Alright, about time I got to this. This is gonna be a pretty damned big dump, so you've been warned. I put off uploading pics from my fucking potato of a phone ... then I broke the damned thing. Finally got the pics off it.
This is the second half of the adventure. The Vic has already gone the 1,200 miles from Virginia Beach to Kansas City. These crappy pictures span about 1,900 miles between Kansas City and Seattle. Worst part? When I got to Seattle I remembered that I had a decent digital camera in one of the boxes in the wagon.
Anyway, old Brutus wasn't happy I was leaving. He wouldn't hold still for a pic, but he wouldn't get out of the damn car either. Look at this stink eye he was giving me.
Rolled back through Teepee again because I took state highways for the first half of the trip. From Kansas City; 24W, 77N, 36W for a looong time. And yeah, like an idiot I didn't do the air shocks. She rides low but she rides smoooth!
Ah western Kansas. You better believe I was barreling down that highway blasting 'stoner rock'.
Unfortunately I hit a deer that night near the Kansas/Nebraska line. Sorry if this is a little grisly to some of you. According to the trucker behind me I, "fuckin smoked that deer!" Deer ran full speed into the side of the Vic, slapped into the side and ate the trailer. Fortunately the VFR was unharmed. Deer was not. The trucker and I walked back down the highway and found him. Little buck had snapped his neck. Not surprising considering he left a fucking face print on the Vic.
Horn marks:
Face:
And where his ass spun around and smashed this previously flawless fender. Motherfucker. :
There's still blood and hair on the tailgate. Haven't washed it off yet because 1) I'm still mad. 2) I've just been riding my VFR.
That's that. Sorry for the grisly sidetrack, back to the road! I took 83N up to North Platte, Nebraska. Hopped on I-80W for a little bit there, branching off on 26W. Cutting across the SW corner of the state. I honestly didn't even realize the highway shadowed the Oregon Trail until different places triggered memories of the game. :lol:
Still, most of my views of the state looked like this:
So on to Wyoming. Damned desolate Wyoming. The Crown Vic was humming right along, but it didn't like doing both 80mph and running the AC. So the AC was off. And I was praying to catch any of these rain clouds. Never did. They taunted me all the way to Casper.
This is where I got kind of stressed. I'd wanted to make it to Yellowstone by nightfall. I didn't even bother stopping in Casper for gas. Figured there'd be truck stops or something later. Well 26 highway west of Casper is truly fucking desolate. There's
nothing out there except for a handful of tough SOB's living off the high plains.
Still, I stopped to see "Hell's Half-Acre". Was not disappointed. Like a mini Grand Canyon or something. Native Americans used to stampede buffalo into there for food and hides. Brutal.
Then I found myself a little oasis. For uh, reasons, I wasn't snapping pics with my phone. I parked in front of the old school pumps, no one was around. I go inside and there's two guys waving Mossberg pumps around, arguing about which one is heavier. They see me and promptly shove the two shotguns into my hands and want to know which one was heavier.
My actual reaction:
The younger of the two guys came out to flip the gas pump on and we talked motorcycles for awhile. He'd accumulated a dozen pretty solid dirtbikes and enduros. Mostly big 4-strokes. He had a pair of (iirc) Yamaha XT500's and if I wanted I could hop on one and go with him to check some wells like 5 miles out.
90% of my brain was like, "THAT WOULD BE AWESOME". The other 10% was telling me, "This weirdo could kill your ass out there and take your glorious VFR." I sided with the VFR bit of my brain and politely declined. Still, if I'm ever running down 26 through Wyoming again, I'm totally stopping there. Whether I need gas or not.
Anywho, I kept blasting across Wyoming till it got more scenic.
Got up into the Bridger-Teton National Forest and had to let the Vic cool a bit. This was facing back east. I've got a bunch of other pics but my potato phone could seem to handle the glare looking west.
Got just south of Yellowstone and decided a campground with a gas station, this view, showers, and *cough* a bar, was a damned fine place to spend the night.
View only got better when I started pluggin along at dawn the next morning ...
This brings us into Yellowstone. I probably took more pics hiking around Yellowstone in 6 hours than I took the rest of the trip combined. I'll spare you all (most of) those toaster-quality pics, but if you're ever remotely near there, go. Go to fucking Yellowstone. It's a strange and beautiful place.
Had to see Old Faithful. This is from like a half-mile away and a few hundred feet up. And I've known for a long time that it's not the only geyser in the park. Not even close. But there's geysers and hot springs everywhere.
Everywhere. Really, go there if you ever have the chance. It's incredible.
The colors Duke, the colors!
Some places have some pretty damn metal names. I think this is BLACK WARRIOR lake or something like that.
The Yellowstone park map actually outlines the estimated caldera area. So you know you're driving across a giant, ancient super volcano. Good times.
I sucked it up and left Yellowstone. Didn't want to but I needed to keep on the road. Hit West Yellowstone, MT and started barreling down 191N to Bozeman. From there I got on I-90W, rolling through Butte and Missoula. I used to wonder why the fuck anyone would live in Montana, but after driving through the western part of the state I totally get it. Gorgeous up there. This pic doesn't remotely do it justice. There's just huge rolling hills of farm and ranch land in places. Really gorgeous.
Ended up stopping for dinner in Wallace, ID. Really nice little old mining town. Probably should've stopped there for the night, but there was still daylight and I wanted to get into WA.
Ended up blowing through to Spokane, WA in the night. Stopped at a truck stop west of town to finally get some sleep. Woke up in the morning thinking I'd hallucinated the previous 24 hours and was still in Kansas.
Fortunately I was wrong.
I need to get a final "the blue bastard made it all the way west" shot, but this'll do for now. This is from somewhere in the Cascades, maybe an hour and a half from where I'm at now. I'll post some better Washington pics when I make a thread for my VFR. Because I keep forgetting to do that. Always something.
For those of you that stuck through that massive dump, thank you. Hope you enjoyed that trip a little. I had a fucking blast. Now I need to get to work on the Vic to make sure it handles the next road trip even better. It needs
more pooower!
