1st World Country (Supposedly), 3rd World Internets

The Shuttle didn't launch... no earlier than May 2nd. I am not sure what to do but I think it's too close to my departure of the 10pm 3rd Pacific time.
I stayed the night in the town of Mariposa thinking it was close to the Sequoia grove that bears it's name. It was further away than what I thought but a good drive. The trees where huge. Not as tall as the Coastal Redwoods but more massive. I drove a loop through Yosemite, pronounced the same way we say Vegemite, and then took a tertiary rode back down to the Central Valley through the foothills which reminded me of the area north of Lismore, NSW. I don't really like the valley. It's so flat. An enormous flat agricultural plain. It was so dusty. I passed some signs that were advertising a rally against the dust bowl and I hope they get some support. The wind was howling and blowing filthy dust that had me gagging. The dust would be laden with pesticides and left over fertiliser chemicals for sure. In some places they have feed lots packed with cattle that absolutely stink. Compared to the happy animals I saw mowing the hectares of paddocks in the foot hills this looked like Bovine hell. Tonight I am in the Coalinga Inn with shit Wifi yet again. 

Houston I have a problem

Making assumptions can sometimes come back and bite you in the arse. In this case I am inline for a full buttock transplant. I assumed the pickup time for tour was at 7:30 am as it was before they delayed the launch. Bad move. Pickup time is at 5:30am, the same time my plane get's in to Orlando an hours drive away. I couldn't get another flight in time so I decided to stay in California and cry over watch the launch on TV :(

California Driving

Got in after 14 hrs behind the wheel. From Sutherlin, Oregon to just north of the Golden Gate. Went and saw the big trees in Founders Cove - Amazing. Then drove down highway 1. I didn'ty think it would take as long as it did but I have never been through that many corners in a days driving. Never. Beutiful coastline and it reminded me of NSW as there are a lot of Gum trees. Big ones too. They must have been planted years ago in stands and look really good.
Just arranged a ticket too Orlando tomorrow so fingers crossed the Shuttle takes off on time and successfully. Surely with the husband of the Politician who got shot in the head in Arizona commanding the shuttle it's all going to go to plan? Surely.

Big Tree

I felt safe here

In Bremerton there were 5 Aircraft carriers lined up. I felt exposed taking photo's as I think the one furthest away was still active. I drove around a lot and they are just there in front but getting a picture was hard. This picture above is from a hill nearby and residents were sussing me out. I am not sure if they were going to roll me or ring the cops.

Snow and more snow

Tried to leave north up the Wind River road to see Mount St Helen's but it went from medium rain to medium wet snow to medium/heavy dry snow really fast. I turned the engine off and it was really tranquil. Up till now there's been a bank of snow on either side of the road due to the plow but this time there was a snow covered ditch on one side and the other a 100 meter drop off through pine trees into the river so when the car started going sideways I decided that was far enough. I had to reverse about 1 km with all but the front screen frozen up but managed to chuck a u'ey and then get back down to the gorge and drove east along it. It is an impressive drive. I didn't realise that 40% of America's wheat passes down it and a huge amount of cargo goes up it. I then drove to Seattle and went to the Microsoft campus and then got stuck in heavy Seattle traffic. There's some road work right near the ferry terminals so on the 3rd attempt after hacking through the CBD I made it to the terminal and caught a large ferry to Bremerton where I am staying at the Oyster Bay Inn. The I90 freeway that comes into Seattle from the East South East is amazing. Snoqualimie pass is awesome. I didn't realise how rough the Cascade Mountains were. Each pass across it seems to be a major engineering feat. They are getting record snows in this region and record late dumps so I think I will stick to the coastal roads heading south. The camera is charging but the light was bad all day so I don't have many photo's. The camera is really just a happy snaps camera although it does seem to take good 60mph in car shots. There where so many drone's coming out of the Microsoft campus I didn't get to park the Cougar on the lawn in front of the Microsoft sign and take a photo :( Damn it.

Cascades

I got the snow chains finally, I hate traveling on Sundays as everything is shut, and headed up to Crater Lake.There's nothing wrong with going sideways up a hill in 1st gear whilst trying to slow as possible.

Here's the view from the rim:

If you play with the colour, saturation, hue and gamma in the 2nd shot it does look like water...

Cougar in the snow

I only had a short period up on the rim as the snow started to melt through my sandals and socks and freezing my toes.
The way back down was a bit hairy as the snow got a lot heavier but with the chains in the boot the car was transformed into the ultimate snow mobile.

I am staying in Stevenson, Washington which is on the North side of the Columbia river across this bridge and down the river about 5 km's  15km's.

Oregon from Washington

It is in the Colombia River gorge that is up to 1200m high in places and cuts through the Cascade Range.

Stevenson is around the bend on the right

North by North West

Well I got pulled over again, this time by a Californian State Trooper in Mono Lake. His first words were "Whats that thing in the back window?"
me: "It's an Iowa state transit title"
Him: "That looks like you printed it off a printer at home"
me: "I have sort of heard that before"
him: "Do you have any documents to back that up? Let's start with your license and passport"
But he was ok. He radioed in the numbers and got back a reply and as I left town after refueling he even waved as he was coming the other way.
In the back of my mind I was thinking about Mammoth Lakes the name and googled "Long Valley Caldera" and lol and behold I was on the edge of the super volcano I was talking about weeks ago. Awesome. It had been bad weather the previous day so I woke up, checked out and went up the road in the car until the ice was quite thick and the caldera became apparent.

I am standing half way up one rim of the crater with the other side the mountains curving away from left to right completing the arc of the rim to join up behind the mountain in the right. The low bulges in the middle are magma up-swellings after the last major eruptions. It's hard to imagine that much area blasting matter into the stratosphere and even low orbit whilst dumping debris over large parts of the western United States.
The road continued after Mono Lakes to Carson Valley in Utah which is like a much larger scale Lake George. I believe they are even created through a similar process. Up the side of the valley to Lake Tahoe which is a quite large fresh water lake that still had snow coming down to the water line which is covered in Pine Forest. Beautiful. I imagine it would be quite busy in Summer. The road out from the north east corner went up and up and took a long time due to the snow but after that was Reno and through some of the best driving country to end up in Klamath Falls, Oregon

Mono Lake from the north

Eagle Lake, CA on route 139

Unfortunately many of the things I wanted to see are or have been closed including Yellowstone, the back doors into Yosemite - Tioga and Sonora Pass Roads and now it looks like both Crater Lake and Mount Rainier are still inaccessible so I am not sure what I am going to do. I still intend to get to Seattle but am not sure what route I will take. I am going to try get to the eastern edge of the Mt St Helen's NP but am not sure how far I can get. I think I will look at getting some snow chains as many roads have a requirement to at least have them in the boot and that may change in an instant to putting them on.

Up the Sierra Nevada's

Good day. I saw my first Rattle snake close up and I hope it's the last. I left my hotel in Vegas and went straight west through the burbs to Red Canyon. From there its a series of roads into California and then down to Death Valley via Tecopa and Shoshone. I thought this was going to be a tourist trap and the "Hottest, lowest spot in North America" line didn't really grab me but I was amazed at how scenic it was. Truly spectacular and it just kept getting better.

To get east out of the valley there's a long uphill drive here. There was a sign that read something like "To prevent engine overheating turn off your air conditioning". My aircon doesn't work and is not hooked up but I still watched the temp rise... too high. Before the engine cooked I pulled over but that probably made it worse. With no circulation the collant closest to the block expanded and fluid started coming out of the radiator over flow. I thought it best to give the engine an hour break. This is where the stupid indicator on the dashboard lit up. I went for a walk up one of the hills and had a great view down into the valley. Got back to the car after 40minutes and decided to go the other side. I saw this nice little lizard and had the thought "That's interesting where there's prey there's usually predators" and walked another 5 steps and heard the rattle as I went up a ditch. I don't know much about rattlers except what I saw in "West world" where a robot rattler bit a human and other appearances in forgettable western flicks however I do know Rattlers are fairly tame compared to Brown or Taipan snakes but the rattle touched something deep and primeval in my psych sending static and little short circuits up and down my spine. I was already running when I thought "What about a picture?!", stopped and took one step back. That's when the Stupid indicator started flashing angry red and the rattle started up again so I came to the realisation walking around stony bushy country on the edge of Death Valley with only shorts and sandals on was not a good idea and made my way back to the car. It had cooled down enough to put in about 1.5 liters of water and I was off. That was the first of a series of enormous valleys and huge vistas that ended in Owens Valley where I think I saw the top of Mount Whitney, the highest point in North America outside Alaska. It started snowing on the mountains and I ended up driving to Mammoth Lakes which I thought was a lake on the valley floor but is a Ski Resort at 2200 meters. It's snowing outside and I have to go down and drain the radiator as it now probably has too much water in it and may freeze up. I have some Anti Freeze/Anti Boil so will fill it up tomorrow.
Staying at the Quality Inn, Mammoth Lakes.

Back on the Road

The car feels a lot better on the road. All round shocks, left front wheel bearing, new front brakes, rotor, dizzie cap, points, plugs and a tune-up do make a difference. I bi-passed Phoenix. I can't work out what makes it one of the faster growing cities in the US. Hoover dam is great but I think its also the site for the dam that makes it such a marvel. Building a dam that large when they did must have been hard but building it where they did makes it even greater. I have had a head full of dust for the last 3 to 4 days and think it may have taken its toll. It is spring here and I feel like I have hay fever fairly bad.
Walked the strip and had a gander around but will be glad to be leaving for the sterile beauty of Death Valley and the backside of the Sierra Nevada range.

Tucson Thumb Twiddling

If I had my guitar I might be able to concoct some corny blues number with this title and verse.
I haven't got the car back yet but should tomorrow AM. Damn, will miss out on going to the Titan Missile Museum as I am short on time.  Hopefully I will be at Hoover damn early arvo then Vegas that night. I spent today catching a bus into downtown and getting cash to pay for the repairs. Catching public transport always gives a different view to a place than that seen by a car or taxi and I usually enjoy it, particulalry when I am biding my time.
I picked up this on the side of the road when I was walking back to my hotel from the Air and Space museum:

It's an 11/16th ring and opened ended spanner. If it comes in handy in the next 2 weeks I will know it was given too me by the spanner gods. Stay tuned.
The waitress must have seen me coming in Salina. She put this in front of me.

At least there's a Dirty Harry movie on TV...

Sunny Arizona

Arrived last night in Tuscon and stayed at a cheap motel in town. The drive yesterday was a bit of a nightmare. I went to Meteor Crater but it was a real let down. I have wanted to go there for years but I expected to park at the base and walk to the rim and maybe trek down into it. The car park is just below the rim, 15 bucks and 2 flights of stairs later your at the rim but you can only walk about 50 meters around it. There's a Subway and movie theater but I stayed about 15 minutes. After that I went through a series of wrong turns - 1 cost me a 2hr back track, there was a fatal accident in road works north of Lake Tonto that took 1.5 hrs so I was quite late getting into town. I put the car into get new plugs, a tune up and bushes on the front steering and got a lift out to the Pima Air and Space Museum where I am waiting to go on a bus tour of the Aircraft Grave yard. Can't wait except I forgot the camera :(

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fixed up the spelling.
WOW! that was the best Aircraft Museum I have ever seen. I was there 6 hours and didn't see everything. I got kicked out before I got to see the hanger with the fully restored B-29 Bomber (I was on the phone outside the hanger... Thanks Steve :) nah kidding. The bus tour was great but the displays of weird and wonderful craft parked outside in the museum itself where amazing. Beautiful 31 degrees of sunny Arizona weather and 6% humidity made me a fan for ever.

F111's. we used have them...

  Walked back to the motel the 5 or so miles and was happy to do so. Almost 2 weeks driving 10-14 hours a day have made me a different shaped human. Needed to stretch the shanks so to speak :)
I had a great dinner at a placed I walked past which was so much more appealing than the usual fast food fair around the hotel. Hopefully I get the car back tomorrow and can be on my way again.

Back and Forth on the Colorado Plateau

Well it seems I may have underestimated the Grand Canyon. It's different to Zion and hard to say which is better. I like Zion because you drive through the canyon floor with the massive sandstone cliffs towering above. The Grand Canyon is well... epic.

West Entrance Zion
Obligatory Cougar shot	Bryce Canyon
Vermillion Cliffs	Navaho Bridge
Lake Powell	Glen Canyon Dam
Colorado River...

I finally got a hat today at Glen Canyon dam. All the ones I have seen so far looked like truckers caps. Sorry to anyone in advance that wears them but I think in wearing one I would need an accompanying T Shirt with the logo "I'm with stupid" and an arrow pointing up at my face. If APEC comes to Bullhead City, Arizona I am sure the nations delegates will be wearing a truckers hat as official costume but the shirt will have the same logo, just with a 3 headed arrow pointing left, up and right.
Tonight I am in the Super 8 west, Flagstaff Arizona. If the camera battery hadn't of dies I would put in more photo's.

Canyon Fever

really shitty WIFI so had to wait to post. Went through Black Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Red canyon then Zion Canyon. Bryce was a $25 ripoff compared to Zion Canyon which is probably the most spectacular natural feature on the planet and that includes Kylie in those Gold hot pants. Yeah those ones. So good I decided to go back through it so yesterday I drove from the east gate through the west gate to a town fast food strip called Hurricane where I stayed in the Travel Lodge. Hurricane is at the foot of a series of steps off the Colorado Plateau. Today I will drive back through the west gate back through the park, out the east gate then onto the Grand Canyon (north rim) and Glen Canyon dam. Have a look at Zion National Park in Google Earth. Awesome.  How they can sully such a spectacular geologic formation with this place is beyond me.

I think I have been lucky with the weather so far. I have had just one bad afternoon of snow and sleet. On the Weather channel there have been constant reports of heavy hail and tornado's in states I have driven through so hopefully any bad weather will hold off for the rest of my time here.

Utah

I have added a page I will update called GPS Trail under the Pages tab. Unfortunately the GPX files created by both the phone and laptop are too large to upload to easy Trail or other sites. I can't reduce the interval of both GPS devices to make the files small enough so will stick with this for now.I should call this section "The view over the bonnet"

South Idaho
Ford F450 Super Duty
Pony Express camp	View back after seeing the end

These are fairly low resolution photos as the wifi is slow. I am glad I pulled over last night when visibility was low as the scenery was great coming from Idaho into Utah. it must have dumped snow on the higher parts of the Salt Lake city as it looked quite thick. It periodically snowed on the interstate which is quite low. I see they are refining salt from the Great Salt lake... With a petrochemical factory a couple of power stations and some reasonably intensive animal farming up river I think I will pass on this salt for my chips. It was a bit boring getting to Bonneville Speedway but then picked up. There's a town called Wendover that straddles the Utah-Nevada border. I checked the Auto Transmission fluid, properly this time with the engine running in park, and the dip stick was dry. There was an Auto Parts store but we worked out I needed Type F compatible fluid and they didn't have any... They didn't have any parts I wanted like a new air cleaner so this may be a problem. I then went to every gas station and even a "Lube while you wait" store (I didn't realise there was such demand for this service) but finally got some in the last store I went too. Lucky. It was a long way back to Salt Lake city or to the next large town. As I drove south I crossed the border which was painted on the road and there was a massive casino literally on the first block they could build one on. I was wondering why there was a reasonably sized town in the middle of no where and now it was all explained. The strip continued on into the usual fast food and hotel blasphemy but I turned left in a south east direction hoping to make the hypotenuse to a right angle triangle and get back back close to the main route south of Salt Lake city. 100's of dirt miles later I realised it probably wasn't the best plan however at least I got to follow the original Pony Express trail... If you look at the GPS Trail you can see the Right angle triangle idea should have stayed in the Year 6 math class. I am staying in Salina Utah tonight and had a half rack of Utah Calf ribs for dinner :)