Daughter just moved to Boise from Portland, a day closer to us, so we had to go see her. Could have been a fairly boring 750 mile round trip. Didn't want that. So, decided to try to make it a little more interesting by making it a big circle into Nevada then Idaho and see some more interesting things. There were still few and far between but here are some of what we found and did on our 950 mile trip.
Any of you that have gone to the Bonneville Raceway from the east had to drive by the only thing sticking up from the salt flats for 50 miles around.
It's huge and it's weird. Reminds me of the fake trees I just saw in the movie
"Lorax" that I just watched with the grandkids. It is called
Metaphor: The Tree of Utah, sometimes called the
Tree of Life. It is an 87-foot (27 m) sculpture that was created by the Swedish artist
Karl Momen in the 1980s and dedicated in 1986. (Read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor:_The_Tree_of_Utah)
It was cloudy and fairly gloomy most of the 80 miles across the flats from Salt Lake to Wendover until just before Wendover the sun peeked out from under the clouds and we got his this view of flats. (Picture taken by Gumby.)
A little further on and some growth came up through the flats. No, that's not snow. That's the salt flats between the growth. Silver Island Mountains in the background.
So, what did my wife do all the time we were traveling? She was happy as a lark embroidering a Christmas decoration.
Of course, when it got dark she took up her other favorite passtime on our road trips - gavinating (some call it navigating). She was so useful that I just had to remark romantically on more than one occassion as Danny Kaye was known to say in the movie
White Christmas: "You know, in some ways, you're far superior to my [Chihuahua]". (Danny's best friend was a Cocker Spaniel. He referred to that in his line.)
I'm afraid that I am much like the wayward robot "Johnny Five" in the movie "Short Circuit" - I am always hungry for more "Input" - So, I took the indoor/outdoor thermometer from the house with us and duct taped the outdoor sensor in front of the radiator so we could monitor both the inside and outside temperatures on our trip. This and the picture above were on the stretch from Wells Nevada to Jackpot Nevada. This was about as cold as it got on the trip. We liked it toasty warm inside and were able to keep that way nicely without fogging up the windows with our fresh air heater first introduced by Ford in late '47.
The first night we stayed in one of 4 hotel/casinos in Jackpot Nevada, a little gambling town just over the border from Idaho on US 93 that was created when Idaho outlawed gambling in 1954. Population 1,416. (Read more here:
http://www.jackpotnevada.com/)
In the morning we continued north on US 93 toward Twin Falls Idaho through some of the farming areas of southern Idaho. Occasionally picturesqe - not frequently.
At Twin Falls we left the highway just before going over the Snake River Gorge to drive down into the gorge for some very nice scenery. The Perrine Bridge is approximately 1,500 feet long and 486 feet above the
Snake River.
After spending the night at my daughter's in Boise we headed out the next day on highway 20 north of Mountain Home, Idaho and took a 30 mile detour up to Sun Valley, Idaho that my wife and I were always curious about. Here's Old Henry just about to get on the ski lift just one run down the slopes. (No. They didn't let him on. "We do have weight limits for this thing you know.")
From there we continued east on US 20 to Craters of the Moon National Monument.
http://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm
Even though the scenic drive through the park was closed because of recent snow, there were still some fantastic views of the lava flows that streached as far as the eye could see. Looked kinda weird - what would normally be a pitch black lava flow with snow on it.
Then the sun started peeking through the clouds creating some very moving scenes.
I have so many more pictures like this I wished I had room to share.
Continuing on US 20 we soon reached Arco, ID - the first city in the world to be lighted by electricity generated by the experimental first nuclear power plant built near there in 1955. In the 900 square miles of southern Idaho over 50 experimental nuclear power plants have been built over the years including the first ones to power nuclear submarines and ships. There was actually a city south east of Arco named Atomic City for all of the nuclear activity in that area at one time. It's pretty much a ghost town now - population 75.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_City,_Idaho
From Arco we continued south east on Hwy 20 toward Blackfoot Idaho. It was overcast with no light from any moon, stars, nor nearby city. We were just cruisin' along to the music of Glenn Miller when
BANG!!! The bang seemed to come from under the floor by the gas pedal. Car kept going fine. My wife and I looked puzzled at each other wondering what that was but glad we were still moving when another bang!! This one was not so loud and seemed to come from under the hood. It had a more familiar sound - like the sound of the fan belt breaking that we'd heard not many months ago. But the car was still moving and nothing seemed to have changed. The generator was still working and so seemed the water pumps so we thought it wasn't that belt that we had just replaced. Then I thought maybe it might be the other belt that just turned the fan and wouldn't have any affect at the speed we were going in near freezing temperature. We were still 250 miles from home so I stopped on the side of the road in the pitch blackness and lifted the hood to take a look. (The light for this picture is just the stock Ford engine compartment light.)
Both belts were still just fine. I looked closely for any other signs of damage or anything else that didn't seem right but saw nothing. So, we carried on down the road.
I didn't have a clue whether anything was wrong, much less what it might be, until we pulled into Blackfoot where we hoped to stay for the night. As I let up on the gas pedal there was a strange rumbling noise under the floor and when I pushed in on the clutch and put it in neutral the noise was much worse. It still didn't seem to affect the operation of the car but sure sounded bad. So, we carried on with me cranking the grey matter trying to figure out what it was.
The only motel we saw in Blackfoot was a Super 8. We didn't want to stay there - we always look for the old Ma and Pa dives. We didn't see any so decided to try to make it to the next big town - Pocatello. As we pulled into Pocatello I did some more experimenting with the clutch and gear shift. The noise was obviously connected to the drive line as its frequency was the same as the rotations of the drive line. It continued when the clutch was depressed and was worse in neutral, so, I concluded that it was either in the drive line, the U-joint, or something in the rear end of the transmission not related to the front end nor cluster gear.
Fortunately, the noise never got any worse nor had any more affect the rest of the way home. I'll be posting that problem on the Barn later for some help with diagnosis. I'll first get the car up on stands and get under there with Chuck in the driver seat doing stuff to create the noise so I can determine more accurately where it is. Something's going to have to come apart. But, that's for another day.
After we left Pocatello this morning we got into a major fog bank for many miles with very limited visibility.
But, eventually, we got out of that, the sun shined bright, and we arrived in the historic Mormon town of Brigham City, UT. Founded in 1851 - 4 years after the pioneers arrived in Salt Lake City - named after Brigham Young.
http://brighamcity.utah.gov/
With its historic County Courthouse built in 1856.
http://www.boxeldercounty.org/box-el...se-history.htm (I had to wait quite a while to take this picture because while I was crossing the road to take it several people came out of the courthouse and up to Old Henry and spent quite some time telling my wife about the old cars their dads had etc. etc. It's always fun to hear the stories though.)
And the historic Mormon Tabernacle built 1865-1879. http://www.untraveledroad.com/USA/Ut...ity/9BSign.htm
After eating lunch at the famous Maddox in Brigham City that opened just two years after Old Henry was built - 1949 - we carried on home without incident very relaxed from 4 days of blissful road travel in our beloved Old Henry. He did us good. Never had to open my tool box nor turn a wrench the whole trip.
You know, in many ways, my wife
is far superior to my Chihuahua.
Prior road trips:
Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966
Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864
Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705
Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141
Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511