Cheyenne begins the day with partly sunny skies, as I get ready to head to Laramie and then Denver. It is a bit windy as a cold front is on its way. And the Weather Channel is talking about snow in the southwest corner of Nebraska, which is where I am heading on Wednesday. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
This picture above is near the junction of I-25 and I-80. The bridge and tracks above belongs to the BNSF and the tracks and crossing gate below belong to the UP. Twas a bit quiet on the rails this morning.
I meant to mention that Cheyenne is at an elevation of 6060 feet, a bit higher than Denver. As you head west on I-80, you feel your car up-shift a few times as you gain altitude. At the summit, you are now at 8640 feet.
And soon after that, you are diving downhill with 5% grades and ample warning signs telling truckers to make sure you are in control.
As soon as you are past the steep downgrades you see the valley open before you and you are in Laramie.
On a side note, there are these crossing gates that are next to the Interstate, but they are not for railroad grade crossings.
The snow gets so bad in these parts that WYDOT will close down the Interstate until the snow is clear. And I-80 is a major interstate highway across the Rockies. So beware.
Upon arriving in Laramie, I head to the side of town next to the Union Pacific yard in Laramie and come across the central pedestrian bridge.
No sooner I get at the top and the skies from the west draw my attention. Dark gray clouds and the evidence that some sort of precipitation is falling from them.
I asked a few college students who have also climbed the bridge about the threatening skies and they tell me that it looks like rain to them. At least I hope it is.
And before I leave Laramie, I spot this old UP caboose on the main drag.
Always wanted a caboose in my back yard. Have it for my radio shack with a 50-foot tower next to it. Wonder how I’d get that past the zoning board??
After Leaving Laramie, it is on to Fort Collins, Co for my next stop. U.S. Route 287 has quite the scenery as it meanders thru the Wyoming and then Colorado countryside.
You can’t help but see the red rock and soil that is prevalent in this part of the country. And once you cross into Colorado, you can see the red horizontal veins in the various rock and butte formations.
Upon arriving in Fort Collins, I head to the northeast part of town to this very large clearing near Terry Lake and its reservoirs. It is the antenna farm for WWV, a part of the National Institute for Standards and Technology.
This antenna farm transmits a time signal from the WWV building in Boulder, CO. If you have a short-wave radio, you can listen to them on 2.5, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz. For those of us in ham radio, WWV allows you to set your clock to the exact second; very helpful at the time changes we do each year. And if you don’t have a radio you can call them at (303) 499-7111 or on the Internet at www.nist.gov. The time WWV announces is UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time. Amateur radio operators have 2 clocks in their radio shacks: one for their local time and one for UTC. Based on the time in Greenwich, England, it is the same for every spot in the world. Right now as I type this report, it is 3:48pm Mountain Daylight Time. But the UTC time is 21:48 hours. So let’s say I was set up a conversation or sked to talk to a ham in Sydney, Australia. I ask him if 2300UTC would be a good time for him. He would most likely say yes because for me, my time is OK since it would be 5:00pm Mountain Daylight Time and where he is in Sydney, it would be 10:00am Sydney Daylight Time the next morning. Kinda confusing, but since UTC is the same time anywhere in the world, it is a lot easier to set up skeds using UTC than to trying to figure out to convert to the local time in the area you are talking to.
I continue south towards Denver but my eyes get the better of me and I pull off I-25 at a Conoco-McDonalds-Starbucks combination gas station/truck stop. On the radio I hear my friend Nate Duehr, WY0X. We talk about plans for tonight and while I am talking to him, it’s not looking too pretty to the west over Longmont. Dark clouds are heading my way. And then come the lightning bolts. And these bolts are single strokes and they are landing pretty close. I quickly pull out of the rest stop and head south and literally see my rear view mirror become dark gray. Cold front coming thru right on time.
And finally I reach my brother Jay’s old stomping grounds of Denver.
And the Interstate and surrounding infrastructure looks pretty good considering 8 years ago this area was under a major rebuilding. The skyline comes into view and soon too does Invesco Field, home to the NFL Football Denver Broncos.
A few more exits and I arrive at my next stop at 500 South Broadway at the corner of
E. Virginia Avenue.
The place is Caboose Hobbies, one of the largest hobbies stores in the U.S. Whatever scale you model or if there is some rare part you may need, these folks might just have it. And they have a repair shop on the premises. Talking to Rich S., one of the salesmen, they ship orders all over the world from their website, www.caboosehobbies.com, and their store. I am so tempted to do some serious shopping but this trip takes precedence. I am sure my railfan buddy George would definitely want to make a trip here. Quite the store!!
I safely arrive at the Motel 6 in Greenwood Village, one of the many suburbs of Denver. And the thunderstorms from Longmont have caught up with me and the temp has dropped about 15 degrees. Can you say “winter??!!”
Anyway, off to see Nate and his wife Karen for dinner. Tomorrow we head north thru the prairies east of I-25 thru Greeley to Cheyenne and then make a hard right and start working my way back towards Omaha.
I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Denver, Colorado.
No comments:
Post a Comment