Bowling

I drove by Bowling Ball Lane today. Here's a picture. Can you see how it got its name?

Here's a closer look.

Eye of the tiger,

Dan

Bug

This bug was on the roof of my 4Runner kicking and flailing.

Then it flew a way,

Dan

Yes He is!

Despite the spelling error, I thought this would be an appropriate Sunday post.Come, come ye saints,

Dan

Every Cloud Has its Silver Lining

We want the funk,

Dan

Shouldn't That Sign Read "Road Closed"?

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be monitoring construction on a well pad when they had to use explosives to break up the bedrock in order to dig deeper. Everyone on site had to move away about a quarter of a mile. I wanted to film the action so I climbed a hill with a couple other guys to get a better view. One of the trucks from the construction company drove back towards the well pad and I assumed they wouldn't blow everything up until they came back so I turned around to take in the scenery. My assumption was wrong. No sooner had I turned my back when a sound like a hundred cannons going off at the same time erupted from what seemed like directly behind me. I nearly peed my pants. One of the guys there said "I don't care how many times you've seen that or how old you are, that's still cool."This week, I was on another monitor. Unknown to me, a nearby well pad was also being blasted. I wasn't ready for that one either. Once again, peeing in my pants was a possibility. Once again, I didn't get to film it. About a half hour later, I noticed small tan spots all over my shirt, pants, and hat. That dust was solid rock not too long ago.Tear the roof off the sucka,

Dan

Dinosaurs 2: Electric Boogaloo

Occasionally, I get the opportunity to work in Colorado (as you've probably gathered from previous posts). So I've been able to find dinosaurs there too. Here are a few. The last green one is actually in Utah, but it's on the way to Colorado.

You know they want your ruby slippers and your little dog too,

Dan

Religion

Dinosaurs need it too.

Vampires in the sun,

Dan

Bones

Here are some fossils I found.

Crocodile scutes (aka. dermal armor, dermal ossicles, or osteoderms)Crocodile jaw fragments (see the tooth in the upper right corner?)Fish centra (aka. vertebrae, backbones)Brontothere cervical vertebra 4 (aka. rhino-type neck bone)

If you get an outfit you can be a cowboy too,

Dan

Chipmunk in Colora'o

I couldn't get close enough to tell whether this is Chip or Dale, but I am sure he's a Rescue Ranger.

I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy,

Dan

Gas Pump

I didn't know that gas pumps that don't accept debit/credit cards still existed outside antique shops and museums. But they do. I used this one in Rangely, CO.A Great place to live,

Dan

Dinosaurs

I think it's pretty cool that I get paid to look for fossils. Not many people can say that. To prove that I'm successful in what I do, here are some pictures of some dinosaurs I found in Vernal this past week.
Alice the camel has four humps,

Dan

Farmer's Tans

I get to spend a lot of time outside. Consequently, I have a pretty good farmer's tan. Grace inherited my skin and she tans really well too. Her farmer's tan isn't as clear as mine, but it's still there. I had to hold her still so Faith could snap the photo. If you know Grace, she hates being confined in any way.

On the road to nowhere,

Dan

Bug

I was sitting on a monitor the other day when a huge weird bug landed on my shoulder. It had large emerald green eyes and a conical body covered in yellow fuzz. It stayed there long enough for me to take out my camera, turn it on, switch it to the macro setting and turn it off again. I accidentally hit the on/off button instead of the "take a picture" button. I turned it on again, and then just as I was about to take the picture, it flew away. This is what I got instead.

We know where we're going, but we don't know where we've been,

Dan

Paleo Survey

A paleontological survey is required for any new construction of roads, well pads, or pipelines. So that's what I do. To do a paleo survey you need a 4WD vehicle. The gas fields are about an hour from Vernal but often you drive two to get to the site for a survey. You keep track of time and miles driven for each job and have to take notes and pictures. You take notes on the legal description (where the project is located and where it goes and stuff), notes on the geology (what rocks and stuff are there), and notes on the paleontology (what fossils are there). The pictures are taken to prove that you were there. First you take a picture of the beginning of the access road.Then you take a picture of the pipeline tie-in.Then you take a picture where the access road enters the well pad.You take a pictures of any fossils you might find. If it's not on Indian reservation land, you can collect anything that might be significant. It will end up in a museum, most likely BYU's Earth Science Museum. Finally, you take a picture of the center stake and sign it as further evidence that you were there so you can move onto the next thing.This is the most basic and common thing I do for work besides monitor construction which is another story. A much longer, more boring, and dangerous one.

He kicked my caboose every which way but loose,

Dan

More Flats

Well, my flat tire woes aren't over yet. Not only did Faith get a flat in the Buick last week, but I got three flats in two days this week.

It all started when I was trying to decide whether to take Argyle Canyon or Gate Canyon back to Vernal from Harmon Canyon. When I thought about taking Argyle Canyon, I got a sick feeling so I decided to take Gate Canyon. It's a good thing I listened to that sick feeling the Spirit was giving me because I got a flat in Gate Canyon. Gate Canyon has a wider and busier road than Argyle Canyon. Not only did I have room to pull over, but I was able to flag down someone to lend a hand when I had trouble. Once I got the lug nuts off, which was a feat in itself because I had to stand on the lug wrench and bounce to loosen the lug nuts (remember I'm not a featherweight so they were really torqued on), the wheel wouldn't budge. I kicked it and banged on the tire with my rock hammer and nothing happened. Anyway, I flagged down an oil field service guy in a pickup and he had a huge rubber mallet. He wailed on the wheel with that thing for about a minute before it started to budge. If I had taken Argyle Canyon, I most likely would have been out of luck in the roadside assistance department. So he helped me finish changing the tire and I was on my way.

Ever since my flat experiences in Wyoming, I've kept two spare tires in my truck just in case so the next day, I decided that I would be safe with just one spare because I didn't have time to get the first flat fixed before I had to return to the field. Turns out the hole in that one was too big to be fixed anyway. So I head out to do some surveys with a co-worker and when we get back into the truck at around 2pm, I notice that my spare (the one I put on the day before) was totally flat. The sidewall had cracked and let all the air out so I knew that one was a goner too. No problem, I still had one more spare left. So I got that sucker on in record time and we were off. We had one more well pad to survey and then we headed back to Vernal. Again, we had to make a choice. We could have taken Seep Ridge or Glen Bench. We decided to take Seep Ridge because we were closer to pavement that way and had no spares. So as we're driving down Seep Ridge (on pavement) we heard a series of three terrible noises. After each one, we get out and check what's going on.

Terrible Noise #1: The tread on one of my tires begins to split and tear off. We resume course and drive a little slower.

Terrible Noise #2: All of the tread on said tire is stripped off and we're driving on baldness. Since we have no spare, we just slow down and keep on truckin'.

Terrible Noise #3: Amazingly enough, the tread isn't the only thing that wants to come off the tire, a large piece of sidewall decides it would like to stay behind. We keep on keepin' on.

I guess I should clarify. Technically this third tire wasn't a strictly flat per sé, but it was destroyed seeing as how there was zero tread remaining. By God's good grace, we arrive safely in Vernal and go directly to Big-O where they proceed to try and rip me off. (The Vernal Big-O isn't as nice or as competent as the Spanish Fork Big-O.) I had three ruined tires and three good ones. I bought one new one to get me home. My tires need to be balanced and rotated and I need to "borrow" a couple more spares from my Dad and my alignment is out of whack, but I made it home without a spare. I've got 5 more old tires to ruin before I'll feel justified in buying a complete new set. At this rate I should be the proud owner of a new set of tires some time next week.

I believe in a thing called love,

Dan

Time Warp Mirror

On Tuesday, I was driving through a narrow canyon to get to a survey location when I looked into some kind of time warp mirror. I was coming around a bend when I saw a 4Runner just like mine except it was clean and the body was in very good condition. I stared at it as we passed and wished mine looked a little more like that. As we neared each other, I looked at the driver. He could have been an older version of myself with graying hair and a mustache. I'm glad I'm not that old yet. I thought, "Wow that must have been some strange time warp mirror because I saw my truck from 15 years ago and myself from 30 years in the future. Weird."

Oh lately it's so quiet,

Dan

Flat

I recently got four flat tires on my 4Runner in the past two weeks. First there was a nail in one tire and I got that fixed. Then about a week later, I found that I had two flats at the same time after driving on poorly maintained dirt/gravel roads for an hour. One was a mystery as to what made it go flat, but the tire was destroyed anyway so I guess it doesn't matter. The other had a nail in it an was down to about 10 psi. So I got those fixed (a story worthy of it's own post). Then a few days later as I was driving home, I heard a terrible clanking noise directly beneath me followed by the dreaded thumping noise made by a flat tire. I pulled over and started checking my tires out but they all looked fine. I heard a loud hissing noise coming from somewhere and finally I noticed a nut sticking out of my right rear tire. Well, it wasn't just a nut. It was this.
One, two, seven, eight, ten,

Dan

Petroglyph

I saw this petroglyph when I was doing some work on the Ute Indian Reservation.
This isn't where the music's at,

Dan

Wyoming

This past week I got to monitor construction in Wyoming. You know how the Utah rectangle has a big chunk taken out of it in the north east corner of the state? Well, that's the part of Wyoming I was in. Anyway, I found two baby birds in the road as it was being built. I moved them out of the way of construction, but still felt bad because I knew they were probably going to die and there wasn't much I could do for them. As the day continued, I noticed a very large herd of cattle approaching. It came in two waves. A couple of cows from the first wave are in the foreground and the bulk of the second wave is in the background.This herd had at least four bulls which made me nervous especially when one stared at me for a solid minute. But they moved on... right across the well pad under construction. You can't really tell, but the bulldozer and scraper are still in motion. They didn't really slow down at all for the cows... or the bulls and calves for that matter. To sum up, here's a shot of my manly vehicle with a bull to the left of it. Can't you just see the testosterone oozing out of your computer screen?
My mama said thick or thin,

Dan

I'm glad I bought a Toyota

I recently saw these videos on YouTube describing a vehicle similar to the ones my father and I recently purchased. I would embed them, but it's been disabled for these videos. These are the links. All together, they are about 20 minutes long so keep that in mind if you're going to watch them. It's pretty amazing what they do to this vehicle and how it stands up to some pretty serious punishment.

Top Gear: Killing a Toyota Part 1

Top Gear: Killing a Toyota Part 2 (a)

Top Gear: Killing a Toyota Part 2 (b)

The preacher said richer or poorer,

Dan