The Damned Mountain Can't Read!

Do you like to fly?
I love to fly!

Our home is located in the flight path
for Buckley Air Force Base.
Many days when I'm walking,
I get to see its F-16s flying overhead.
I always have to stop and watch them streaking by.
I've learned to look well ahead of the thundering sounds
to spot these beautiful birds.

I'd fly on one in a heartbeat if I had the chance!
Would you?

F-16 Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:F-16_June_2008.jpg

There are no better days than those when I wake up
and head to Denver International Airport (DIA) 
to FLY ~
ANYWHERE!

E-470 on the Way to DIA

Presidential Supply Plane 

Takes Off from Buckley Air Force Base,

Aurora, Colorado 

After Presidential Visit, April 2013

(Photographed from Moving Car on E-470 on the Way to DIA)

I always get a thrill 
when I see DIA's iconic outline 
appear on the horizon.

DIA's Tented Roof and its Killer Horse


Just get me through security and into the sky!
Just give me a window seat with a clear view.
I have great fun photographing everything.

SWA Baggage Handlers DIA

Do you love the feeling 

of the jet engines powering up 

and the faster and faster roll down the runway 

to that magical moment of liftoff?

A Southwest Plane Comes in for a Landing,

As We Begin Our Roll Down the Runway

(Really SWA you could keep your windows cleaner for photographers like me!)

Rolling!
Rolling!
And we're up, up, and away!

          




On this flight to Reno we headed west over the Rockies.
Very little rock and roll headed west,
but the turbulence heading east off the Rockies
to land at DIA can be exciting!

Boulder, Colorado, and Its Flatirons

Our flight path took us over Boulder,   

and I snagged a shot of the Flatirons.

The tilted Flatirons take their name

from the flat, metal irons 

that pioneers heated on their stoves to press their clothes.

These conglomerate sandstones of the Fountain Formation 

are 290 to 296 million years old 

and were forced into their present position

during the Laramide Orogeny 35 to 80 million years ago.
The materials in these rocks eroded from the Ancestral Rockies ~
the Rockies that were here before our present Rockies!
How cool is that???? 

The Fountain Formation is found in numerous places

along Colorado's Front Range 

including at such well-known locations as

Garden of the Gods, Roxborough State Park, 

and Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatirons  

Whenever I fly I snap loads of photographs from my window seat.

On our way to Hawaii last May I happened to catch

one of my most favorite shots from the window of a plane.

The Continental Divide and Something Else!

Huh?  You may be thinking ~ 
just like the Ever-Patient Terry.
That's exciting???

Well, if you look closely 
from the lower left and the lower right,
you will see I-70 disappearing under the Continental Divide.
I caught both entrances 
to the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel!
Try that at tens of thousands of feet and moving very fast!

I always marvel at this tunnel when I drive through it.
It is an amazing engineering feat.

The tunnel consists of two bores:
Interstate 70 West passes through the Eisenhower bore 
which was the first one to open on March 8, 1973.
The westbound Eisenhower tunnel 
is 1.7 miles or 2.7 kilometers long.

Entering the Westbound Eisenhower Bore

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eisenhower_Tunnel2.JPG

I-70 East passes through the Johnson bore 
which opened in late December, 1979.
The eastbound Johnson tunnel is a few feet longer than the other. 

Entering the Eastbound Johnson Bore

The tunnels save drivers the 9.5 mile route over Loveland Pass.
The west bore reaches a maximum elevation 
of 11,158 feet or 3,401 meters above sea level.
The Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel 
is the longest and highest mountain tunnel 
in the USA's Interstate Highway System.

Through the Tunnel

Constructing both sides of the tunnel was challenging.
Boring under the continental divide
through granite, gneiss, and schist 
proved difficult for men and machines at such a high elevation. 

Workers discovered fault lines 
as they worked on the Eisenhower bore

and slipping occurred along those fault lines.
Although emergency steps were taken 
to prevent cave-ins and collapsing of the tunnels, 
nine workers died during their construction.

Commented one frustrated engineer:
"We were going by the book, 
but the damned mountain couldn't read." 
(Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Tunnel

For a Map of I-70 and the Eisenhower Tunnel click below.

source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eisenhower_tunnel.svg

Snapping a photograph of a tunnel 

disappearing under a mountain range 

that separates water flowing into the Pacific Ocean

from water flowing into the Atlantic Ocean 

and the Gulf of Mexico?

I don't know about you,

but I think that's pretty damn cool!

Give me a plane, a camera, a window seat,

and clear skies ~ maybe cloudy skies,

and I can entertain myself endlessly!

:) !!!!!

Whenever I take-off on a plane, I'm singing, "Time for me to fly!"

     Lyrics

     Live