I'm spending today getting my act together for a little jaunt to LaLa Land. I have a meeting in Palm Springs on Friday morning and I can't stand air travel (little planes are cool, but I absolutely hate being packed in an aluminum tube like a sardine) so it's time for a road trip. 2250 miles (~3620 km) round trip; I figure I'll leave tomorrow afternoon and get back Saturday afternoon. It should be fun - I've never been through the southern Utah/Nevada desert; never been to Lost Wages (Las Vegas); actually, I've never even been in a casino. Maybe I'll spend a night in Vegas and blow some money.
:)
You are gonna love it. The desert is amazingly beautiful.
Vegas is quite expensive, so be prepared.
My wife and I go to Vegas twice a year (its only about a 5.5 hour drive from our house).
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I've driven across Utah and Nevada on 80 several times, but never on the southern route. I've always thought Nevada was beautiful.
Where do you guys live?
Take pictures man, sounds like fun.
Can't promise much there, I'm afraid. I'm bringing my little digital camera but I've never gotten very good with it. I used to be pretty good with my old 35mm's, but I haven't spent enough time playing with a digital one to get the hang of it. ::)
Quote from: Harvey Birdman on March 25, 2008, 01:39:03 PM
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I've driven across Utah and Nevada on 80 several times, but never on the southern route. I've always thought Nevada was beautiful.
Where do you guys live?
We live just south of San Diego, near the Mexico border. A normal "speed limit" drive would take us 6+ hours to Vegas. But since its the desert, there are areas on I-15 where you can haul ass, and still get passed by cars and police. Unfortunately, there are a lot of accidents on that route, so if you take it, be careful.
It should be great. As Moodflow said, the desert is amazing. I remember seeing it when I went on vacations, back when I lived in Las Vegas. ;D
Harvey, you should miss the Santa Ana's, right? That's a good thing, since you'll just be visiting.
I think the main fire season is at the end of summer, if that's what you're referring to. I don't think that will be such an issue on the Palm Springs side of the mountains - I expect the vegetation is mostly on the coastal (LA) side. What do I know, though - I've been in LA and San Diego, but never on the desert side of the hills.
I lived in between L.A. and Las Vegas (near Barstow) and remember the Santa Anas coming through the desert. Brrrr.
You know more about it than I do, then. I'm clueless.
;D
Well, that was exciting... big ice storm on I-80 yesterday morning. One of the worst I've seen - semis flipped in the middle of the road, their cargo dumped... semis jack-knifed in the median, cars flipped, cars smashing through guardrails and going down embankments... big fun. I was doing ok until there was an accident in front of me and I had to touch my brakes. That was all she wrote. I was probably doing about 50, had hundreds of yards of open space in front and behind... the trouble was the semi in the lane right beside me. (I had 4 wheel drive and anti-skid braking; no matter. There was a solid 1/2 inch (~ 1cm) of ice on the road - when I stepped out of the car I nearly fell on my ass.)
So I touched the brakes, the car started to oscillate, and I'm turning into the spin, trying to dampen the oscillations... and it's responding and I'm trying to drift off onto the shoulder and into the snow to stop myself. Back end hits the grass besides the road and snapped me right back out into traffic, spinning clockwise now at a high rate. I went backwards, under the trailer of the semi and into the rear wheels. The wheels hit the back of the car, but instead of just running over it as I expected, it bounced me back out from under, spinning couterclockwise, and into the snowbanks on the side of the road. The road was so icy that the car really didn't absorb much impact - it spun away like a hockey puck on a skating rink.
So I got out, tore the remaining piece of bumper free and kept going.
:o
Pretty serious damage to the back of the car, but considering, I think I used up a bit of my luck.
:)
This has got to be the truest account of the most unbelievable account I've heard. Or seen.
I'm glad you're okay.
The good news is it was the wife's car.
:D
The bad news is she was caught in the same ice storm driving my truck to work. She spun, too, when a deer ran in front of her on the road near our house. She was a little luckier, though - no damage to deer or vehicle.
Ice is completely treacherous. Basically, there is nothing anyone can do on bare ice.
It was rain and wet snow when I pulled off the road for a little nap. It froze while I slept - I hadn't realized it had all changed to ice until after I was already rolling. I was playing it pretty carefully, but when I touched the brakes it was all over.
Tell you, I thought I was toast for sure when the back of the car went under the semi.
::) :)
<edit>
Here's a pic I snapped when I pulled off for a break yesterday afternoon. The route I took goes through the very NW corner of Arizona - pretty country.
</edit>
Great photo! Looks like it would work as a render scene. ;D
Damn! Glad you made it through your slippery episode. Nice pic too, but can't be Desert, too many plants. LOL if you get my drift? ;)
Quote from: joshbakr on March 28, 2008, 12:39:10 PM
Damn! Glad you made it through your slippery episode. Nice pic too, but can't be Desert, too many plants. LOL if you get my drift? ;)
seconded.
Wonderful photo. Great for a reference...or for just hiking. ::) Terragen isn't everything. I keep telling myself. :P
Hey, all -
Tonights location - Cedar City, Utah.
:)
Just got in - no Hilton in this little burg, unfortunately. ;) I stayed last night at a new 'Homewood Suites by Hilton' in Palm Springs. Way nice, and all the more so since it's on an expense account.
:D
I'm going to try and get some pics in the Colorado Rockies tomorrow. I'll also post a pic of the damage to the back of the car. Felt a little self-conscious driving around Palm Springs, surrounded by Jags and Mercedes, driving my banged up, road-salt encrusted Road Warrrior. It was a trip - 24 hours before I'd been in an ice storm; then I was driving around in (what felt like) 100 degree temps, looking at the palms. :)
<edit>
Bought a local beer, product of the Wasatch Brewing Co. It's called Polygamy Porter. The slogan - 'Why have just one?'
:D :D :D
</edit>
Come on have another, what are you chicken?
Nice, good to see your having fun.
As it turned out, I didn't even finish the first one. That was the worst excuse for a beer I've ever tasted. Absolutely vile.
:P
lol, wawawaaaaa
I figure it must have been brewed by anti-polygamists.
;) :D
Glad you tried something new, though you're probably grateful you aren't too polite to spit that nasty stuff out. ;D
Hope you're having fun. Palm Springs is beautiful.
Hey, all -
Here's a pic of a little feature I spotted near the road in Utah. Nothing terribly significant, I just thought it looked cool with the erratics sitting in the foreground.
Here's another.
I have to say that the piece of I-70 between, oh, Grand Junction, Co, and the intersection with I-15 south of Salt Lake has to be the most spectacular piece of road I've ever seen. I didn't even try to photograph the scene - the scale dwarfed any attempt to capture it. Basically, it's the region between the Colorado River and the back side of Utah's Front Range. It is unbelievable. Think old John Ford westerns; think of the West you imagined as a child. There's an enourmous tableland, covered with grass, sage, and the occasional pine, that slope down to the west. It's riven with twisty, tight little canyons which thin out as the elevation increases on the Colorado side. Looking West, the tableland disappears into a huge basin that must be at least 50 miles across, filled with mesas. The far edge of the basin is delineated by the back side of the Utah mountains. The scale in unimaginable - you can see literally hundreds of miles of the mountain range at a time, and it's clear that where it runs out of site to the North and South, that it just keeps going. To the south the elevation drops until it runs into Zion and the Bryce Canyon area. The colors are incredible - deep reds, grays, yellows, white, green...
It really was stunning, all the more so because the portion of Utah that I'd seen before was an absolute wasteland. Funny - I think the only part of Utah a lot of people see is the section I-80 crosses. That area, between Salt Lake and Bonneville, is the most desolate, ugly piece of country I've seen. I had no idea the rest of the state was so spectacular! It defies description - you have to see it to believe it.
... and the buggy's boo-boo.
your breaklights out btw.
Yeah, yeah.... :D
No biggy. The car has an appointment with the insurance adjuster tomorrow and should be whole again by Wednesday. Or so they say. Could have been worse.
Will, you're a gas. Again. :P
Harvey, that's some boo-boo. Glad we can see a photo of it...from you. Another thing, that road looks spectacular, like it could be a tremendous inspiration for when you get back rendering again.
Yes, I think a lot of people don't really know the true beauty of Utah, but having been through parts of over 30 of our great United States, I can say with confidence that it is one of the most beautiful in the country. The canyon lands are truly spectacular.
Btw the car damage is surprisingly small considering your description of what happened. Very lucky!
- Oshyan
Quote from: Oshyan on March 30, 2008, 06:08:01 PM
Btw the car damage is surprisingly small considering your description of what happened. Very lucky!
- Oshyan
For sure. The explanation is the coefficient of friction between the tires and the road was exactly 0.0.
:D
Anthing more and it wouldn't have played out as it did; as it was, when the truck wheels started to ride up across the bumper and into the back of the car, the car just squirted out from under it.
The truck didn't stop; he did the right thing. The accident in font of us had at least two patrol cars stopped and several vehicles; there were at least a half dozen people standing in the road. If he had touched his brakes like I did and started sliding sideways, he'd have cleaned out the entire scene. Once I got rolling again, I did see a semi pulled over on the shoulder a mile or two further down the road. It could have been the guy I'd tangled with, but I have no way of knowing; I wasn't about to try stopping again myself.
Quote from: Harvey Birdman on March 30, 2008, 10:28:03 AM
Hey, all -
Here's a pic of a little feature I spotted near the road in Utah. Nothing terribly significant, I just thought it looked cool with the erratics sitting in the foreground.
Nice picture Harvey. I couldn't help noticing those "Out of place rocks" as we like to call them in TG2 land. Just amazing isn't it how things we think don't look natural in one of our renders, looks perfectly natural in real life.
Glad to see that you and your car survived the Boo Boo incident with minor injuries. ;)
Thanks for keeping us posted on your trip and supplying us with some great photos of the country.
I'm seeing this more and more, especially as critiques are made on images from TG2 about terrain or clouds or foliage. Sometimes nature is stranger than fiction. ;D
Quote from: sonshine777 on March 30, 2008, 10:35:44 PM
I couldn't help noticing those "Out of place rocks" as we like to call them in TG2 land. Just amazing isn't it how things we think don't look natural in one of our renders, looks perfectly natural in real life.