NV to UT road trip

[Old Goat]

Leaving here tomorrow for Rapid City, Ut. for a Ships Reunion (Navy).
57 years ago I walked off the ship for the last time, walked down Pier 5 in San Diego, Sea bag over my shoulder, turned for one last look of her.
She and I were launched the same year, 1944, though I was 19 when I reported for duty on her in Subic Bay, Philippines. Oct 63, and spent the next 3 years on her. U.S.S. Lyman K. Swenson DD-729, so that makes me a Tin Can Sailor. Crossed the Equator end of June 64, met King Neptunis Rex and his Royal Court, and that initiation. Makes me a Shell Back, rest of ya are just a bunch of pollywogs... 5 days in Brisbane, Au. and July 4, 64 5 days in Sydney, Au.

We`ll roll in sometime Monday and check in and all that good stuff. reunions is where a bunch ol old guys get together, wonder why they are there, don`t remember who ea other are, and then tell each other, "Why you haven`t changed a bit"....
The WWII guy`s are all gone, a few Korean War vets show up, that is thinning down, and now it`s the Vietnam guys mostly....then eventually no one will show up.

Think it is 1250 miles to get there. Some where off I-80 east is a Hwy going north, and runs right through Gillette, Wyo., there is a guy there some of us have bought parts from. Iam going to stop and see if he is around. Maybe he has an old IDI he want`s hauled off because it is cluttering up his shop....

We are taking the 86, she should make it ok. Was figurin out how much fuel we would be using one way. around 1250 miles, and say 19mpg, 65.79 gallons @ say $5.00, should be around $329.00. I flunked general Math, so be easy on me if I can`t add , divide, multiply, or subtract....

Be pullin out of Dayton Nv. around 12:30 tomorrow. 50 east to 95 north to I-80 at Fernley, (that`s about 35 miles east of Reno) and a 2 tone rusty primered F-250 burnin up the hwy...


Goat

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Just for curiosity's sake, how do you go from Nevada and end up in Utah while going through Gillette, Wyoming and taking 1250 miles to do it? Last I knew, Nevada and Utah are neighboring states.

 

[Greenie]

Thank you for your service Goat. Have fun!

 

[Cubey]

(oops)

 

[Cubey]

Just for curiosity's sake, how do you go from Nevada and end up in Utah while going through Gillette, Wyoming and taking 1250 miles to do it? Last I knew, Nevada and Utah are neighboring states.

I thought UT sounded odd

 

[Old Goat]

Yeah might sound kind of confusing...
Driving from Carson City, Nv,. Across Nevada on I-80, and leave Nv, and enter Utah at Wendover. Drive across The Salt Flats of Utah, and enter Salt Lake City. stay on I-80 east, and enter Wyo. at Evanston. When we get to Rawlins, we turn north on Hwy 287 towards Casper. Turn onto Hwy 25 towards Buffalo, then Hwy 90 to Gillette, Wyo., which eventually gets us to Rapid City, SD.

Fueled up, and $5.14 a gallon, most I have ever paid.
Friday we left Carson at 1:30pm, and made it to Elko, Nv., had dinner at a Cassino, and checked into one of their rooms. Got a good discount because I have a CDL, and $59 for the room. Not too bad.
The weather in Elko is turning really cold, so maybe an early winter?
Down into the 30`s.

Fuel prices across Nv. are higher than I had expected. I know it varies from locality to another with the local tax`s.
Rye Patch chevron, $5.39. Not much there as Rye Patch goes.
Winnemucca, Nv. Maverick $4.69 - $4.79.
Battle Mountain, Nv $4.69
Well`s Nv, Maverick $4.59 - $4.69

Filling up and pump shows $4.69, ask clerk and she says you need the "Nitro Card". SomeBS, have to sign up, an app etc...
Ended up paying $4.65, price drop just didn`t change sign.

Carlin Nv, $4.80 - $4.95
Carlin is interesting, it`s another mining town out this way, but there are 2 long tunnels through the mountain 80 goes through.

Stop in Wendover, Nv. and sight see a bit. Amazing how large the town has blossomed into, A big building boom.
on the east end is the old WWII Army Air Force base, where they practiced with the B-29 Bombers, and picking the crews for the A-Bomb drops on Japan. Interesting to go through the museum and read the History. This bit of history as a lot of our history is not taught in our schools.

Leave Wendover, and then the long drive across the Salt Flats of Ut.
About 125 miles to SL.

There is a rest stop on the westward side where you can walk onto the salt. Can be 100deg, and the salt is cool.
Kids think their big bad 4 x4`s can do anything, and you will see them mired down into the muck under the salt crust.. It can be deceiving in places.

Stopped in Tooela, Ut. for a break and a snack, just on the outskirts of SLC.
Several big Truck stops and the usual Fast Food joints.
We get to SLC to catch some of the Rush HR traffic, glad we don`t live there.
We were there several times in the past. Street names can be confusing, Everything is laid out from the Morman Temple. So you can have the same street name, but north, south, east or west. If you grew up there, probably pretty simple.
Once out of town 80 goes through some long windy hilly/mtn valleys, steep climbs etc. Really pretty area, trees are starting to turn red and golden for the Fall Festival. Lots of farm land, but also a lot of new construction building these huge apt complexes. But I see that everywhere, even here at home. Just stacking people up, fun way to live. And this is why all these new Storage places are also being erected.

Once out of UT. we are in Wyo. and the land scape changes. to more open flatter land.
Stopped in Rock Springs Wyo. last night for a Motel around 9PM.

Get our Butt in gear, about a qt low on Coffee, so chow and off to Gillette, Wyo. for tonight.
Soon as we get to Rawlins, then head north on 287 towards Casper. Doesn`t look like a major Hwy, but probably a scenic drive. Then from Casper looks like a major Hwy...we`ll see.

Truck has been running good, just rolled 342K. Changed the oil before we left, and so far has not gone down all that much.
My first tank if fuel got 17.49 MPG. thought I would get at least 19. OH well, is what it is,

Gotta get moving before the Motel Maids drag us out.

Goat.

 

[Old Goat]

Spent the night in Rock Springs, and a Windham motel, wasn`t too bad of a place, clean as they can be I guess. $139.00 after Taxes etc...

Left this morning at 10:25, Exxon $4.59.
Thinking maybe fuel would be cheaper further along, go quite a ways and decide I better tank up, pull off at Wamsutter, Wyo.. at Xit 173. Fuel still $4.59.

Finally make it to Rawlins at 1:20pm, I see Diesel $4.24 - $4.35.
It`s a very old town, run down motel`s, closed Gas Stations, closed restaurants, but most of these are from 50 years ago. At one time in it`s day was a booming place, but then there wasn`t I-80 taking traffic past it, Probably the Hwy through it was the main road, IDK.
One interesting thing in front of a Conoco station, was a 55-56 Cadillac cut in half, and both front sections welded together. This thing looked like it came from the Factory built this way. Steering wheel on both ends and both steer.
Reminds me of Johnny Cash`s song, "One piece at a time".

It`s all good State 2 Lane Hwy from Rawlins to Gellette.
But dang it`s a long haul, but 70 MPH for most of the way, and a lot of truck traffic. It`s brown grassy, rolling land with some Sage and rabbit Brush, and rocky out cropping`s. Lots of Cattle picking through what ever is out there.
Saw Antilope, or maybe Prong Horn`s? IDK in small groups, maybe added up what we saw 100 of them. some time`s one or two, maybe 3 and up to 10 or so.

When we were maybe 20 mile`s from Casper, they grow acres and acres of Alfalfa. Went on for several miles. As dry as it looks, there is water, came across the Platt river and it`s running pretty good, so lots of irrigation.

Saw a couple what looked like Junk Yards, was wondering how many IDI`s are hidden in there? Wish I had the time to scrounge.

Finally made it to Gillette, and grabbed a Motel 8.
Then looked for a place to eat. If all the Fast Foods in America shut down, people would starve, and maybe loose 100LBS.
seems like that is all there is out there. Finally found a place called Perk`s, or Perkie`s or something like that. You can`t mess up an Omelette too bad, Coffee was pretty good.

In the morning Iam going to drive over to R&D IDI Performance and meet Justin and see his shop. I should have brought along one of my spare engine`s so he could do his magic on it.


Goat

 

[Old Goat]

Trying to locate Justin`s shop, seemed like the old GPS was taking me for a ride.
Stopped a Fedex delivery truck and she got me going in the right direction.
He has a real nice place and still finishing up getting his shop totally set up, and getting Engines out the door and other projects. That was a huge project moving all his equipment from WA. to SD.
He rebuilds the IP`s, Injectors, and Engines right there at the shop.
Met his Wife, and they are a team running the business.
Iam really happy to have stopped and met them both, really nice people.
I wouldn`t hesitate buying any product from him.

Then we had the 2 1/2 hr drive to Rapid City, got there in time to get checked in, and the bus ride up to Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting of the monument and the lowering of the Flag and folding serimony.

Today we had 2 smaller tour busses and went back up to Mt. Rushmore, saw a video on the project of how they carved the faces in the rock, the # of years it took, and there was no loss of live in the project. And of course the usual souvenier shopping.
Our driver really gave us a history lesson as we drove along, interesting.
Stopped for lunch, and really threw on the feed bag.
Then on a road barely wide enough for the bus and a car to pass. It was blasted through the granite to build it and 4 tight tunnels to go through. You really need to be there to see the rock formations, really inspiring.

We eventually ended up at the Crazy Horse memorial carving that was started in 1948. They only take private donations and NO Govt. money for this project.
It is the Indian Museum of North America and The Indian University of North America.
www.crazyhorsememorial.org

Finally made it back to the hotel, what a day, Iam beat.


Goat

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Met his Wife, and they are a team running the business.

So I guess we're all wrong when we say that he's a one man operation. He does have a little bit of help.

and the bus ride up to Mt. Rushmore

Now things have probably changed since then , but I was there in 1979. I don't remember a whole lot about it since I was 7 years old, but I'm pretty sure that we drove up to the bottom of the monument and didn't take a bus.

 

[Cant Write]

Then on a road barely wide enough for the bus and a car to pass. It was blasted through the granite to build it and 4 tight tunnels to go through. You really need to be there to see the rock formations, really inspiring.

That sounds like Iron Mountain Road. Depending on direction, did you get out and look through one of the tunnels? It’s aimed and frames Mt Rushmore just perfectly as you drive through it. What about the curved wooden bridges on that road....the beams are just beautiful and a work of art.

Yes, right road for sure!!

 

[Old Goat]

Yes that is the name for the road. The Bus driver was a great narriator and knew the history of building the road and the Curved wood bridge was interesting.
He said the laminated curved trusses were shipped down from Oregon as I remember.

Yes I saw Mt. Rushmore framed by the tunnel, and may have a picture of it. That one tunnel, the bus cleared by inches, but later discovered these busses are made just for this tour to clear the rocky sides.

You really have to see this to get the full impact of the beauty of everything.


Goat