The Big Boy is Coming Your Way

 

 

Union Pacific “Big Boy” 4014

Two tours this year. The West tour starts Sunday.

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The Eastern schedule is, at this point, tentative but will include Pennsylvania.

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The UP and the Norfolk Southern are holding merger talks which would form the first and only coast to coast railroad.

As is my habit (some call it an obsession) I will be somewhere along the tracks to watch it.

Rare Earths

A start to ending China’s near monopoly.

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Got Nothing

So many things are going on in the state and the world that my umbrage locker is overfull. Nothing I can write anything coherent about. You get another car story.

Car Story

Stuck, in a 4x4 1990’s Nissan Pickup way off the main highway while being my usual fool self.

The pickup came from our Grand Junction store inventory I decided to use after dropping off some vehicle I drove over from our Longmont store. My destination was Craig via Highway 13 when I decided to detour to a county road and take another route into Meeker. Boredom overrode judgment.

There was still snow on the ground and a few miles into the detour the county road was blocked. Rather than a sensible three point U turn on gravel I chose making a left into sagebrush covered with about a foot of snow. Mud underneath. No problem, 4x4, right? Turned out the 4x4 indicator on the dash showed 4x4 but the truck was in 2 wd. I was both stuck and fucked.

Did I mention I was in a cell phone dead area?

The next hour was spent crawling under the truck trying to get it into 4 wd. Finally, looked at the owners manual and  got smart enough to start checking fuses. Suddenly heard a welcome "clunk". From that point easily drove out. After changing clothes, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Did I learn anything from the experience? Hell no, on to the next bad decision.

As always, YMMV

Didn't Pay Climate Tax

 Spring Equinox

81° on my balcony.  I turned on the apartment A/C this morning. This is the strangest winter I can remember. We need a minimum of precipitation to keep the soil microbes alive and I fear we haven’t had enough. Bad summer coming?

 Sick Propaganda

A high school classmate posted this on Facebook. I called him out.

This man is well educated, a world traveler from a Little Snake River ranching family. I am baffled by smart people getting sucked into lies. Of course, that would never happen to any of us, right?

David StLouis

pdrensotSo53t1c5u5354562a9mff65i2m1cuufc9uhti4gtm1hu3106l7i1 ·

I'm angry! Copied from a blog:

The United States, once the repository of truth and freedom preserving institutions, can betray all morality, all law, by intentionally attacking a girl’s school in Iran for children of Iranian Guards in order to demoralize the Iranian military force in hopes of reducing its ability to resist Israeli-American unprovoked aggression against the Iranian nation. Trump and Netanyahu opened their war by murdering 185 little girls.

Do governments so totally evil, so overflowing with self-righteousness and self-justification for their crimes against humanity as Washington and Israel have a right to exist? This is the question that is before us. Yet the entire world, including Putin and Xi, refuse to confront the question, preferring to defer to evil.

Comment

Frank White

Nice propaganda hit. Any creditable third party verification? Any likelihood that school was intended as a human shield ala Hamas in Gaza? Seems Irianian military forces are targeted directly

.Let us remember Iranians during the Iran/Iraq war (1980-1988) used their own children to clear mine fields. Yes, those children became martyrs, so that was a noble thing. (sarcasm intended)

Fence Me In

My late mother liked to joke, “Glamorous cowboy occupation. Stacking hay and fixing fences”. In my teens I stacked many tons of hay and fixed fences, made fences, and cursed fences. This technology changes the fixing fence part.

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The downside might be the satellites going dark.

 Nothing new to those who read this blog, joining the Army filled me with anticipation. Drive a tank. Shoot Artillery.  Infantry; mortars and such. Nope, MOS 122 (later 12B) Combat Engineers. Stack sandbags and string nasty barb wire. If you have never worked with concertina wire, count yourself lucky.

Lithium

In previous posts, I reported a huge lithium brine deposit on University of Wyoming trust land. Could this process work?

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 What we are talking about. 

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The evaluation made after the find was the amount of lithium in the brine wasn’t high enough for economical viable extraction. Maybe a new evaluation is in order?

Dream on, Jon Caldera

He presents a case for independent audits of elections and the Secretary of State operations.

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 IMO, the (P)regressives are only interested in winning and to hell with what the voters want.

 Are they going to be deterred from their higher calling, their God complex, by any laws?

 Way Back Story

Not a car story; a trip down memory lane and why some customers are best lost to your competition.

Larry Lambert  (Virtual Mirage) recently posted about exploring places in Utah. During the 1970’s that was part of  my sales/installation territory for a modular and pre-fab operation out of Ogden, Utah.

Long ago and far away long distance phone calls were expensive. Companies could enroll in a WATS line (Wide Area Telephone Service) with unlimited one line long distance phone calls, in or out, but not both. Patience, this has a point.

The sales rep for our competitor in the area was Max Phelps. We were friends. Max started his sales career hauling around coffins in a pickup to isolated Utah and Arizona towns and ranches selling direct to consumers. This was a common practice at the time, especially among Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints families. I remember him telling a story of being up in an oxygen tent beside a hospital bed showing his prospect a catalog while the grieving family filled the room. Motivated customer!

 Mr. Blivet, with access to a WATS line, was the purchasing agent for a coal mine in Utah, who wanted to buy a modular house for himself. Among other demands, he insisted no dimension could exceed 1/8” out of spec. I politely told him we couldn’t meet his requirement and suggested he contact Max’s company. With unlimited WATS access, he was able to torture others. I didn’t want the hassle.

Fast forward a few months when Max and I were having lunch in a Kanab restaurant. I waited until he took a bite then asked, “How are you getting along with Mr. Blivet?”.

After choking, and taking a gulp of water, Max freely expressed himself on the subject of Mr. Blivet, with a sidebar directed at me.

Blivet: Two pounds of horseshit in a one pound bag.

As always, YMMV

 

Stupid is, More if You are Rich

 

Don’t Fly into Terrain

2/13/2026 an Epic 100 with four aboard flew into the crest of Emerald Mountain near Steamboat Springs, CO. Why my interest? That airport is where I first learned to fly. The best analysis I’ve found is here. 

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There is a perfect good all weather airport just twelve miles to the west at Hayden. Low terrain, full ILS, and a wide well lighted runway that will accommodate nearly any commercial aircraft. Still, the pressure of rich people wanting to do “The Boat” has led to putting lipstick on a pig. The Steamboat strip was “upgraded” enough to handle DHC-6’s.

Add people with more money than capability buying airplanes they aren’t trained enough to operate properly (think doctors/lawyers and V Tail Bonanzas) and shit happens.

Wind is seldom a factor at that strip and few locals ever landed or took off to the North. Off the South end you immediately have 200’ of elevation and a right hand turn takes you down the river and lower terrain. Straight ahead is a 9,000’ mountain.

So, WSF, you never took chances as a pilot? I most certainly did. One difference; I was always solo.

ICE

Personally conflicted describes my feeling about the mass deportations underway. On one hand, I’m all in favor. My reservations are based on actions allowed now can be used for other purposes later. What happens if/when the (P)regressives take back the Presidency? Will I get a pallet next to the stove at the reeducation camp?

Our on-line left wing newspaper, self proclaimed as unbiased, covers part of the question.

Bias? Early in the article we read, “mostly of people who have no criminal record”.  Ignoring that entering the country illegally is a criminal offense. Liberal logic? 

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From the article.

Dionisio Castillo, 53, tearfully recalled how two ICE agents arrested him at his construction job site in January without asking him any personal questions. Had they asked, they would have known he has lived undocumented in the U.S. for 30 years, has three U.S. citizen children and no criminal history. He spent 48 days at the ICE detention facility in Aurora. His family had to pay a $2,500 bond for his release.

“I was standing next to my truck and I turned to the right and I saw that the officers were walking toward me,” said Castillo through an interpreter. “They handcuffed me with my hands behind my back.”

Been here 30 years and needs an interpreter?  Been here 30 years and did nothing to gain legal status? Sorry, no sympathy from me.

ICE +Voting

Twenty Blue States demanding ICE pledge to not have agents near voting stations? Why, do they expect illegals to show up and vote? 

Up Yours, Gun Grabbers

Concealed carry in Colorado.

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Every legislative session more gun grabber bills get passed. I’m sure I violate some law someway every time I leave my apartment.

To the North, Wyoming lowered the age for concealed carry to eighteen.

Iran

I’ve put variations of this on other blogs and FB as comments.

PDJT has stated his goal is to insure Iran never has a nuclear weapon. OK, we probably know where all the facilities are, bombed or not bombed. Send in Sea Bees and/or Army Combat Engineers, backed up by combat units to protect them as they work, and utterly destroy these facilities. Salt the earth, so to speak.

Once that is done, get the hell out and let Southwest  Asian people go back to slaughtering each other as they have for millenniums.

 Oh, WSF, that is too simplistic. OK, why?

Car Story

 Montana Molesters

Among the very best retail car sellers I ever worked with were five men from Kalispell, MT. All had worked at the same store in Kalispell. They drifted over to Washington State for larger opportunities.

 They quickly became monthly sales leaders and greatly upset the old guard. I welcomed them. The more successful the store became, the more opportunities were opened for me. Let them be salesman of the month! Let me continue to be “grossmonster”. 

(We were paid on gross profit. Bonuses were paid on number of sales regardless of gross profit. One guess as to which, over time, put pleasing numbers on the end of the month check?)

 Their personal lives were chaotic. The parade of girlfriends, wives, infidelities, and after hour adventures earned them the name, Montana Molesters. Not my problem, I wasn’t a manager.

As always, YMMV

Will the SAFE Act Pass?

 

Once in awhile a blog post is upbeat. Not this one. The Car Story at the end is upbeat.

The Parasite who won’t die

A rich history of wealthy East Coast families shipping their embarrassing sons to the frontier continued with our present United States Senator. During his tenure as Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, he managed to lose all their reserves playing in the stock market with his hedge fund buddies. Following on an unremarkable stint as United States Senator, he now sets his sights on the Governorship of Colorado.

Residents with long memories hark to the time he bought a three day fishing license and posed for photo opportunities.

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Should he be elected, the Californication of Colorado will continue. Same result if any of the (D) candidates get elected. High probability that will happen.

His younger brother was fired from the New York Times Editor post and now works at the Atlantic.

Wyoming Nukes

Seems Kemmerer will get a nuclear power plant. There are other problems to be solved starting with water and sewer for the many new homes that need to be built. All will require the cooperation of Diamondville, an independent town intertwined with Kemmerer. There is a long history of mutual hate between the residents. Pass the popcorn.

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Man Up and Admit Your DUI

Many YouTube videos of DUI arrests show drivers getting cuffed and stuffed then being given their Miranda rights. Wyoming may be different.

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Whatever the court decides, the voters come next election will make their own decision.

Super Scammers

This comes from a long conversation with a neighbor who is buying a replacement car.

In the car biz the big bucks are made in the F&I office. Extended warranties are the cornerstone. Most are straight up scams.

A warranty from the manufacturer has teeth. As part of most franchise agreements, any franchised dealer must accept the repair and do it under warranty no matter where the vehicle was purchased.

 Aftermarket warranties are different. No, repeat no, repair shop is required to accept the warranty. Their usual reaction is no and, under their breath, hell no! The repair requires preapproval from the warranty company. The warranty company wants to pay the bare minimum, requires used parts, etc. Then, they take forever to pay the claim.

 But, WSF, I know of this or that case where there was no problem. Yes, and many people have seen Bigfoot.

Griswold for Attorney General

More good news to bolster her appeal with the (P)regressives.

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Conservative voters already know they won’t vote for her. As to the 30% of voters registered as independents, will they hold their noses and vote for her anyway?

Election security word salad. Key sentences.

She told colleagues Colorado’s election system already serves as a national example.“Colorado is a national role model for administering secure, safe and accessible and fair elections.”

Full word salad garbage.

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 Car Story

The Welsh Family

A different story for the usual. The Gillette, WY area is home to the Welsh family, generational rodeo contestants. Bob and Patricia Welsh have several children and their son, Bobby, is the focal point of this post.

Cowboy Corral Kia, Longmont, CO had many rodeo rider customers. The owner, Steve Lance, was a bull rider on the circuit for many years.

Bobby and his wife Sunny came by one evening and I put them into a Ford 350 Extra Cab single rear axel. About a year later they pulled into the lot looking for something bigger about an hour before closing time. That turned out to be a F350 Crew Cab dually. We needed to move their camper over to the new truck and there were no camper jacks. We opened the shop and backed the old truck into a vehicle lift and took the camper off. With it sitting in the air, we needed to back the dually under it and load the camper. We encountered a clearance problem and it took nearly an hour to put the new truck under the camper. We were dealing with maybe three inches of clearance. The camper was loaded, secured, and twenty minutes were spent getting it out of the shop. They had their small children with them and another hour was spent getting everything out of the old truck and into the new. About midnight they left for Texas and the three of us from the store left for the Rocky Mountain Saloon.

Doesn't everyone raise their kids in a camper on the circuit?

Bull riders are different. Twenty four hours in a day means you can use twenty four hours.

Bobby was a seven time NFR finalist. One year he was the only qualifier in a go around and won all the go around money, $52,000.

Bobby and Sunny’s son Hayden, just turned twenty, and is a NFR finalist qualifier. Bobby’s sister, Amanda is a successful Barrel Racer and a multiple NFR Finals qualifier.

Successful car people are different, too. Winners do what losers won’t.

As always, YMMV

Truck Around, Find Out

 

 Truck Around, Find Out

Sheriff Brian Kozak keeps the heat on.

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Think you can just jump over the state line? The adjacent Nebraska and Colorado County Sheriffs have decade long cooperation agreements.

Colorado Crazy

Shortly after my last blog posting, Jon Caldera explained the situation for better than my attempt.

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Love Wyoming

You can now take your animals to McDonalds.

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How soon will we see a picture of yoked oxen?

Wolves

We now have a new Parks and Wildlife Director. Time will tell if her statements hold water or the same politician word salad.

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 I’m, for one, am not holding my breath.

 What a Surprise!

Not that Jena Griswold, Secretary of State and Attorney General candidate lies. No surprise there. The surprise is a Denver TV station called her out.

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Her first term and ½ of her second has been so vile even American Media Maggots (h/t BZ) gag.

I think I qualify

Car Story

An arrogant customer came on the lot, coinciding with my turn for an “up” . Such joy. For whatever reason, the dealership owner had bought a 1995 Range Rover, for cheap, from a wholesaler. Originally it had a salvage title that the wholesaler had sheep dipped in Idaho (pre Carfax) and got a “clean” Idaho title.

 Eric Anderson was on the desk and the arrogant prick worked us over. We let him win. The only problem was he insisted on an inspection from the local Land Rover dealer. Eric was sweating as we were sitting on a $5,000 gross profit deal with a check in hand for full payment.

 I don’t know who this arrogant prick had pissed off at the Land Rover dealership. They gave it a clean bill of health. From there, I delivered the Range Rover to the arrogant prick at his art gallery on one of Seattle’s tourist piers. He signed off on the “We Owe” (as is) form.

I walked over to a restaurant and had lunch while Eric sent someone to pick me up.

Back at the dealership, Eric wanted to know how I pulled it off. In fact, I did nothing beyond being polite at the Land Rover service department. I just looked at Eric, smiled as I shook my head, adding to the Tank’s mystique.

As always, YMMV

Colorado Crazy, The Beat Goes On

A Hill to Die On, Peoples County of Boulder

The econazis applaud the courage of the county officials to take a case clear to the Supreme Court!

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Some county naysayer residents might think their tax dollars would be better spent on infrastructure. Silly ninnies.

Virtue Signaling, Denver Edition

Let’s look past real problems and show woke solidarity! Fuck ICE!

The Supremacy Clause has just been reaffirmed by the Supreme Court? Hold my (Senator Hickenlooper’s brewery) beer.

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Let’s ignore the nearly 40% downtown office space vacancy, the budget shortfall, the police leaving for better opportunities to do, you know, real police work and the number of companies simply moving to other states.

So happy to not live in Denver.

Colofornia

The common complaint, “Don’t Californicate Colorado”, may get eye rolls. It keeps happening.

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What about the impact on an average consumer?

Let us assume a man’s car wouldn’t pass Colorado Emissions because the catalytic converter was toast. Let us assume no Colorado muffler shop would install any replacement that wasn’t California compliant (and risk huge fines). Let us assume that a converter cost $1,200 plus installation. We might guess a EBay $150 converter was installed by a friendly Wyoming shop; that the car has passed emissions twice, and no personnel at the testing facility even looked at the converter. Cue Sgt. Shultz.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mb8nwd2W6zA

2026 Census

The hiring process for Census workers is now open. What are the odds woke females will be the first hired?

!n 2020 I applied to be a census worker and went through the hiring process. I didn’t make the cut. I didn’t see any heterosexual Caucasian males get hired either. Care to apply? census.gov/2026jobs

The enemies of the state are always looking for ways to cheat and the Census is a fertile place to skew Congressional seats.

One hopes the Trump Administration has an eye on this.

 No Fly Zone

Colorado has a convoluted approach to wildfire fighting with a mix of state assets and private companies funded by the state. This story is a jowl shaker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaC75c-1ibk

Is there anything Emperor Polis’ administration can’t turn into a clusterfuck?

 Woke, Soulless Blood Suckers

I write a check to these assholes every month.

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The out of state directors have never met an econazi green dream they couldn’t love.

Wyoming No Fun Zone

Yes, Wyoming

 Car Story

Have I mentioned revenge is a dish best eaten cold? Remember Dirty Al and  the fake Powerball winning story?

 Dirty Al Imhoff was the best salesman I ever worked with. Less the accent, he was a dead ringer for Lionel Jeffries 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDPMcdd7F0A

Al  owned a 1980 Mercedes 300SD with weak compression. To compensate, he had enough batteries connected in the trunk to power a small town. The car would start if you turned it over enough.

We worked along a busy four lane street in Burien, WA. On one side of street were the Ford store and  offices. On our side were used cars and Isuzu. 

In the area behind the Ford store was covered parking with a parking spot reserved for the owner’s wife. Nearby was an electrical outlet. Al would wait until she left for the day then drive over, park in her spot, and plug in his engine heater and battery charger.

I had just returned from the Ford store and casually mention to the room, “Wow, is Ed hot (Ed being the sales manager). Somebody parked in Louise’s spot and he has called a tow truck”.

Al yells, “I was told it was OK to park there when she is gone”.

He rushed out but had to wait for the traffic light to cross the street.

I called  Ed. 

“I just told Al you are hot because someone parked in Louise’s spot and you called a tow truck”. 

  “I’ve got this”, he said with an evil tone of voice.

 By the time Al got across the street Ed was in the parking area smoking a cigarette. “Ed”, he called out as he ran up panting. 

“Not now, Al, I’m waiting for a tow truck”.

 As Always, YMMV

Is It Cheating if You Win?

 Keep the gravy train rolling

Democrats want to expand their “fair advantage” by redistricting. Colorado Constitution? Like that pesky TABOR amendment, something to bypass.

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The only clear aspect of all of this will be tons of dark money supporting it. Solidarity with the rest of the Blue states doing the same thing.

 Nikita Khrushchev famously said, “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them”.

Are we allowing our tax dollars to fund the dark money groups that will enslave our grand children and great grand children?

Comments

Free speech is important to me and very few comments are deleted. That said, total off topic comments suggest this blog isn’t being read by the commentator, just used to spread their message. Not happening! The occasional Anonymous comment may be published if it has, in my opinion, some value.  If you want your comment to be taken seriously, why not have the guts to put your name to it?

Wyoming Winter

Every year on I-80 between Rawlins and Laramie; Elk Mountain. 88 miles of extreme hazard. Summer? 90 mph wind gusts. Given Wyoming’s budget, last winter they had just four snow plow drivers for the route. Wages for employees are pitifully low.

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Pro tip. Take US 30. Going east, get off at Ft Steele. Going west, get off at Laramie. The detour is twelve miles longer on a two lane road with no significant elevation change, and fourteen to twenty minutes more driving time. There are several passing lanes and the highway is well maintained.

I do this summer and winter. Very few 18 wheelers use this route. The few you encounter seem to be very professional.

Blue State Priorities

 

54	Lawsuits Colorado is involved in against the Trump administration

 

As of late 2025 data, Colorado ranks among the highest in the nation for crime, with violent crime rates placing it 8th highest and property crime rates 4th highest in the U.S.. Despite slight decreases from 2022 peaks, crime rates remain elevated, with 2024 data showing auto theft, aggravated assault, and property crimes still significantly higher than the national average

Our current Attorney General wants to be our next Governor.

Car Story

My shortest job.

My two sons had just left to spend the summer with their mother in Minnesota when a manager I respected offered me a job in the used car side of a Chevy dealership. I had two days off from the current job and decided to spend them checking out the job.

At that time the state had no control of salespeople with licenses, etc. Wild West.

First day, around 1:30 pm, a car came on the lot and parked towards the back. I went up and greeted the driver, who reeked of alcohol.

After making a pleasant greeting and extending my hand, the driver spouted off. From memory,

“I own this dealership and I don’t talk to fucking salesmen, got that?”

“Yes sir”, I replied. “Let me help you get inside before a customer sees your condition”.

 This provoked a steam of ugly words which ended when I buried my fist just under his right side short ribs. This helped him lose his liquid lunch, putting him on the path to sobriety.

From there I went over to the used car office and told them this lot wasn’t working for me, then over to my truck and departed.

On several occasions people have suggested I need anger management classes. Makes no sense, I already know how to get angry.

As always, YMMV