Where in the world is the Mayor?

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. Oct. 08, 2022 2:20 am

Well I'm home, two marathon days of driving. Final update tomorrow but I'm going to bed right now.


 
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Post by Richard S. » Sat. Oct. 08, 2022 2:36 am

Hoytman wrote:
Thu. Oct. 06, 2022 4:01 pm
You didn’t happen to see or hear Ken Block up on the mountain did you? :lol:

By the way,
I could have sworn, and we have pictures somewhere of our trip up the mountain, that the sign at the top in the early 80’s said “14,109ft”. Makes me wonder if there was a more recent elevation survey that took place? Hmmmnn….

I may have seen him when I was in the Arcadias. I was going down a hill with two lane on opposite side. Someone in a very expensive looking Porsche went by me going up the hill, I don't know how fast he was going but it sounded like a F1 car going by. When I got to the bottom of the hill he's behind and turning around to do it again.

As far as the mountain height apparently it has been changed over the years.

https://www.pikes-peak.com/elevation-of-pikes-peak/

 
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Post by Hoytman » Sat. Oct. 08, 2022 8:38 am

Thanks for the link. Never knew it had changed in elevation so many times, or even once for that matter.

What I think is interesting is that there is no date in the link correlating with my early to mid80’s visit, yet I remembered seeing its elevation as 14,109 ft. I’m certain I can prove that +/-1 ft with pictures of our trip. Just for grins I’ll try and have my mom look for a picture.

It is interesting that the article shows heights mentioned for 1909 and 1963 as 14,109 ft and 14,110 ft respectively and doesn’t show anything higher until the year 2002.

It’ll be interesting to see if mom mom can find a picture proving my memory right because that would mean somewhere someone missed something writing that article or it wasn’t recited correctly.

Not a big deal of course. Will just be interesting to see what I come up with.

At least we’ve learned something and proved I wasn’t nuts by saying it had been 14,109 ft. :lol:

I did get a good chuckle out of FF response though, as usual. :lol: :lol: :clap:

 
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Post by Benny » Sat. Oct. 08, 2022 2:25 pm

Welcome home Mayor, thanks for the wonderful trip and taking us along!

 
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Post by Hoytman » Tue. Oct. 11, 2022 4:03 pm

X2
Really enjoyed the play-by-play and photos. One of the best threads ever!👍

 
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Post by Benny » Tue. Oct. 11, 2022 6:02 pm

Would like to know total cost of trip, what ever it was it it was worth it! Trip of a lifetime.

 
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Post by warminmn » Tue. Oct. 11, 2022 6:56 pm

Im catching up but now your home. Turn around and do it again! :clap:

Its fun taking trips like that with no real set in place plans. The pretty routes are more of a surprise then. I only use a paper map also.


 
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Post by grumpy » Fri. Oct. 14, 2022 8:45 pm

Benny wrote:
Sat. Oct. 08, 2022 2:25 pm
Welcome home Mayor, thanks for the wonderful trip and taking us along!
Ditto, really enjoyed it..

 
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Post by Hambden Bob » Sat. Oct. 15, 2022 6:49 am

Well,Here's To Your Unmitigated Sense Of Adventure! Thanx For Da' Ride!!🎯👍😎

 
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Post by Benny » Tue. Oct. 25, 2022 4:41 pm

So.....Where in the world is the Mayor?.......still napping 💤

 
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Post by Cap » Tue. Nov. 22, 2022 5:49 pm

Cool trip Richard! I did the same trip last April, 2022. Badlands NP, Mt Rushmore, Grand Tetons NP, Yellowstone NP and other NF sites out west! Lot of snow but I didn't mind. No crowds!
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My rig....I install propane heat and solar!

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Somewhere in WY....east of GT NP.

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Coal mining operations in WY. Hundreds of full cars...

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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. May. 03, 2023 7:59 pm

I had meant to get back to this to conclude my stats but I have seemed to lost some of them, I do have a reasonably good idea about the totals.


Total gas purchased: 450.2 gallons (about 23.5 MPG0
Considering my lead foot and the terrain I was covering I don't think this is that bad. Early on I had a check engine light that happened to coincide with my broken gas cap. The new replacement was a piece of *censored* which I had to replace when I got home. The check engine light was going on and off and I just assumed it was the gas cap. Turns out it was the MAP sensor and that probably affected my gas mileage<sigh>.


Total Miles: 10,574
Rough estimate is 3,000 of this was purely Interstate mostly from PA to South Dakota and from Wichita Kansas back to PA.

Probably another 3 thousand miles was Interstate like roads where you have that cross traffic. These are the ones that scared me the most. Difficult to get used to traveling 70 and someone is pulling up to cross the road ahead of you.

The rest of it was twisty, windy and flat out desert 2 lane roads. These were a bit scary too, I saw at least two people pass in blind spots where they would of unquestionably had a head on collision if someone was coming the other way.


Total States: 20
There was a few I just clipped, Idaho for example.


National Parks/Monuments and other significant points of interest:
Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, Glacier Park, Rt. 20 through the Arcadia National Forest, The Space Needle, Olympic Park, most Northwestern Point in the US, Pacific Coast Highway (101) from Seattle to Northern CA, Avenue of the Trees, Rt1 in CA from it's northern start to San Francisco, Golden Gate and Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Sequoia Park and the General Sherman Tree, King's Canyon, Sherman Pass (9200'), Inyo National Forest, Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon NV, Mt. Charleston, Valley of Fire, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Escalante National Park, Capital Reef National Park, bisected Canyonlands/Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Natural Bridges National Monument, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park(South Rim), Independence Pass 12,095′ , Pikes Peak, The Big Well (formerly the World's largest Hand Dug Well).

 
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Post by Lightning » Wed. May. 03, 2023 8:03 pm

Wow.. that's a hell of a trip! I'd love to do the same sometime :yes:

 
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Post by tsb » Wed. May. 03, 2023 8:06 pm

Well, that should shorten up your bucket list.

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. May. 03, 2023 8:32 pm

And ladies and germs the last stop of my journey. When I set out on this trip I only had one destination that was a must and this is it. The "World's largest Hand Dug Well" or at least that is what they were calling it in the 90's. As I mentioned previously my cousin and I used to make these trips, he'd go out to Arizona in January to work and I'd drive out with him and fly back. Then in May I'd fly back for the return trip.

As we were traveling down this road in Kansas looking for the sign for this attraction a cop pulled out behind us. We are in a Honda civic with dark tint and PA plates..... I immediately said to him you are getting pulled over and sure enough a few miles down the road we got stopped. It's the only time were stopped by the police. He was just fishing with the excuse we went over the yellow line. He let us on our way after short interaction. Somehow during this time we missed the sign for the attraction so we never got to see it.
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Stuck in traffic for snow storm

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Somewhere in Arkansas or Texas, this was after driving through snow/ice pretty much from Virginia on 81 to Memphis on 40.

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As I was driving though many small towns in Kansas they were pretty old but when I got to the town with the "Big Well" as they now call it I was surprised see everything looked pretty new including the museum. Turns out it's Greensburg, Kansas which was wiped off the map back in 2007.... every building in the entire town including the museum.

Had we visited it in the 90's we would of seen this, the second image is the town after the tornado:
Image
Image

They don't call it the "World's Largest Hand Dug Well" anymore because as it turns out there is bigger one in Italy. They didn't know this until the age of the internet. They simply refer to as the "Big Well". They also had a 1000 lb. meteor which is one the largest in the world.

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