Wallace Idaho and before ,,,,, (chasing Tim Herkimer)

Who the heck is Tim Herkimer you ask. Well, he's a long haul driver who drives for Davis Trucking. My daughter Amanda dispatches for Davis and introduced me (virtually) to Tim. He follows Jimmy's travels and if he ever stops or stays in one place long enough to catch up I'd let him buy me coffee. LOL

Today I stopped in Wallace Idaho for a break and decided to update this bloggy thing while sitting here waiting for the exhaust to cool down so I can tighten a leak.

They have a park which consists of an outdoor mining Museum as well as this memorial to the Firefighters and others that lost thier lives in the 1910 Pulaski Wildfire. This fire consisted of 1,700 fires that combined burned over 3,000,000 acres. One of the towns devastated by it was Wallace in which I sit as I type. Look it up, it's a pretty interesting story.

Here is the memorial dedicated to miners worldwide and thier families. Now, Jimmy wants to be a miner, of course he wants to be a firefighter/miner since we're here. LOL

The outdoor museum has displays showing and describing in great detail peices of mining equipmet from hand drill bits to an actual derrick and cage used to travel the vertical shafts deep into the depths of the mine thousands of feet hauling miners and equipment up and down. Because of the noise, dust, heat, etc. directions for this lift was given by buzzer rather than voice. A code was developed where say you wanted to be picked up at the 4,600 foot level you would ring 4 times pause then 6 times. Like the old Morse Code or like the old phones for those like me that had a phone ring of 2 shorts and a long.

As I said the outdoor displays were really awesome. You may not be aware or even thought about it but the hauling equipment has to be scaled down to go through a tunnel. Here you see an air driven train to haul miners along horizontal shafts. Jimmy is actually sitting in the third window but he's in the shade thus hard to see. The car is not over 4' tall and the cyclinder in the rear is the air pressure tank. It is propelled by forcing air pressure though a 3 way valve that controls speed (low, neutral, high) and another valve that controls direction (forward and reverse)

There is also another train that hauls equipment, product and waste. It is also short so the operator sits low and the braking wheel (looks like a steering wheel) sits below the operators seat.

They even built a simulated tunnel in which they described the blast, and drill patterns used by underground miners to extend the tunnel further in search of product.

On the way here we traveled I-90 East. I had heard how nice the Snoqualmie Pass was but it was 4a.m. when I hit it so to me it was dark and foggy. Kind of like Motel 6 rooms when your eyes are shut. (looks the same as a Ramada Inn until you pay the bill)

First stop at first light was MP 89 just east of Cle Elum Washington.

Jimmy was zzzzzzzzzzzzz since we had left Carrie's house at 3 a.m. and it was 5a.m. I was only awake because I was driving. Been thinking I should teach him to drive but he cant reach the pedals.

This stop was more of a 1 hour nap then onward. The peak between the two trees is Mt. Stuart at 9,415 feet.

I stpped outside Moses Lake Washington for a picture of this bridge which I think is kinda cool and a picture of Wild Horse Mesa State park

I made this picture a bit larger because I just like it. Imagine back in the day riding through the canyon alongside a huge lake when you look East and see this with indians on thier backs. These horses are amazing as is the picture. One could say what a lucky time to be there and get such a shot.

I spent the night alongside a lake. Ran the generator and ahd a long nice sleep.

Couer D'Alene Lake in Idaho.

A beautiful lake and scenic drive. I keep seeing Scenic Bipass Routes and need to find out if they actually return to the highway because if they do I am going to start enjoying them. There was one along the shore of the lake that I wanted to take so bad. But I have a large fear of getting to the end somewhere and unable to " turn this rig around" (A 1964 tune by The Willis Brothers in which they needed 40 acres to turn this rig around)

Well, we are back at Wallace and I'm about to climb under the box tighten 3 nuts and head East again.

Take care and God Bless.

P.S. Jimmy says Hi with a big wave and those Horses? Well, they were actually brass statues of Wild Horses that from a distance look so cool, and real. 8)