CANYCA: California to New York (and back) pg. 13
I must admit that at this point I was fairly smitten with The Great Pumpkin and wondering how I was going to explain my new relationship to my other buses; splitties all. This orange bus was just too fast, efficient, comfortable, and, well, orange. The same voyage in a split-screen bus would have been a little more arduous. Now that I am home, and have logged many more hours behind the wheel of my SO-44 and my doublecab, I can say I would not actually forsake the splitbus experience for that of a bay, and for the same reason I drive any old Volkswagen as opposed to modern transportational contrivances. I mean jeez, if someone offered you an old biplane or a relatively new Cessna ... the plane itself or even just a ride ... which would you choose? I guess it depends on your reasoning and lifestyle; for me, it's splitties or death! (OK, I might be exaggerating a bit) Anyway, the road soon became quite undecided elevation-wise, and both vehicles were working hard to maintain speed up some incredible hills, and I was thankful for the cool wind ... I'm sure the aircooled four-banger was too!
At this juncture in my life, it is getting more and more difficult to properly express these experiences and adventures that took place months ago. I never did set out to create such a monstrous report, but as usual, things got out of hand. So in an effort to finish this report once and for all, I am going to skip through a lot of the descriptive crap and point out a few things that happened here and there, with pictures interspersed with the text and galleries for those who want more pictures. I did take quite a few pictures, and instead of painstakingly choosing which ones make the grade, I'll simply offer a few of them to you in galleries; you can look at them at your leisure. Hopefully the text will give you an idea of what all was going on!
Here is the first gallery: Desert Gallery 1: Green River to Delta (76 pics)
Utah is a really big state, and the drive is long. It is continually mesmerizing and fascinating, and the constant stimulus can lead to fatigue, but I staved it off with these tasty chocolate-covered coffee beans Tim gave me. I'm still wondering why he said not to eat them all at the same time!
After much driving, Delta and lunch at a cafe. Another rock shop with a big purple thing. Then ... you guessed it: More driving! Here is the gallery of the drive through the rest of Utah and into Nevada: Desert Gallery 2 (36 pics)
Tim had hoped to check out a cool thing just over the mountains from Ely. We had been in Nevada for some time, and finally, in a windswept afternoon, we came to the site of this curiosity. A natural-rock and ex-mine combination bat-cave! Home to lots of Brazilian Free-tailed bats, none of whom were home when we went a'calling. Naturally. And it necessitated a short jaunt up a relatively steep jeep trail with pointed rocks, ruts, and other fun things, the likes of which I had been missing.
Tim left the truck and beetle at a pullout by the highway, and we tested twenty-year-old tires out on sharp rocks, and at the same time tested the backroadworthiness off a baywindow Westy. I'd say it did alright, but I'd rather have the stiff mountain-goat suspension of a splitty (I think it's the swing-axles) working for me. I went a bit farther than Tim would have liked, but it was hard to stop. We did come to a convenient wide spot, so I turned around there and parked. Another 1/2 mile or so uphill on foot, and we were at the base of the batcave cliff, which rose sharply up ... and sharply we did climb to see it! It was a bit of a climb, but awesome. Carefully (trying not to do something careless or stupid), we scaled the rock, and quietly entered the outer part of the cave. We were being quiet for fear of disturbing the bats, but I think they had either departed for their winter roosts already, or they were really deep within the cave. Nevertheless, we refrained from shouting. The view from the ledge was amazing....we could just see an orange speck in the distance, and way beyond that, the highway. We hung around a bit, took some pictures, and headed back to the bus and truck, and the endless road to Ely.
Not long after the batcave, but a decent drive nonetheless, we rolled into Ely, arranged lodging, got some Chinese food, and hit the sack. Our next day's travel was intended to result in our being in Reno, where Tim's uncle resides, and lots of food awaited our mastication....Here's the batcave gallery: Desert Gallery 3 (20 pics)