Talked to my Uncle Sammy today.

Continue reading "The Babe"

Blogging will be light. Homies.

You've got to be in the right place at the right time.

Never got around to posting this one, from down along the Seward Highway.

I figure it'll be December before I'm done posting photos of Death Valley.

I'm having fun making these.

Blogging will be light for the next week, most likely. I'll be out of town for a few days.

I had previously visited 45 states. Only Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, and Washington remained.

Here's a photo from my trip to Nevada. I figure I'll hit the other four in 2009 when I leave Alaska.

What's left of Snoopy, a B-58 Hustler from the Cold War. It now rests in the Mojave Desert.

A friend of mine at Edwards AFB.

Muscle Beach in California.

Pronounced like size-six, rather than physics.

Today is 07-07-07...

The sun is setting on my Mojave Desert adventure. In a short while I'll be hittin' the road and headed to "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula." I'll be back in Alaska on Tuesday.

Probably not much on the blog until then.

Corvus corax, more commonly known as the Dumpster Chicken.

You'd have an amazing sunset photo.

But I didn't. Places to go, things to do. You'll have to enjoy the six o'clock version instead of the eight o'clock version.

And all these photos that I've posted in the past week will get a touch up in Photoshop when I'm back in Alaska. There's a few that could use a little tweak here and there.

This one is a little overexposed. With a digital camera, that's bad.

Continue reading "The train kept a-rollin'"

The road winds through the Devil's Playground Wash near Kelso, California.

I met Lester and his girl in Baker, California. He was trying to fry an egg on the ground in the parking lot of Bob's Big Boy.

Did it work?

Continue reading "Hot enough to fry an egg?"

Organizations will always promote someone to his/her level of inefficiency.

[paraphrasing this guy]

In other words, the best mechanic will end up in the accounting office.

...on Route 66.

Ludlow, California.

Siberia, California. Not much left.

More here.

All that remains of Siberia is the train that rumbles through. Two excellent photos here and here.

You've gotta love our British cousins: "I KICKED BURNING TERRORIST SO HARD IN BALLS THAT I TORE A TENDON."

via the Insta-dude

The Hornet outside the Lancaster Jethawks game, complete with Independence Day fireworks.

Found this dragonfly in a small pond in the Mojave Desert.

Not the sharpest photo. But I'm on vacation. My standards have slipped a bit.

This B-52D gets noisy when the wind whips across Edwards AFB. I'm not sure if it's eager to return to active duty, or just wants to get away from the ravens that crap on it all day long.

Don't park your F-101B Voodoo overnight in a bad neighborhood.

A hummingbird checks out a Joshua tree at sunset, on Edwards AFB.

Click the extended entry for a closer look.

Continue reading "Hummingbird"

There are five four states that I have never visited.

Oregon.
Washington.
Nevada.
Utah.
Idaho.

I figure I'll start saving my leave when I get back, and take a big roadtrip through the last four in two years.

I guess this is what passes for public transportation in Rhyolite, Nevada.

The temperature in Death Valley on Saturday was in the ballpark of 121°F.

That's hot.

A desert spiny lizard. I think.

It was hanging out in the old school building in Rhyolite, Nevada.

I never saw a badger before. Not the greatest photo.

I'm just bragging that I saw a badger this weekend.

Not quite happy with this one.

I'm going to have to find me another cactus.

What's left of Rhyolite, Nevada.

There's a great deal of talk about attempted fuel air explosions in the UK this past week.

I wonder if the Jihad All-Stars were attempting to create a BLEVE -- "boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion." If true, our British cousins are very fortunate that the bombs fizzled.

As I understand it, when you have propane in liquid form in a tank, with a flame impinging on it, the liquid begins to boil. The expanding vapor causes the tank to rupture, releasing the propane. The rupture itself is violent, and it's followed by a fireball when the propane gas ignites.

I'm surprised I haven't seen the term BLEVE tossed around this weekend.

The dunes near Stovepipe Wells, just before sunset.

A coyote near Furnace Creek in Death Valley.