Generators
Kids feeding fish
The weather was better this morning so I decided to ride to Flaming Gorge Dam. I also needed drinking water and thought I could find a campground with a spigot. The highway to the dam was above 8000 feet for most of the way, so it was a chilly ride until the road dropped 2000 feet to the visitors center.
The tour of the dam was fun. The guide new all her numbers and statistics for the tourists and recited them at each stop along the way. After passing through the generator room one guy asked her how long it took for the electricity to get from the generators to a nearby town. She looked puzzled for a few moments and then said, “I’m not quite sure but it would probably take 20 minutes or so.”
On the way back I pulled into a pay campground and filled up a couple of gallon jugs with drinking water. Usually if you pay to stay at a campground, the dump is included with the fee. This dump station had a sign that said there was a $6 fee on top of the camping fee.
A while later I came to a sign announcing a historic cabin down a dirt road so I pulled off to check it out. I went maybe 5 miles and still hadn’t found the cabin. The sky was beginning to look angry so I turned around and gave up any more sightseeing. I only wish they would tell you how far some of these places are from the main road.
I just made it back before the rain came down in buckets. I probably was going a little too fast up the forest road to get here, but there is nothing worse than getting soaked minutes from home.
The weekend has brought many people out to the forest even though the weather has not been great. The camp on my left has a dog that barks constantly. I thought the animal was in distress after listening to him bark and howl for three hours, so I walked through the woods to see if he was hurt or something. Apparently, the owners had just tied him to a tree and left.
Rambo and his friends are camped to my right. It sounded like machine-gun fire for a while this afternoon. Even as it rained the gunfire went on and on. Usually there is a rule about shooting in a camping area but I don’t think many rules are enforced up here.
I really enjoy a good tour narrator. We heard many in Alaska. The problem up there was, after a few, we began to hear the same (native Alaskan, sled dog, gold rush) information over and over and we sort of tuned out. Then you risk learning new stuff.
Hope Rambo leaves early and heads for home. Keep your head down!
It made me chuckle when she said that. I always thought electricity travels close to the speed of light. I don’t think it would take too long to get to the next town.
Yep. Since no one had asked that question before she took a wild uneducated guess. It shows that she was not an expert on the topic — just one who had memorized the spiel.
Sounds like you are finding some places that are heavily used. Sure would be nice if all these weekenders would stay home and let us fill timers have the camping areas to ourselves.
Close to the speed of light is about right. That’s pretty funny.
Something one of my teachers said while at DeVry has always stayed with me.
He said you could probably walk faster than the electrons travel in a wire but the force travels at almost the speed of light depending on the medium. It travels faster in copper wire than in aluminum.
I’m not sure if he was right about the slow speed but I’ve found a few websites that agree.
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SpeedOfElectrons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_electricity
Another one.