After a very short soak, I continued north toward the VW dealer at Reno, arriving about 2:00pm. I hope to get my "check engine" light diagnosed and fixed. The guy at the service desk said he didn't have time to work me in today, and suggested I continue on toward Utah and have it checked out at a VW dealer in Salt Lake. Well, I didn't want to plan the rest of my travels around searching for open VW dealerships, so I went over to an auto parts store and bought a little handheld computer device so I could read the scan codes myself. It was a bit pricey, but it will forever free me from needing to make shop appointments just to find out why that "check engine" light is on.
I plug in the computer, read the scan code and clear the error in about two minutes on the parking lot of the auto parts store. Yes, the code is for the evaporative emissions control system, which is not critical to the drivability of the car. All the service people I've spoken to say that code will show up if the gas cap isn't sealed perfectly after you buy gas. If it repeats, I may buy a new gas cap or take other action. It feels very nice to have that warning light turned off now, so that now I can count on the fact that if a serious problem shows up, I won't just dismiss it, thinking it was the same old problem making the light go on.
The problem that the service guys in Bishop had was one that's familiar to me from my computer programming career. Standards often aren't so standardized. There's a standard, called OBD-II, which is used for the computerized diagnostics for all cars made in 1996 or newer, both import and domestic. My van supports OBD-II, and in theory, so did their code reader, so it should have worked. But their code reader was old, and it couldn't communicate with my van. The reader I bought at the auto parts store was newer and nicer, and worked just fine.
My reader is also kind of a nifty little gadget that lets me display the readings of all the vehicle's sensors, like the vehicle speed, volume of air intake, intake air temperature, coolant temperature, throttle position, engine RPM's, and lots more. I can display them in real time as I'm driving, or I can record them as I'm driving and inspect them later. This may provide some entertainment as I'm driving across Nevada.
I head east across Nevada's highway 50, duplicating the drive I did a few weeks ago when I went to Dinosaur National Monument with 8 friends. This time, I see several forest fires. In this photo, the smoke is rising, and when it gets high enough, the water vapor condenses into a cloud.
I stay at the same hot spring near Austin where we stayed earlier, and at sunset, I take my third soak of the day. Meet an interesting guy who's roaming the desert. Turns out he's recently divorced, and bitter about the fact that his wife took everything he had, plus a percentage of his future income. He's claims he's getting even by proving himself to be the bum she said he was. He's quit work and started rambling around. All his worldly possessions are in his pickup truck. As long as he's not making any money, he doesn't have to pay her any more.
I drove through Eureka where I bought gas, photographed the town sign, and mailed a postcard. At Ely, I did laundry, and then went to Gorman's supermarket (where I shopped a couple of weeks ago on the way to Dinosaur), and bought pizza for dinner. Drove on to Great Basin National Park, and camped at upper Lehman Creek campground. It's beautiful here, with the sound of the creek rushing by, and the aspens, ponderosa, pinyon, and juniper. There are bristlecones up high here, but I'd have to walk, and Pepper's not allowed on the trail.
I saw only one fire today, on the west side of Wheeler Peak.
After making pizza for dinner, I went to a ranger-led talk. A retired ranger talked about his 30-year career with the Park Service. He'd been a ranger at Yosemite, Lake Meade, superintendent of Lehman Caves and Kenai Fjords, and a few other jobs in between. The talk was actually quite interesting, despite being a bit of a rambling personal account from a person I don't know. Much of it discusses internal Park Service politics and bureaucracy.
The headstone on the last photograph reads:
I entered Utah early in the morning, and stopped at the Border Inn to check phone messages. The Border Inn is straddling the border between two of the most culturally different states in the Union, Utah and Nevada. It has its gas pumps in Utah, so it can sell gas at that state's cheaper prices. But it has slot machines on the Nevada side of the building. I drove through some beautiful country on highway 50. Where 50 joins I-70, it goes through a very scenic canyon. I took off to the south and headed toward Capitol Reef National Park.
Between I-70 and Loa, there's practically no sign of human presence on the road. Some awe-inspiring thunderstorms are booming about. The road goes through some pastoral valleys surrounded by hills covered in a patchwork of aspen and juniper. Going in and out of the thunderstorms makes for interesting lighting effects.
Around the town of Loa, the road turns from southbound to eastbound, and fairly quickly, the scenery becomes more stark and unreal. Wow!
I camp at the campground in the Fruita area of Capitol Reef N.P. This was an early Mormon pioneer settlement area. There are still old cabins here, and the campground is in an old orchard, providing shade. This area is all irrigated using water from the river flowing through. The Park Service maintains the orchards and irrigation as a cultural historical artifact from the Mormon Pioneer days. At least that's what they claim. I think the fact that it makes for a pleasant oasis and a shady campground is at least as important as the historical preservation aspect.
In the afternoon, I watch monarch butterflies feeding on milkweed in the meadows. Just after sunset, A family of deer comes right up to the campsite, grazing in the orchards. They're about 30 to 40 feet from me as I stand at the van, putting them within range of the camera's flash and telephoto lens. This is what's technically termed the "deer in the headlights" lighting effect which happens when you use a flash on your camera.
After sunset, Pepper and I attend a ranger-led talk and slide show describing some of the geology, natural history, and human history of the area. There are some beautiful slides shown. Several bats keep flying in the beam of the slide projector, perhaps because the bugs they prey on are attracted to the light.
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© 2000, Richard Cochran
