Texas to Oregon pic heavy

[charles]

Headed out on jan 1 to go back to work and since Iv enrolled into the local college to get my Heli pilot cert, I decided to drive so I could have my own transport without tying up a company truck.
 Here are a few pics of my travels. Unfortunately TxDOT failed to prep the roads and drivers failed to ck the weather and drive accordingly, myself included. I had already went through several places of good ice on the roads and drove accordingly. Got back up to highway speed (60mph) and as I topped a hill I saw some cherries and berries on the right and a car in the median on the left. I move to the left lane, get off the throttle and the exhaust brake kicks on and puts me into a skid. I put it in 4 high, disengaged the brake and caught enough traction and pointed the truck to the ditch that had a good steep bank on it and laid on the horn to warn the sheriff dep I was in trouble and to get out of the way. He scrambled in front of his car bout the time I hit the ditch and the embankment did what I wanted it to do and it slowed me down enough to gain full control and I come to a stop. Apologized to the deputy, he shook my hand and said I handled the skid very well and thanked me for giving him a heads up of something going wrong. Some motorists were not so lucky as the pics will show.




Some scenery in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Oregon
















Deadman's pass






Finally near the bottom of the pass

Looking back at what I just came down


Columbia river gorge. I wonder how long it took the water to carve out the rocks to its current level. There are some places where you can see the sediment lines as the river gouged out the gorge and some places the rock was to hard or the river/glacier moved to fast to grind the rocks down and has some nice plateaus.





A couple of GOD's creations (waterfalls), frozen in a moment of time







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[hogmantx1979]

Very nice now that's some very good pictures be safe and enjoy school

[WayOutWest]

I'll be doin that in reverse in about 10 days. Hope the weather cooperates. I have had a couple hairy trips across Wyoming. 7 below and blowing snow one year. Good luck with school. We will have to get together when I get back up here. That gorge is something else with the wet to dry transition.

[charles]

You be careful on ur way down WoW. Not sure which route ur taking, but it should b clear runnin unless another front moves through just before you head out. My route was  I35 to 287 ran 287 to dumas then jumped on 87 and into new mexico and over to I25 and ran 25 till i jumped back onto 287 north of denver and ran that to I80 in laramie. Hit 84 in utah n kept smokin west till portland. Wy had some wind blown snow cover on 80 for a good bit of it but for the most part it was a smooth trip. If i do this trip again nxt yr for the 2016 term of school, i think im gonna bring both parts of my sleeping bag if temps r gonna b down near freezing. I aint freezing my but off in the tck at 9 degrees but im to cheap to get a hotel so gotta be prepared better nxt time.

[WayOutWest]

I've been takin the same route except I have just stayed on 287 from Wyoming to Ft Worth. I don't much like payin for a motel but at 60 my body likes that real bed a lot better than the truck seat.

[bjohnston0311]

Good read. Be safe out there Charles