World Traveler Already

A hand-written note, scrawled in a child's unmistakable handwriting, pinned to the 'customer comments' board at Soco's, a superb local Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, Oregon (near Medford) says:

"I have traveled the world and never tasted a better burrito. from Shad Brown 8 years old"

Middle Of The Winnemucca Road

Here is the yellow line approximately in the middle of the road north of Winnemucca. The terrain in this area is high desert, very dry, with many steep up and down grades - some as steep as 8 percent, which is about as steep as a general use highway can be; one particular downgrade in southern Oregon, down the side of a mountain, had a 3,000 foot down overlook at the top of the grade - with no guardrail.

If you look very carefully in the haze at the end of the yellow line, you may be able to see Medford, Oregon 300 miles in the distance.

Transcontinental Jeep & the Imitaticus

Here is the very rare North American Roadsignacus Imitaticus standing by the Jeep, searching for wildlife, north of Winnemucca near the end of the transcontinental trip.

(See the post below for more information about the Roadsignacus Imitaticus.)

Speaking of the transcontinental Jeep, if you will look very closely you will see that the microchip on the throttle system is about to fail, and that the rear differential has a very slow oil leak – two things which will require a $750 repair at the Jeep dealership in Medford the following day. Thankfully, neither failed on this stretch of the road north from Winnemucca.

North from Winnemucca

The road north from Winnemucca has signs of wildlife. Here are some photographs of them.

On the near left is a Pronghorn, which is a species of ungulate mammal and the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. It is native to interior western and central North America. (Not a true antelope, it is often known colloquially as the Prong Buck or Pronghorn Antelope, as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and fills a similar ecological niche due to convergent evolution).

Speaking of convergent evolution, note particularly the accompanying photograph of a very rare North American Roadsignacus Imitaticus, the genetic merger of a high school varsity swimmer, petroleum retailer, and construction worker.

Here in Winnamucca

On a map of Nevada the old mining town of Winnemucca is at the place where Interstate 80 turns southwest toward Reno. Barry and I arrived here at about 3.00pm PST after driving 8 hours from Salt Lake City.

On the way, we passed by the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, which according to a local guide is over four time as salty as the ocean. Further west, the salt flats are literally caked with salt for thousands of square miles. At one point Barry (who was driving the Jeep) pulled over and we tasted it. Sure enough - it was almost pure salt as far as the eye could see.

Bicycling Cheyenne

Cheyenne, Wyoming

15 August 2009

The downtown was quiet and a cool & clear 61 degrees at 6.45 this morning. It is 4 miles from this motel to the airport, where Barry will be arriving at 1.06 this afternoon. Near the old train station a large farmers' market was getting started. One seller was roasting huge red peppers - each about foot long - in a long perforated drum fired by a dozen gas burners.

It always seems goofy for a city to make a sign like this - that expresses its population to the exact individual. At least they could have an electronic thing in the sign so that the city employee in charge of keeping city signs accurate could change the population with each birth, death, arriving new resident, departing former resident, changes in the city limit boundaries, etc. I doubt that the elevation changes that much from day to day, but the population might.

14 August 2009, Cheyenne, Wyoming

Friday 14 August 2009
Cheyenne, Wyoming

This famous western town is 1,700.1 miles west of Schenectady, all on I-90 or I-80. I left Schenectady at 4.45am EST on Wednesday, the 12th, and set the cruise control on about 57 MPH most of the time. I rarely had to worry about passing another vehicle.

The drive out, once out of New York and Pennsylvania, was a long drive through corn and soybean fields. I did not know what soybeans looked like until I met a farmer while riding my bicycle near Milan, Ohio at the end of the first day. Malcolm Perkins’s soybean farm is about 8 miles east of Milan on Huron-Avery Road, not far past the turn off to the Erie County landfill.

On the bicycle ride to and from my talk with Perkins many of the farmers in the fields waved, and none of the farm dogs barked at me. That seemed too much just for mid-western friendliness; maybe I resemble someone who lives around Milan.

Tomorrow Barry arrives at 1.05pm MST. We will stay here in Cheyenne tomorrow and tomorrow night, and head for Medford Sunday morning.

More later.

3,000 Miles West

Saturday 8 August 2009

There is nothing like an odometer set to zero.

There are boxes everywhere waiting for the mover to arrive. The bicycle and motorcycle are lashed to the trailer. A big chapter is about to close and another open. More from the road starting Monday.