Gizmo's Odyssey Part One

[Gizmo]

I have so many photos from my incredible tour of the western United States and Canada in June and July of 2006.

I didn't post most of them last year after the trip, I didn't want to compete with those incredible photos taken by solli4me on her wonderful Coast2Coast trip, which was before, including, and after the First North American Solstice Meet in Kansas City, MO. For those who might have missed her fantastic collection, there's a convenient link to her thread at the bottom of this post.

So, I hope you enjoy this presentation.

And don't miss solli's thread either, at this link:

Solli’s All-American, Cross-Country, Rt. 66 Road Trip

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[Gizmo]

Left Houston June 13, 2006, heading west on Interstate 10 to San Antonio:


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We have the best speed limits in the country, right here in west Texas:


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This scene reminds me, I need to get me a navigator:


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Spent the night in Alamogordo, NM. Next day visited White Sands, NM:


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On to catch a photo in front of the capitol building, Phoenix, AZ:


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Arrived in Sin City late the second night:


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I spent the night at the Flamingo, but I used to stay here at Caesar's Palace on all my previous trips:


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Next morning had the great pleasure to meet Solitud in front of her business shop:


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[Gizmo]

Next day, June 15 I continued on to the lowest point of elevation in the United States, Death Valley, CA:


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They don't want a million people walking on the sand too near, so they built a boardwalk:


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MARiSOL enjoyed her visit to Death Valley:


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They built a beautiful hotel right there in Death Valley:


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After a WONDERFUL drive on California 178 through Kern Canyon and past Lake Isabella, I turned north to Sequoia National Park:


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The famous General Sherman tree in Sequoia National Park (took 3 photos from bottom to top):


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MARiSOL was waiting for the Park Ranger to park next to her, she's such a flirt, but he never showed up:


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Such a short visit to Sequoia, time to leave, but I'll be back:


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[Gizmo]

Here come the Sols to the first Lake Tahoe meet. MARiSOL was the first one there (well, if you don't count the hotel where most were staying at!):


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We had several cars there the first night for our pizza dinner:


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The next day 15 of us lined up along the Mt Rose Highway on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe:


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Bumpguy, my good buddy and resident of Reno, NV and his beautiful girlfriend bumpgal:


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I was honored to have jimbo riding with me during the meet:


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We all stopped at Squaw Valley, CA, host to the 1960 Winter Olympics, which had the FIRST Miracle On Ice as the hockey team beat the Russians and took the gold medal, 20 years before Lake Placid, NY repeated the impossible:


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At Squaw Valley they were celebrating the summer solstice:


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Spent the night at Caesar's Tahoe (oops, now called Mont Bleau). Valet parked MARiSOL in front of two Ferraris:


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[Gizmo]

Sunday I cruise up Geiger Grade to Virginia City, NV (remember Bonanza?) I passed several groups of two-wheelers, but a pair of them zipped past me and led me on a merry chase up that incredible road to the old town:


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Another photo of the main street of Virginia City, NV:


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I believe this beautiful building used to be a schoolhouse, but now used for school administration:


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And here's the famous and equally beautiful Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, NV:


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My cousin Dan got a photo of me passing in front of the Capitol Building in Carson City, NV:


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Attended the annual Reno Rodeo:


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These rodeo guys are tough hombres:


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Another Capitol Building, this time in Salt Lake City, UT:


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And here's the famous Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, UT:


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A good Texas dinner at the Lone Star Steakhouse in Pocatello, ID:


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[Gizmo]

Up close with a wonderful animal in Yellowstone, our first national park:


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You know I HAD to catch a photo of Old Faithful:


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Hurry, cousin, take the photo. I'm in a no-parking zone!


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What a beautiful Lake Yellowstone:


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A very interesting canyon near the northern exit from Yellowstone National Park:


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Another photo of the canyon:


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And here's my cousin Dan. Note the interesting geological formation behind him:


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An interesting bucking bronco statue in Butte, Montana:


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Here's the Capitol Building in Butte, Montana:


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The entrance to Glacier National Park. The road across to the other side was blocked by a landslide, so we had to take a raincheck. Really HATED to miss that one!


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[Gizmo]

Oops, what no Solstice driver wants to be forced onto. A road under construction, and no alternative available:


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Some pretty big equipment on this huge project:


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Capitol Building in Boise, Idaho:


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Happened to come across an interesting VIN on a Mysterious Solstice:


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And underneath the hood was an autograph of Mr. Bob Lutz dated 08/05/05:


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OH, that must be the Solstice owned by VINNY#000001, who took delivery of the very first Pontiac Solstice, and got the keys directly from the hand of Mr. Bob Lutz in Chicago, IL on 08/05/05:


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Here's Clark (VINNY#000001) with the first Solstice on the right of the photo, next to his second Solstice which gets a lot more use:


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Here's Clark's son sitting in MARiSOL:


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[Gizmo]

Dropped my cousin off in Carson City and headed down to Yosemite National Park, CA the next day. Couldn't resist this beautiful waterfall:



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The famous Half Dome in Yosemite:


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And the equally famous El Capitan:


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And the very famous Yosemite Falls:


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Beautiful Yosemite River:


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El Capitan from the other side:


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Another view of Yosemite Falls:


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And another view of Yosemite Falls:


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Zoomed in photo of the top of Yosemite Falls:


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An outstanding feature of Yosemite Falls is how it falls, goes horizontal, and falls again:


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[Gizmo]

Still in Yosemite, here's a closer view of the "double" waterfall of Yosemite Falls:


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One of the worst situations in snow country during the winter is to have heavy rainfall in the mountains. Not only do you have excessive rainwater coming downhill, a tremendous amount of snow melts and adds to the flood. Look how high the water level got:


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This is near the entrance to the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park:


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On my way out of the most beautiful place in the United States, one more look at Half Dome:


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Down to San Bruno, just south of San Francisco, to visit my parents at Golden Gate National Cemetery. Too bad I arrived after they closed:


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Up to the Capitol Building, Sacramento, California:


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One of the many huge volcanoes in the western United States, this one is Mt. Shasta, CA:


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Even with Mt. Shasta many many miles to the rear, you can see how huge the volcano is:


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[Gizmo]

My first visit to Crater Lake, Oregon, but I'll be back:


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The incredible views of Crater Lake left me speechless, so I'll just continue with the photos without comment:


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[Gizmo]

My camera was working overtime at Crater Lake, Oregon:


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An interesting bridge in Oregon, built in 1919:


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Another view of the bridge:


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[Gizmo]

Arrived at the Pacific coast of Oregon, where this river meets the sea:


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Returning to central Oregon from the Pacific coast, I had an encounter with the Oregon Vigilante. Three Oregon state troopers were waiting for me in Corvallis. After that encounter, I continued on to catch a photo in front of the Capitol Building in Salem, Oregon:


Gee, I didn't think there was ANYTHING boring in Oregon:


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Here's the beautiful Mt Hood, Oregon, another huge volcano:


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A closer view of Mt Hood, Oregon:


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Leaving Mt Hood far behind, but it is still visible:


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I believe that's Mt St Helens, WA in the distance:


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But first I had to visit the Columbia River Gorges between OR and WA:


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Not a tall damn, but quite wide, located on the Columbia River:


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One final look at Mt Hood, OR from the Washington side of the Columbia River:


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[Gizmo]

Arriving at Mt St Helens, WA:


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See the steam coming out of Mt St Helens? I didn't want to hang around too long:


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This is Spirit Lake, WA, down quite a bit from the summit of the volcano:


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What was that brown substance on the surface of the lake? Looks like about a million tree trunks, blown off the mountain surface so many years ago:


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Even after the total devastation of the volcano explosion, leaving ash everywhere, life begins anew. See this beautiful purple flower growing here:


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After wonderful twisties to and away from Mt St Helens, I arrived at the Capitol Building in Olympia, WA:


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After being the FIRST customer of ClearImage for long tube exhaust header and hi-flow catalytic converter in Auburn, WA (suburb of Seattle), I continued on into Canada. Here's the border crossing:


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That's downtown Vancouver, British Columbia up ahead:


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I continued on to Kamloops, British Columbia, and met up with Blasterd:


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The next day headed for Banff, Alberta, and saw this beautiful hotel on a gorgeous river:


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[Gizmo]

Canada has some very beautiful Rocky Mountains:


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I'm speechless again with this majestic majesty of Canada, so I'll just post more of these photos:


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And check out this incredible brick hotel in Banff, Alberta:


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Got down to Calgary, Alberta. I gotta tell you, this is one PARti CIti...


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[Gizmo]

Well, had to leave beautiful Canada behind, crossed the border into Montana. These are the hunting grounds of the greatly feared Blackfeet Indians:


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Thanks to the warm hospitality of rlc222, I spent the night in Hot Springs, SD. The next morning we headed to Mt Rushmore and crossed paths with a beautiful Solstice from Michigan:


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Here's the 3 of us Solstice owners: rlc222, the Michigan visitor, and Gizmo:


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A close up of the interior of our Michigan friend:


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I'm following rlc222 through one of the tunnels leading to Mt Rushmore:


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Here's MARiSOL with the four Presidents in the background:


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Here's a better photo of the four Presidents:


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Here's Gizmo with his good friend George. Well, you have to look way up high and behind MARiSOL to see George:


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Zoomed in photo of George's profile:


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One last look at George:


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