Thursday.
Breakfast in New Orleans, dinner in Timbuktu. Okay, we skipped breakfast at
the edge of the eastern plains. Crossed the Continental Divide in
spectacular blue-sky weather. Another perfect day. Lunch at the Dillon
Lake Overlook. Across Vail Pass, through Glenwood Canyon and DeBeque
Canyon. Out through the Western Colorado Mesas, and into the Utah desert.
Utah. For all the traveling we've done, this is the first time we've been
out of Colorado in months. Stopped for the night at Green River State Park.
This used to be a regular stop with the kids on Spring Break trips. It's
shadier than we remember.
It's a very birdy place. Lots of birds we recognize, and then.... A New
Bird. A new bird. I know it's a new bird, because I have no idea what it
was. I saw it perched. From the back. The bottom half looked like a
sparrow. The top half looked gray. From behind. What is solid gray from
behind? It could have been a Lawrence's Goldfinch, but I don't know if
they're here or not. I went to get Judy and it was gone when we got back.
Never saw it again. We don't know what it is, but we know there is a new
bird here.
It would help if the park had a bird list, but they don't. That's a great
help, when you're trying to identify a bird, and you can check a local bird
list and eliminate the birds that have never been sighted where you are.
Sometimes the bird lists indicate the relative abundance in each season.
That really helps. We can use all the help we can get.
I thought the Jake Brake would be proportional, but it's not. You can't
feather it with the throttle and drive it smoothly. It is tied to the
transmission. It is purely incremental. It downshifts. Let off the gas
enough, and the exhaust brake kicks on in an appropriate gear for that
speed. Step down on the throttle, and it switches back off. At 65 mph, it
downshifts and provides a slight braking assist. We can handle a long 5%
grade at that speed. The first big assist pops in at 45 mph. That's the
one we ride down the hill if it's not too steep. It will handle a long 6%
grade on the freeway. There is a more serious hook at 35 mph if we need it.
That will ride the 7% grade down the continental divide without resorting to
the foot pedal brake at all.
Cruise control. I've already declared that I like the way cruise control
works on this thing. What else I like about it is that it keeps the speed
you last selected in memory: even when you turn the key off. Start it up
again the next day, get it rolling, and hit resume. You're right back to
where you were the day before.
Green River, Utah. A three hundred fifty mile day.
Tomorrow, the badlands and beyond.
