Cal's Central Wyoming Motorcycle Trip

Well one day I was looking at the Map on 360 cities and decided that central Wyoming needed some 360 panorama photos. Usually once a year I take and go on a multi day motorcycle ride with my 2007 Honda ST1300. This motorcycle is good for going long distances in a day.

I left work on Thursday 4 August,2011 at 12:30 and headed home to load up and get on the road. By 2:00 pm I was on the road heading towards Wyoming. I made it to Rawlins, Wyoming by 8:30 that evening.

Friday morning I was up and on the road by 6:30 am. The first spot to visit was the Ames monument. I read about the Ames monument on the RoadsideAmerica website. This site specializes in the odd out of the way tourist attractions.

Ames Monument in USA

The Ames brothers monument is a pyramid that was completed in 1882 for the Ames brothers who helped in the financing of the transcontinental railroad. I liked what RoadsideAmerica has to say about the monument.

To get to the monument, you have to drive on dirt roads for a couple of miles. There was a herd of Antelope near the monument.

Ames Monument 1 in USA

Several photos later I was back on the motorcycle heading to Rawlins, Wyoming and by this point had put on ~210 miles. Back in Rawlins I took time to fill up the motorcycle, have lunch at subway and then I was off to Independence Rock.

Independence rock is located east of Martins cove, past the Devils gate (Slit in the rock where the sweet-water river passes through the mountain). There is a nice rest area there with a covered wagon on display. This weekend was the opening of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the local motorcycle club was setup serving coffee to the motorcycle riders heading there. Independence rock is on the way to Casper, Wyoming and I saw several groups heading to Sturgis.

Independence Rock, Wyoming in USA

I ditched the motorcycle gear, and headed towards Independence rock. I saw people climbing all over the rock and decided that I would head to the top of the rock.

Independence Rock, Wyoming (View from the top) in USA

There were names scratched all over on the rock. Most of the names on the rock were in the 1900s. On the way down, I ran into where B. Snow signed his name on June 10, 1853. On the way up, I noticed that there were some people over there looking at it. I couldn't believe how fast come of the youth were coming down off of the rock. I was hoping that they wouldn't trip and fall on the way down.

Independence Rock - B. Snow 1853 in USA

I left Independence rock and headed back towards Devils gate and Martin's cove. I followed the old road back towards Martin's cove and stopped at a grave site for Fredrick Fulkerson. This is one of the oldest identified graves on the Oregon-California trail.

Fredrick Fulkerson Grave in USA

At the entrance of Martin's Cove on the old highway near the parking area, there were three monuments. One of the monuments was to the Pioneers that were buried at Martins cove between 1830 and 1870. The dates that the monuments were erected were also old.

Martins Cove - To the Pioneers monument in USA

As I headed towards the visitors center, I noticed an area to the east where they had Handcarts parked that the youth use when they have their handcart treks. The LDS church offers handcart treks for the church youth groups. Youth groups spend a week trekking around the area pulling a handcart trying to recreate the experience of the emigrants that journeyed to Utah in the 1800's.

Martins Cove - Handcarts in USA

As I was stitching the panorama photo together, I noticed in the shade under one of the handcarts there was a rabbit. If you look to the east in the Handcart photo above, towards Devils Gate, you can see the rabbit under the cart.

I arrived at Martin's cove right at shift change for the missionaries. I wandered around the visitors center area waiting for them to haul me over to the actual cove. Near the visitors center there is a 'Peoples of the Sweetwater museum'. I spent some time looking around this area while waiting for a ride to the actual cove. The Cove is located 2 1/2 miles away and I wasn't ready to hike over there.

Martins Cove - Peoples of the Sweetwater museum in USA

Shift change for the missionaries was finally over and I caught a ride up to the cove. The entrance to the cove is 2 1/2 miles away from the visitors center. I didn't want to hike up to the cove because it would mess up my hip. I am running bone on bone right now on my right hip but can manage a mile or two; after that, I pay for it the next day.

Martins Cove - Entrance to the Cove in USA

Visitors are usually dropped off at this monument and walk just over a half a mile to the end of the cove. The missionaries offered to take me to the end of the cove and drop me off but I told them to let me off here.

I stopped part way into the cove to take another photo. The trail goes up the north west side of the cove and back on the south east side but does not come back to the monument at the entrance.

Martins Cove - Inside the cove in USA

I finally reached the end of the cove. There are benches where visitors can sit while the missionaries tell about events at the cove. I was lucky to reach the end of the cove when there weren't any groups.

Martins Cove in USA

After I left the cove I headed down towards the Sweetwater crossing monuments. On the trails, there are signs talking about each area. Here is a view further on down the trail heading towards the Sweetwater crossing monument. There is a sign talking about the Martin handcart company exiting the cove.

Martins Cove - Exiting the Cove in USA

I finally caught a ride down to the Sweetwater crossing monument. There are three statues here depicting the rescue party carrying the emigrants across the Sweetwater river. There also was a youth group at this site. I hurried in and was able to get two shots of the different statues before the group got in the way where I couldn't take any more photos.

Martins Cove - Sweetwater Crossing Monument in USA

And another statue....

Martins Cove - Sweetwater Crossing Monument in USA

I though it was pretty cool to be able to have some youth groups there dressed like the pioneers pulling the handcarts. It makes the photos more interesting..

From the Sweetwater crossing statues, I made my way to the south to where I could catch a ride. Here was another sign explaining what was involved in crossing the Sweetwater river.

Martins Cove - Crossing the Sweetwater in USA

Why are there guardrails around the marker? They must have some really wild shuttle drivers knocking them over :) or maybe the youth are sitting on them...

I finally made it over by this Old Wagon where I caught a ride back to the visitors center. The timing for the photo was just right as another handcart group just passed by heading west.

Martins Cove - Old Wagon in USA

As you can see in the photo above when looking to the north west they must be expecting more wild handcart drivers with all of the guardrails around the information signs. The Pioneers back in 1856 would have liked to have these graveled graded paths with signs along the Oregon trail... And look! They even have restroom facilities to the west. These modern day pioneers sure have it good...

Well, its going on 4:00pm here at Martin's cove, and I have a hotel reservation for tonight in Evanston, Wyoming. Thats another 291 miles to drive along my planned route up along the Sweetwater river towards Lander, Wyoming. I wanted to take some photos of Split Rock Pony express station marker, and the Lander cutoff sign. I have already put on a bunch of miles, its hot, and I am driving west into a headwind and the sun. I wondered should I head the shortest route back to Evanston or continue on? Well, I thought that it would be a while before I am back up this way again, so its off to Lander.

The next stop was the Split Rock Pony Express station stop. From what I read there was a pony express station at Devils Gate, and then another one here at Split Rock. When I arrived at the Pony express station, I was the only one there. When I started taking the photo a bus and a person on a motorcycle drove into the parking lot. I was able to finish up the photo before the group got out of the bus. When I got back to my motorcycle, the other person on the motorcycle parked his right next to mine about a foot away. I was thinking that he had the whole da#n parking lot so why did he park here???

Split Rock Pony Express station in USA

Next stop was the Split Rock Marker. The Split Rock Marker was used for navigation when traveling along the Oregon trail. Travelers coming from the east could see the Split Rock of about a day before arriving at the rock, and for two days after they passed it heading towards the west.

Split Rock marker - Oregon Trail in USA

Don't get caught littering in Wyoming! Its a 750.00 fine. Nice place for a sign right next to the marker. Maybe they could have placed it closer to the road....

Later I reached the Lander Cutoff marker on my way to Rock Springs.

Lander Cutoff - Oregon Trail, Wyoming in USA

When I first saw this marker about 4-5 years ago it was a wooden sign. I thought the cutout on the top of the sign would make a good scroll saw pattern. I transferred it into adobe photoshop and made a pattern out of it. I partially cut it out but ran into problems because the 1/4" oak was to brittle and I had reduced the size of the pattern to 26" across.

From the marker, I still had about 180-190 miles to go to get to Evanston. I arrived at Evanston at 9:00pm and put on 597 miles on the motorcycle for the day.

Wow, I still have a blog....

It's been a long time since I have written in this blog. I was surfing the net tonight and ran across a blog on blogger.com and it reminded me that I have one here! Well, I thought that I should go take a look at it and see when the last time I wrote to it. It was back in 2009 and here it is 2011. Man the time flies by fast.

What have I been up to lately??? well, first, I don't think that there is anyone out there in blogger land that is following this blog but just in case that someone stumbles across it here is a general overview of what I have been up to.

In Jan 2010, I bought a new 2007 Honda St1300 motorcycle and rode it most of the year of 2010. Around September I noticed that I have turned over 10,000 miles on it so I decided that I would put it up for the winter. Today, 3/9/2011, I had the bike inspected and registered and it is the first time that I have rode it since last year.

My mother passed away near the end of June 2010. That was not fun but everyone has to experience that.

In December of 2010 I started getting interested in taking 360 spherical panorama's with my camera because I noticed that they where now showing up as the default layer on Google earth. So far I have 32 360 degree spherical panorama photos on Google Earth. Here is a link to my photographer page on 360cities.net. http://www.360cities.net/profile/cdjonesus

360cities.net website is for 360 spherical panoramas only. I am really having a fun time looking at all of the panoramas at this website using the map view. Not all of the panoramas that are visible on the map view in 360cities.net are visible on Google earth.

It appears that on 360cities.net that the vast majority of photographers are from other parts of the world instead of the United States. The web site founder is from Prague. The United States is way under represented in photos compared to the rest of the world. Europe has ton's more photos than the United States.

Currenltly there are only 6 photographers in the state of Utah. There are plenty of areas around me to take photo of since there is no one else around. I have noticed that a lot of the photos taken in some of the tourist areas in the United States have been taken from foreigners.

Well its getting late and I have to get up for work in the morning. Please stop by the 360cities.net website and view some of my photos so the view counts will go up.

Clock repair

I received a clock to repair yesterday. I took the clock down to my shop and set it down on the workbench. The clock has a pendulum which started working. I watched the minute hand and it was moving also. I noticed that the hour hand was stuck on the minute hand and thought to myself that this would be easy to fix. The hands were straightened and positioned on the clock. I turned a knob on the back of the clock to position the hands. As the knob turned, the hour hand swung to the 6 o clock position and would not move. I moved the hour hand by hand and found that it would swing freely.

I never have disassembled a clock movement before and thought that I might be able to find the source of the problem and maybe fix it. Using a very small screw diver and my lighted magnifying glass on the scroll saw I proceeded to take the movement apart. I started taking reference photos after the back was removed so I could reassemble the clock if the problem was found.


I finally found the problem with the gear that drives the hour hand. There were several teeth missing. This problem may have been cause by trying to set the clock by moving the hands instead of using the knob on the back of the movement.

Its off to the Internet now to locate a new movement for the clock.

Getting the pattern for the back ready

Tonight I spent some time after work getting the pattern ready to cut out the back of the worthington clock. The plans for the Worthington clock were scanned into adobe photoshop cs2. I use this program so I can make adjustments to the pattern. When it comes time to cut out a part, I print out the pattern from photoshop. The back of the worthington clock was printed out in 3 peices and then taped together. I set the peices that were already cut out with the pattern.

Tomorrow night I am going to try to get the wood ready to stack cut 2 backs at once.

More work on the Worthington clocks

Today I continued cutting on the back top of the 'Worthington' clocks. The parts are being stack cut out two at a time. You have to cut a little slower when stack cutting but overall it saves time compared to cutting them out one at a time




Here the the cutting is finished and the pattern has to be pealed off of the wood. This is especially hard if the pattern has been applied and then the part sits around for several months before its cut out.

After the pattern is pulled/scraped/etc off of the part, the part is sanded.



An orbital sander with fine paper is used to finish up the part. It doesn't take to much sanding to get the job done. You have to be careful not to sand too much off and get into the next ply.









The two completed tops after sanding. Cutting out the back of the clock is next.

Guard that eye!

The right eye is getting better each day. I have to put in eye drops four times a day and also wear a patch at night so I dont scratch and dig at my eye. It's lots of fun.

Word for the day: Aniseikonia

Well its the morning after the eye surgery and my pupil size is back to normal. I decided that I would try out my current distance glasses by removing the lens for the right eye. I put the glasses on keeping both eyes closed. I opened my left eye and focused on an object in the kitchen. I then closed my left eye and opened my right eye. Wow what a difference in size. Now for the test. What will the object look like with both eyes open. I opened my eyes and my brain could not merge the images. The glasses came off as fast as I could get them off my face.

After reading on the Internet several days before the operation I came across the term: Aniseikonia, a problem with vision where images on each of the retinas are different sizes. I think that if I would have kept my glasses on I would have been sick.

The drive up to Orem, Utah for my followup eye appointment was fun. I didn't wear any glasses so I could not see that great out of my left eye. My right eye that was operated on had to do all the work. I was fine until I reached I-15 where there was lots of traffic. I really had to pay attention so I would not get into an accident.

The eye doctor checked my eye and found that it was healing nicely. Vision was 20-20 with a very slight astigmatism. I needed some computer glasses for work Monday so I asked the doc what he could come up with. After a few minutes he had a trial frame with some lenses. I put the glasses on and sat down in front of the computer. So far so good, let me see, why am I seeing double? Aniseikonia!! Well, the only solution besides getting the other eye operated on for cataracts, is a contact lens. I would like to have the other eye operated on but in the mean time I am now wearing a contact. The doctor applied some numbing drops to the left eye, popped in the contact, and wow it seems to be working.

Well I will have to give this contact thing a try. I tried wearing contacts about 5 years ago and couldn't stand it.