'15 Western Trip

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i left Illinois on July 7th and headed west with a few destinations in mind and a plan to wander and see what i could find in between...first, i stopped in Kansas City and found GSXcite hard at work...he had no idea i was coming through but i promised i would stop back by on my way home and spend some time catching up

 

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getting back on Lucy, i headed into Kansas and found my way to thapp's house...he actually knew i was coming and had the next day off...we had a great time exploring a couple local attractions, the Strataca (a salt mine and museum 650 feet underground) and the Cosmosphere (a spaceflightmuseum with the largest combined collection of US and Russian spaceflight artifacts in the world)...very interesting!

 

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more Strataca

 

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and more

 

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some more...due to the constant temperature and humidity control and lack of fire, flood, etc. threat, many companies use this area to house critical memorabilia and records

 

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on the way to the Cosmosphere, we passed what has to be one of the largest granaries in the world!...arriving, i had to give Neil Armstrong a high five lol

 

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very cool place

 

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more pics

 

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and more

 

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headed out to Denver the next day to meet up with a bunch of university friends and their broods, great time!

 

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got a pic of a snub-eared bunny and did a little sightseeing

 

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Lucy and i pulled out of Denver and headed across the mountains and into Utah

 

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i love this part of the country

 

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into Arizona

 

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Nevada and by Las Vegas into California, stopped by the largest thermometer in the world and entered windmill country

 

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made it to twotonevert and Juli's...the Tehachapi Loop was really cool, worth seeing and reading up on if you like trains

 

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chowing down with twotonevert and his son and Map joined us for dinner, the .org is everywhere! headed out to do some exploring...what is that just off the road? i guess the desert needed some water and these guys weren't concerned enough to get behind a cactus

 

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playing in the desert

 

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playing in some mining caves on the way to Schmidt's Tunnel

 

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arrive at the tunnel, get out of the Jeep and hear the dreaded sound of air escaping a tire miles and miles from help...broke the lugs loose, TTV continued taking the tire off as i went to get the spare off the rear of the Jeep...however, the lug wrench for the aftermarket tires did not fit the OEM lugs the shop had stuck back on the spare...i climbed to the top of the ridge to look for any sign of anybody in the area and there was no one...walked approximately 30 yards to the other side of the ridge to find it was even more deserted than what we had just come through...walking back, i saw someone pulling up to the Jeep and hurried down to meet Michael who didn't really know where he was, had just happened to hear about this "tunnel" and decided to head into the desert in his little Ford car to see if he could find it...logically, he shouldn't have been there as we has been in 4 wheel drive in a modified vehicle barely having enough clearance at times to make it through but there he stood...he had a tire tool in the back of his car that was a perfect fit and we got the tire changed in short order...as we finished up, he walked into the tunnel maybe a minute before us and completely disappeared...he never came back through the tunnel and when we got back to the Jeep, his car had disappeared without a wisp of dust in the air...TTV pushed the Jeep as hard as he could on the 8 mile trip back to the highway and we never saw any sign of Michael or his car...it's good to know there is Someone watching over me when i put myself in situations like this!