Trip to Colorado, part one.
I get a couple of short vacations each year, and decided to take my last one at the end of April of 2005 out to Colorado to visit the folks at OtherPower.com. I had written DanB an e-mail and arranged the visit ahead of time. I had planned to leave on the morning of Saturday the 24th of April. It was the afternoon of the 24th before I got all of the little tasks I had to get done in Chicago out of the way. It seems like when you are trying to take a trip a dozen little things keep you tied down before you can get out of town. I had to arrange for a friend to watch my buildings, and arrange for him to have the keys, I had a couple of vehicle issues to get out of the way. Then at the last minute, I had lost the last set of keys to my van and had to go see the good folks at Midway Dodge in Chicago to have new keys made. Those little details always get you. 12 dollars later I was back on the road with the van and two sets of keys. I had packed my gear prior, and threw it in the van. I did not know what I would find along the trip, so I packed to camp in the van if I had to. I had food, clothes, tools, I even brought a small wind turbine and a solar panel, and a battery as props for Colorado. I also took a couple of heatsinks I had made, as I had read in one of DanB's posts or comments that finding good large heatsinks at reasonable prices was difficult. It turns out that these were too small for a 12V application, but might have some use for a 48V mill.
I drove out of Chicago west on I-290 to I-88. I encountered the first wind turbine about 40 or 50 miles outside of the city. It was a three blade version obviously used for electrical generation on a farm off to the south of the trollway, um - I mean tollway. Just past that, the skyline was dominated for many miles by the distant sight of the ominous looking twin concrete structures of a nuclear power plant jutting from the otherwise flat fields for miles around. With higher oil prices and sources in areas far away that may not like us, their will probably be more of these built in the future to power our cities. It was dark by the time I got to Iowa, but there was a full moon at my back. I ploughed through Iowa, shortly before entering Nebraska I saw a giant commercial turbine, all alone along the side of the highway. It was spinning away. I had my camera packed away and didn't get a shot of it. Then As I was passing around Lincoln, there were two more giant turbines along the highway. Nebraska is a very LONG state. I think sometime around 4 or 5 AM I stopped somewhere around the middle of the state to get a couple of hours shut eye. Nebraska was relatively flat in the eastern portion. As I got further west, there were more and more irrigated fields.
They were mostly electrically powered, or diesel powered pumps, and these long overhead irrigation pipes on wheels that were anchored to a pivot point on one end and would move in an arc around that pivot point to irrigate a circular section of field. About half of the windmills I encountered were no longer functioning.
A few were still working though.
In some cases, an old Aeromotor was still there broken and abandoned, with a diesel or electric replacement pump sitting on the ground filling the cistern next to it.
I wondered if the farmers now regretted not servicing the windmill with the increasing cost of fuel.
As I moved further west, there were more and more fields used as pastures. These usually had cisterns where water was pumped into a cistern for watering cattle. I did encounter a few that apparently used windmills or electric wind generators to power pumps to fill them.
In western Nebraska and Wyoming, I encountered commercial wind farms. It was neat to watch the big machines spinning away.
There is nothing comparable that I have seen near Chicago, although I hear there is a sizable wind farm down state. Driving across the vast windy plains makes me think that this is a resource that we are seriously under utilizing. I also got my first look at the Rocky Mountains.
It was after noon when I got into Fort Collins. I stopped for pizza and beverages as I didn't want to be a rude guest. Then I set about the trek into the mountains. I followed the directions that DanB had written. It was a scenic trek up from the city. There is a lake that you basically drive around.
As I drove up into the mountains, the road was very scenic. As I got farther and farther along, I began encountering wind turbines and solar panels on homes and cottages. I was afraid at several points that I had missed the turn off onto the county road that leads to Otherpower's Research and Development site. Then I finally found the right county road.
It follows a creek up a mountain ravine. The road has character.
I can easily see how someone could end up with their truck in that creek in inclement weather. Somewhere along the road, the power lines stopped. I took a photo of what I thought to be about the last power pole.
From that point on most every residence had some form of solar or wind power with it. This caboose that I snapped a picture of had solar panels, it turned out that it belongs to a friend of the Dan's, It seems that most folks up the canyon know each other.
Another example of solar and wind mounted on a cliff above a house.
This is a very scenic drive quite a few miles up a dirt and gravel road.
This is not a trip I would plan in winter, or even wet weather, without a serious 4 wheel drive vehicle. When I reached the destination, I got out and DanB walked over to greet me....
To be continued in part 2
