valley from the west on US190, I stopped at a small RV place called Pinamint RV. An older place with resturant, model & bar. The place was surprisingly busy. Lots of people in and out. Spent the night boondocking for $13. Happened to stay next to a guy and his wife that came from Eugene for some hot weather. Boy were they surprised with the 50F temps, clouds, lite rain and gusting wind. The guy is a rabid Ducks fan so we had something to talk about. The next morning was nice and sunny and the further I got into the valley the hotter it got.

After leaving the RV park, the way into the valley is a long hill, of 6 degrees incline. I went down using brakes mostly and at about the 7 mile mark started smelling hot brakes inside the cab. Bailed off the road at a small rest stop at the 8 mile mark and stopped to take a look. All the brake disks were very hot and the right front brakes were smoking! Since it was nice and cool, I just sat there for about 15 minutes. The right front was still smoking occasionally so I thought I’d move about 100 feet to an area where there was more consistent cool wind.

After I started moving, I pressed on the brakes and…nothing!! So, I’m pumping like mad, the 22,000 pound RV is heading down a slight hill gathering speed and I don’t have a good emergency brake. About 20 feet from the edge of the parking lot, I jamb it into ‘Park’ and the parking brake finally starts to grab (it’s the type that is made with brake shoes that clamp the drive shaft) and slows me down to a crawl, and finally a stop. Whew. At the time I thought I’d lost it all…

So I sit there for the next 2 hours letting the brakes cool down while pondering what to do. Call for a tow? Head back up hill, only to be followed by another downhill? Or head downhill using nothing but engine compression to slow down?

While waiting I replace the brake fluid that was puked out during my stay at the rest stop, about one cup.

Finally I decide to head downhill to where there is flat ground and some service stations in the valley. So off I go, at a 15mph clip, using engine compression to slow the rig. A sign just past the rest stop I was at says ‘downhill 8 miles’, then later, ‘4 degrees’. Using compression keeps my speed at 15 to 25 the whole way, never used the brakes once. Since the traffic was so light, I didn’t bunch people up behind either. Later that day the brakes seemed to get better. I stayed at Furnace Creek that night at the RV park and visited the Death Valley Museum and headed towards Salt Lake the next day, backtracking via US267. Again the brakes were better. On the way out of Death Valley, I stopped for several hours at ‘Scotty’s Castle’. Pretty neat, got some good pixs too. Headed north on US267 towards US95.

On the way to US95, the main road to Salt Lake, I stopped at a small park named Black Rock Lava Flow and spent Thursday night. It is just a turn off the road, and up a gravel road to a giant lava flow of black rocks. It started snowing around 6pm and continued until about 1-2″ had fallen. It got down to 19F during the nite. Didn’t freeze my ass off, but it took a half hour to get the RV started the next morning(diesel engines have trouble starting in the cold). But I do have a block heater that worked, after I figured out I needed to leave it on for 30 minutes or so. Glad the furace worked so well. Oh, and the genset (LP fired generator of 6500 Watts 120Vac) helped alot to keep the batteries charged too. Also had a problem with the genset the next morning. I started it up easily the first try so I could make coffee, then I shut it down. About 1/2 hour later I tried to start it again and it wouldn’t go. Took several tries over another 1/2hour. I’ve got no idea why. Tis a mystery.

Friday I got to Salt Lake, spent two nights at WalMart, and today Monday, the brakes were like they had never had a problem! Geese, weird. Also, I have picked up 15 internet hotspots since I got to SL but I wasn’t able to connect to the internet on any of them! Grrrrr.

I’ll put up a bunch of pixs when I get the chance.

See ya all later…

It’s later in the day and I’m parked at a RV park and it’s a hotspot so I’ll be getting the pixs up soon!

Posted in Leaving Dan\'s house. | 1 Comment

Pictures from the Pacific.

Posted on March 12, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

On the Pacific Coast at Ventura, CA

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Lots of bamboo from somewhere.

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The little Mexican restaurant I had lunch at.

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Work, work, work.

Posted on January 31, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

After getting lots of Dan’s stuff fixed, I moved onto a tougher job, fixing the ’93 Ford Escort. It failed DEQ last May, and Dan hasn’t done anything to it since, except move it around once in a while.

We started by Dan going down to the car wash and washing the oil off the engine. Then we took off the head, since one cylinder had low compression. Having removed the head, we found two pistons busted, kind of surprising since Dan had driven it downtown and back, weird. Anyway, off to the junk yard. They had a good engine for $300, so we picked it up and have been working on replacing the bad engine ever since about Jan. 12th or so. These pictures are of our efforts.

Note that some of the pictures were taken with my new VuPoint 640×480 webcam/digital camera. These little guys are called keychain cameras and are super small, not much bigger then 3 times a AAA battery. Best of all they only cost $16 so I bought two. I’m going to be using them on the road as web cams and security.

This is a shot from the nearest store using my new little camera, looking north towards Dan’s house there on the hill.
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The car is there on the left, the engine hoist there in the middle.
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There is the new engine before we got it installed.
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Here’s a fuzzy shot of the old engine after we pulled it out.
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Here’s where the engine lives.
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Here’s a shot using the good camera.
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Another view of the old piece-o-crap.

A shot of the old head and stuff.
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Posted in It\'s not that warm here in Southern CA... | 1 Comment

Freezing my ass off;

Posted on January 7, 2005 by Jim@HiTek

So I came down here to Southern CA to get warmed up and work on the RV in the sunshine. We did have a few days of sun, but mostly it’s been miserable. Today started out with snow, about 1-2″, didn’t stick much. It’s been cold, in the 30’sF, and raining with snow mixed in. Kinda kills any interest in working outside for me. The weather report is for MUCH more of the same, something like 3 weeks worth of storms heading this way. Sunshine state my ass! I’m going to New Mexico. Soon.

Jim

There is snow on the front windshield…hard to see but it’s there.