The desert is f'ing windy, Moab is pretty sweet, and the Echo still hates mountains

6/6/2011
Last night, before I went to bed, I watched Euro Trip. Not the funniest movie, but the scene where the two guys are acting like robots and kung fu fighting is hilarious. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. Just saying.

This morning I woke up, hustled and bustled to get my stuff packed back into the car and headed over to the spa. I'd never had a massage before, and if you haven't done it, you should. It is one of the most relaxing, calming experiences you can possibly have. As I told the gal who gave me the massage, "I haven't felt so relaxed in months, not even when I'm sleeping. In fact, that was better than sleep."

It was really that good. Gave me the pep I needed to get my day started (plus she worked a knot outta my right collar bone area that had been there for YEARS). I would need that pep today, and while it didn't last, it definitely helped out big time.

This day was comprised of a helluva lot of driving (big surprise). So, while I could blather on and on about what I did, I'll give you a quick overview and then post a bunch of pictures. Here it comes, with minimal detail.

I drove through the rest of Colorado and into Utah. That's when the winds started. I'm not talking about a nice, gentle breeze. I'm talking about winds that made it hard to keep my car moving straight. I'm talking about gusts that made me have to walk at an angle to keep from getting blown over. I'm talking about being buffeted so roughly that my glasses were actually whipped off of my face while I was walking. So yeah. It was windy.

I went to Delicate Arch National Park today. It amazing. I have mixed emotions about it, but you can look at the pictures. I barely explored the park and could have spent the whole day there. If you decide to come out, a 7 day pass is a mere $10 and TOTALLY worth it.

After DANP, I went off to find Blue John Canyon, which is where the movie 127 hours took place. After driving for about 2 or 3 hours, I found the entrance. Unfortunately, it was NOT Echo friendly. There is a reason Aron Ralston had a 4x4, and this would be it.

Speaking of the Echo, the check engine light popped on again. It was totally fine until I hit more damn mountains. This leads me to believe it could be a couple of things. Either it's the O2 sensor being a douche, or perhaps it's something to do with the fuel filter. It just doesn't seem like it's revving up like it should. Then again, it could just be the thin mountain air playing havoc on my car's computer. I'll figure it out.

Anyway, after NOT being able to see the setting of the only movie to ever make me nearly pass out, I drove on. For hours. I was getting tired, but kept telling myself, "I'll stop at the next one."

Then there wasn't a next one. For a very long time. Eventually, I saw a sign for a rest area, but here in Utah, they seem to think that a REALLY brightly lit gas station counts as a rest stop. I asked the clerk where the next real rest stop was, then drove for another hour to get there. There being here. By the way, cool fact - the speed limit here is 80 in some parts. I liked that. Cuz I was tired.

Anyway, that's the long and short of this particular day. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. I need to get some sleep. I'm just over 3 hours from home and I aim to get there tomorrow (after a quick stop at the Valley of Fire).

I am a mechanic, I like ribs, and a two block long pool is pretty damn cool.

Woke up this morning and knew I had to get to work on the Echo ASAP. I'd been having some issues with the air filter, mostly because I have a K&N Filter and WAY over oiled it. A few days back, my mechanic had told me that the oil from the filter was mucking up the mass airflow sensor. They'd cleaned it, but in my haste to depart, I didn't bother cleaning and re-oiling the filter.

Well, with all of the hard driving through the mountains, the oil did a nice job of coating the sensor again, which led to sputtering and a major lack of power. As I said in yesterday's post, I had contacted Auto Zone and they had what I needed. Long story short, I changed out the filter (I didn't have time to clean the K&N today) with an el cheapo and cleaned up the MAS. I disconnected the negative battery terminal for a minute to reset the computer, shutting off the Check Engine light. I started it up and the sputtering was worse than ever.

I have a theory on this though. The MAS has a rubber seal on it. I'm thinking that when I removed it for cleaning and reinstalled it, the seal didn't fully take. However, after revving the engine for a bit then easing it out onto the road, I eventually got all my power back, leading me to believe that the seal has been fixed. Actually (and this is weird), my car hasn't run so quietly in years. At a stop sign, I couldn't even tell it was running until I hit the gas. So all is well on that front. Yay!

Now, back to the trip. I spent the day here in Glenwood Springs. I basically just hiked around the town, taking in the sites for most of the morning and early afternoon. I'd like to tell you I have a ton of pictures, but I was actually doing stuff today, so I didn't get quite as many. Deal.

This is a slight digression from the blog (like the car repair at the beginning wasn't?) but for lunch today, I had a half rack of BBQ ribs, cole slaw and green beans with bacon at a place all Rib City. The slaw was fine. Nothing special. The green beans with bacon were INSANE good!

I'm not sure exactly what they put in it (other than bacon and green beans), but there must have been a good amount of pepper, too. Whatever the ingredients were, they were great.

Now, some of you know how much I love bbq ribs. Billy's Tippin' Inn is one of my favorite places back in MI. Rib City puts them to shame. It's THAT good. Enough about this. Just check them out if you're ever here. Trust me.

As for what I did today, I went swimming. At this place.

This is Glenwood Hot Springs. The pool is two city blocks long and is the world's largest outdoor geothermal swimming pool. Now, you might be thinking that the water is warm, and it is. But it was very comfortable and I really enjoyed it.

There were a few things about the springs that I wasn't expecting. First, the water is very salty. I guess this make sense, since it's sort of a mineral hot spring, but like I said, I wasn't expecting it.

The second thing that caught me off guard was hilarious and also kinda gross. Something about the water apparently clears out your sinuses. Big time. After exiting the pool, I toweled off. While leaning over to dry my feet, water or something started pouring out of my nose. Thing is, it wouldn't stop! It was crazy.

But even crazier, it's been about 4 hours or so since I got out of the springs and if I tilt my head forward, it starts pouring. WTF? On the plus side, my sinuses are super clear right now. Yay!

After the pool, I decided to hike around a bit more. Stephanie, my waitress at Rib City, told me about a trail that wasn't too far away. She said it was a nice one that gave a great view of the city, and boy was she right.

The view was breathtaking and it was yet another place where I could just sit quietly for awhile and get lost in my thoughts.

Well, that's about it for this post. I know that it wasn't one of my best, but like I said, I was mostly just walking around and enjoying the city. Before I end this one, I just want to make a quick note.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to the spa and getting a mineral massage (I know, it's tough, but I'll manage). After that, I'll be heading to Moab, UT. I bought some climbing shoes and some chalk for my hands and will be doing some climbing and exploring. There is a very good chance that I will have NO reception out there. At all. If this is the case, I won't be able to update the blog. In part, that's why I got this entry out so quickly.

Moab is where I intend to camp out for an evening at least. Someplace where there are no people, no electronics. Just me and my thoughts and a notebook. I'm hoping this will be the place where I really get some things figured out.

Anyhow, like I said, just a note. Since this entry was pretty sparse, I'll leave you with a few more of the pictures that took around town. Enjoy. I'll see you next time.

Buffalo Bill is dead, trains are sweet, and "Oh Sh*t, oh sh*t! The Echo hates mountains!" aka the "Damn this is a long post" post.

Last night I slept at a rest area in the back seat of my car. Anyone who has seen or been in my car might say that this would be a bit difficult. They would be correct. Nonetheless, after a good six or seven hours I finally woke up, ready to tackle the day. With a crick in my neck. Ah well.

The drive from my last stop was almost 400 miles, and I had about 50 or so to go. I headed out, excited to see some nifty trains. However, as anyone will tell you, I am a tad ADD. On this particular excursion, that worked to my advantage.

My destination was North Platte, NE. I planned on going to Railroad Museum I had heard about because they have one of the biggest locomotives EVER there. But when I pulled off the highway, it caught my eye and I had to stop.

This big ole sign is in front of the Fort Cody Trading Post, which is basically a glorified gift shop. However, as you can determine by the sign, they have a special affinity for Buffalo Bill. And actually, this glorified gift shop had some really sweet historical memorabilia inside.

I didn't take pics of all of it, but one of the things I really liked was the hand carved model of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The model consists of 20,000 hand carved pieces and took 12 years (!) to complete. As someone who likes to carve when I'm trying to relax a bit, this was amazing to me.

They also had a fun mirror, which I liked.

Anyway, back to the trip. I spoke to the gal at the checkout counter about some of the local attractions, specifically, the train museum I was looking for. Glad I did.

If you ever go to North Platte, you'll note that two of its borders are comprised of rivers, the well named North and South Platte Rivers. Normally, both of these rivers are inches deep. They're more like streams. However, while I was there, both were frickin' huge!

Turns out they'd had some MAJOR flooding. Not only was the museum I'd been looking for closed, but so was Buffalo Bill's ranch (nuts!) and the Historical Museum. It was so bad, that they actually packed up all the displays at the museum and got them the heck outta Dodge..er, North Platte.

All was not lost however, and the nice gal told me about the Golden Spike Tower which overlooks the Union Pacific Bailey Yard. The UPB is the world's largest railroad yard. I won't bore you with the details on this one. Just look at the picks.

Hmm. Just realized I forgot to get an actual pic of the tower. Dang. Well, it's 8 stories tall. The 7th floor is an open air deck and the 8th is the observation deck. It's cool. If you like trains even a little, this would be a cool place to go. (On a side note, if you like trains or just like off the cuff romantic comedy-ish movies, check out The Station Agent. It's very good.)

Once I left the UPB, I started on the quick jaunt to Ogallala, NE. Home of the famous Boot Hill Cemetary, Ogallala is a place you can really lose track of time at! I meant to just snap some pics at Boot Hill and be on my way, but...

Boot Hill was actually a bit of a let down. Not because it was no good, but it wasn't as big as I'd expected. Where were all the graves of the various ne'er do wells and nameless innocents who were gunned down?

Turns out, most of them weren't nameless (go figure) and many were claimed by family or moved to the newer cemetery. By the way, in case you can't read it in the picture above, the hill was so named because most folks were buried with their boots on. Go figure.

While there weren't as many graves as I'd expected, there was an awesome statue that paid homage to the trail bosses. I took quite a few pictures of this one from various angles and whatnot, but I'll just post two.

With the pictures taken, I prepared to head off once again. I made it about a mile or two when I spotted this place.

As the sign says, this is the Mansion on the Hill. It was built in 1885 (I believe) from brick and had 16 inch thick walls. It's trimmed with stone, and all of the woodwork inside the house, including the staircase, was made from carved cherry wood. By today's standards, the house isn't huge, but it's wonderful. My pictures do it no justice at all.

I could prattle on about this one for a long time. Just go see the damn thing. Beautiful is the only word that describes it properly. As an aside, there's also a one room school house next to the mansion, and a visiting family was nice enough to pose as students for me.

There were a few other stops while I was in Ogallala. They have a petrified wood museum and a neat "Western" place that has restaurants and puts on a shoot out show once a day. The restaurant serves mountain oysters. :) It was time to leave.

My next stop was a mere 235 miles away in Golden, CO. Driving through the Rockies was crazy, and I can tell you right now - my little Echo does NOT like mountains. But, we pressed ahead and after about 3 or 4 hours, finally arrived at Lookout Mountain to view the grave of Buffalo Bill (you can tell I think he was pretty cool, right).

Lookout Mountain is well named, and rather than yammer on and on, I'll just post the pics for this one.

I hung around a bit, just kind of breathing in the air and enjoying the view. Something about standing on such a great height has a way of centering you (unless you're scared of heights, in which case it would probably make you crap your pants). After some quiet reflection, I decided to get back on the road.

My next destination was one that I've been SUPER excited about. It was just over 2 hours away. However, it was pretty much all mountain driving from here and I was a bit concerned about my little car. Plus, I was tired as all get out.

Originally, I'd planned on finding the next rest area or truck stop and taking a nap. But it's funny how awake you can be when you're worried about your car, driving up big ass mountains, then zooming down 7% grades (I actually drove through here when I was a truck driver and a 7% grade with a full load is nerve wracking).

Needless to say, I did NOT pull over to take a nap. In fact, after about 20 minutes of driving through the mountains, I didn't feel tired at all. The following pics aren't great. I took them WHILE driving (I'm trying to get into the retard hall of fame. I took video too. Am I there yet?). You can't really SEE  the elevation changes, but oh well.

After an exciting drive, I finally came to the AMAZING Glenwood Canyon (I think the last three pics above are actually of the canyon, but I'm not 100% sure - I had driving to focus on, duh). And, just after the canyon, I arrived at my destination - Glenwood Springs.

I checked on the resort I wanted to stay at. They were full up for the night, but no biggie, I just reserved a room for Sunday. I found a little motel to crash at for the evening and that's when my headache started - the good old "Check Engine" light came on.

Fortunately, I had a good idea of what the problem was. I made some quick calls to the local Auto Zone (God bless you fellas) and they had everything I needed. It could wait til morning. And you can hear all about my days in Glenwood Springs in the next post. Ta-ta for now. ;) Hopefully, in a MUCH shorter post.