Itinerant Air-Cooled Iowa To Montana

Moderators: Sluggo, Amskeptic

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Itinerant Air-Cooled Iowa To Montana

Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:39 pm

I left Des Moines a bit on the late side, straight into some serious rain. Fatigue welled up and grabbed my eyeballs but good, and the three hours I was planning to knock out was whittled down to two and a half. I crashed out in a truck parking lot and re-hit the road five hours later:
Image

After consulting my road atlas, I came to the same realization I came to last year . . . It is a long way to Missoula:
Image

A new opportunity to get rained on became apparent in the western sky:
Image

Image

It rained and rained through South Dakota. But I was hell bent for leather to get to Mitchell, "home of the Corn Palace" and more importantly, I had to get a shot I missed last year. Do you know why I missed it last year? Because I realized a little too late that it was a long way from Des Moines to Missoula, so I rushed through beautiful beautiful country. This year, the lighting was nowhere as perfect (late evening sun hitting radiant grass), but I GOT THE SHOT!
Image

. . . and even knowing that I had 1,100 miles to go, I stood around at an entrance ramp trying to catch an actual lightening strike with my "I'll Decide When To Snap The Picture" camera:
Image

I missed the shortcut of US 212 to catch up with 90 further westbound because the sign said there was construction and possible delays on 212, so I did the big 90 dip and passed a 1971 white Westfalia and blew past . . . Missoula is a long way away. Someone had way over adjusted her rear suspension

These are the flags flying over the port-of-entry station outside of Spearfish Wyoming :
Image

I had left Mitchell SD at 9:00AM with the intention to drive straight through to Missoula by midnight. I missed that estimate by dallying at a Starbucks (the better which to keep an eye on all of you here). At 7:00PM I left Gillette Wyoming with a mileage estimate of 575 miles to go. Hey, no problem. Yeah right. My eyes and my back are at full protest. Drove straight into some more rain and a big bug storm and hit the eastern border of Montana just past sunset. Mileage marker said 514. Drove past the exit where I had come down the hill from my Glasseye recommended Yellowstone/Red Lodge Bearcreek tour of two years ago. Tried to call whc03grady to warn him that I was failing here. No phone service. So, I thought, I have got to try to get as close as I can. By midnight, I am promising myself that I get to take a nap IF and only if I get to mileage marker 350. Then I figured I'd get up at 6:30AM and finish off the last couple of hundred miles just before the 9:00AM start of our ten-hour Itinerant Air-Cooled day. But, I started hallucinating strange objects and animals in the roadway so I pulled off to do a quick power nap at 3:00AM in a McDonald's parking lot outside of Butte MT. That was 75 mph for 17 hours through innumerable downpours, I needed a nap.
Woke up with a start. Ayeee, overslept. It is 6:00AM. Mileage marker said 256 or something. Cell phone was no service (ATT does not offer service in Montana I was told), so I called whc03grady on a payphone to warn him that I was running late late late.
Image

. . . but it shore is a "pretty late":
Image

Finally finally pulled into Missoula at 10:00AM, and I am telling you. . . I was beat, my eyes were wobbling around like underinflated soccer balls, my back was so seized up that a sneeze felt like lifting a pallet of concrete, and my poor poor bus, the brake pedal was soggy, the engine was getting irritable at idle, and the bugs were thickly splatted all over the front. So I asked whc03grady to capture the moment:
Image

It was sunny! It was warm!
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

User avatar
dtrumbo
IAC Addict!
Location: Mill Creek, WA
Status: Offline

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Iowa To Montana

Post by dtrumbo » Tue Jun 16, 2009 3:57 pm

Amskeptic wrote:Image
Is that Hammy walking his dog? :blackeye:
- Dick

1970 Transporter. 2015cc, dual Weber IDF 40's
1978 Riviera Camper. Bone stock GE 2.0L F.I.
1979 Super Beetle convertible.

... as it turns out, it was the coil!

User avatar
Sylvester
Bad Old Puddy Tat.
Location: Sylvester, Georgia
Contact:
Status: Offline

Post by Sylvester » Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:31 pm

No AT&T in Montana? No way, we are coming to get you all. From the news, May 10th:
AT&T has announced an agreement to acquire wireless assets from Verizon Wireless for $2.35 billion in cash, including assets in Montana. Under terms of the agreement, AT&T will acquire wireless properties, including licenses, network assets and 1.5 million current subscribers in 79 service areas, primarily in rural areas across 18 states. Verizon Wireless is required to divest these properties as part of the regulatory approvals granted for its purchase of Alltel earlier this year. The states represented are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.



As a result of the transaction and upon transition of the operations to AT&T, the subscribers in these service areas will receive benefits of AT&T’s 3G broadband network. AT&T’s 3G network is now available in nearly 350 major metropolitan areas, with 20 more planned by the end of the year.

AT&T’s 3G broadband wireless network, combined with Wi-Fi network make AT&T a leader in mobile broadband services. AT&T provides Wi-Fi access at nearly 20,000 hotspots in the U.S., including Starbucks and Barnes & Noble locations, and at more than 80,000 retail, restaurant, hotel, airport and other locations globally. AT&T’s wireless subscribers with 3G LaptopConnect cards and qualified smartphone plans get unlimited Wi-Fi access at AT&T’s U.S. hotspots at no additional charge.
When you WiFi in Starbucks, think of me. Nice pictures Colin.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace. Where never lark, or even eagle flew. And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod, The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

User avatar
IFBwax
IAC Addict!
Location: PDX
Status: Offline

Post by IFBwax » Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:44 pm

Be safe and be well Colin!
The best navigators aren't sure where they're going until they get there. And then they're still not sure.

Frank Bama

http://www.partypickle.blogspot.com

User avatar
LiveonJG
IAC Jester!
Location: Standing on the side of the road, rain falling on my shoes.
Status: Offline

Post by LiveonJG » Tue Jun 16, 2009 6:16 pm

Look at it this way, at the end of the week, you get to go to a party.

-John
Keep it acoustic.

User avatar
hambone
Post-Industrial Non-Secular Mennonite
Location: Portland, Ore.
Status: Offline

Post by hambone » Tue Jun 16, 2009 8:10 pm

Great stuff man.
Crazy! You!
http://greencascadia.blogspot.com
http://pdxvolksfolks.blogspot.com
it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine
your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat

mattg
Old School!
Location: Elburn,IL
Status: Offline

Post by mattg » Wed Jun 17, 2009 5:42 am

Sounds like a hell of a trip. Safe Travels.
I'm all out of ideas and I've tried nothing.

77 Westy 2.0 FI

User avatar
Amskeptic
IAC "Help Desk"
IAC "Help Desk"
Status: Offline

Post by Amskeptic » Wed Jun 17, 2009 9:20 am

mattg wrote:Sounds like a hell of a trip. Safe Travels.
It has been a hell of a trip for years . . . . :flower:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

User avatar
Hippie
IAC Addict!
Location: 41º 35' 27" N, 93º 37' 15" W
Status: Offline

Post by Hippie » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:37 am

Ah! The dinosaur pic you told me about!
IFBwax wrote:Just curious Chitwn.. how fast would you drive on an icy road like that in your bus?
I'll just interject here...in Iowa, about 75 mph if they have 4WD. Then you get to see the bottom of their truck/SUV when you pass them a few miles later.

User avatar
chitwnvw
Resident Troublemaker
Location: Chicago.
Status: Offline

Post by chitwnvw » Thu Jun 18, 2009 5:40 am

Hippie wrote:
IFBwax wrote:Just curious Chitwn.. how fast would you drive on an icy road like that in your bus?
I'll just interject here...in Iowa, about 75 mph if they have 4WD. Then you get to see the bottom of their truck/SUV when you pass them a few miles later.
That's why I kept the bus at a steady 70 mph the whole time.

User avatar
LiveonJG
IAC Jester!
Location: Standing on the side of the road, rain falling on my shoes.
Status: Offline

Post by LiveonJG » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:15 am

chitwnvw wrote:
Hippie wrote:
IFBwax wrote:Just curious Chitwn.. how fast would you drive on an icy road like that in your bus?
I'll just interject here...in Iowa, about 75 mph if they have 4WD. Then you get to see the bottom of their truck/SUV when you pass them a few miles later.
That's why I kept the bus at a steady 70 mph the whole time.
It's not the speed, it's the stopping that you have to worry about.

-John
Keep it acoustic.

User avatar
chitwnvw
Resident Troublemaker
Location: Chicago.
Status: Offline

Post by chitwnvw » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:23 am

LiveonJG wrote: It's not the speed, it's the stopping that you have to worry about.

-John
Or the not stopping.

User avatar
LiveonJG
IAC Jester!
Location: Standing on the side of the road, rain falling on my shoes.
Status: Offline

Post by LiveonJG » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:24 am

chitwnvw wrote:
LiveonJG wrote: It's not the speed, it's the stopping that you have to worry about.

-John
Or the not stopping.
Exactly.

-John
Keep it acoustic.

User avatar
chitwnvw
Resident Troublemaker
Location: Chicago.
Status: Offline

Post by chitwnvw » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:42 am

That shot is a bit deceptive. They put sand or cinders down. The bus looked like it had taken a mud bath. All that work buffing the paint out, for naught.

User avatar
Birdibus
IAC Addict!
Location: Inland SoCal
Status: Offline

Post by Birdibus » Fri Jun 19, 2009 8:16 am

I was beat, my eyes were wobbling around like underinflated soccer balls, my back was so seized up that a sneeze felt like lifting a pallet of concrete
Colin, :cyclopsani: please get enough sleep before you come to my house :cyclopsani:
71 bus, 74 westy

Post Reply