♫ (09/23) Dark Secret Place

Worth a listen

'Weird' toe wrestling event returns - BBC News

It shivers my brittle timbers to realize that such a combat oriented blog as this failed to note the recent toe wrestling championship, not that I noticed either.

Sent...C Demon

A song for you. How do you like me now?

Heh...

Cody to Thermopolis,

Woke up in a bed! First one in a few days, it ain't working for me and it's 0314 hours. I blundered my way to the head and stood staring at my face, looking for signs of life.

By 0400 the truck was loaded and idling. It was 33 degrees with a light, sparse drizzle. Perfect black ice conditions and no time for tomfoolery. I idled out of the motel and pulled over to the curb of the road out of town, just to sit and get an idea of traffic. Oncoming dazzles me out in the dark, and a lot of it would turn me around to wait for daybreak. Twenty minutes and no sign of traffic, so I fired up, shifted into four high and rolled on out into those darkest hours. The town cop that had sidled up behind me U-turned and headed back, no doubt disappointed.

There were no flashing signs for closed passes or chain usage ( mine were at home ) and I settled in at around 50 or so. Nice and easy.

Lots of critters were up, moving on the weather front, and I could see Deer and Elk darting across in my high beams. The truck wanted to yaw a bit now and then, feeling the spots of ice, but coping. Four wheel drive won't defeat ice, but it gives you a chance if you can avoid swerves and sudden braking. I slowed a bit. A monster bull Elk stood by the verge considering, and I prayed the Elk Gods would bestow prudence upon him. My prayers were answered and I crept by him as two Deer shot across from the other side, missing me just. I was climbing the first pass now and was getting some snow, thickening towards the top, the temps holding at 33. The animals had thinned out, so that was good, but if the snow had stuck on the down side, the descent could be sporty. An oilfield hotshot truck overtook me at a seemingly hypersonic speed, pulling a trailer load of drill string and vanished out ahead, making me ponder my meager skills at this stuff. I crept on, closing now on the town of Meteesi, half the way to Thermopolis where dawn would greet me. I had just encountered my first oncoming vehicle, had dimmed my lights and was recovering my eyes when I saw the deer lying across my lane deader than fried chicken.

No time for swerving or braking, but I did manage to drift to the left a bit to avoid center punching him and getting him hung up in the chassis, leaving a streak of deer behind me for the next ten miles. Both right side wheels left the ground at impact and the left ones couldn't cope. The Deer was behind me, but I was in a gentle spin down the center of an empty dark highway. I couldn't say what I did, but was satisfied with the results, coming to rest with a gentle tap against a well placed guard rail, facing the wrong way.

Not much to say about the rest of the trip, except that climbing out of Thermopolis at dawn through the Wind River Canyon is a gift from the Gods, snow on the high spots illuminating the bands of color painting the cliffs, giving you a final dose of the ethereal before you encounter the Bad Water River and Poison Creek.

My dog and cat are quite interested in sniffing out my truck. I think they dream of venison. Time for the car wash.

Sent...C Demon

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