Snapshots from an Arizona rest area.

[ronwoodcraft]

I spent the night there last Wednesday/Thursday.....I-17 about 50 miles north of Phoenix. Took the one with the clouds in the evening, and the other on the opposite side the next morning.

 

[Terry Soloman]

Beautiful!

 

[DizzyDigger]

Ron, if you're on the SB side you can probably still smell the smoke that was boiling
off my brakes as I pulled in there.

Dropped off the hill from Flagstaff on a gorgeous Fall evening...only had 10,000 of
boxed meat on board. Easy grade...right? Sure.

At about 4 miles down I noticed the brakes were warming...dropped a gear and
kicked in the jakes. Not enough...still on the brakes too hard (20+ lb.).

About a mile from the pickle park I hammered the brakes to get all that was
left out of them, dropped to 5th and pretty much idled my way into that RA.
Almost no big trucks there, so went all the way to the last spot before finally
stopping it and setting only the tractor brakes (rears would have welded..lol)

So much smoke a couple of 4-wheelers came over with fire extinguishers at the
ready...another 50 of 'em just stood there staring at it..

No flames, thank God, but I sure stunk up that place for about an hour..

Lesson learned: Respect the hill, and always carry a clean pair of shorts!

 

[tamrock]

I had a coyote crawl out from under the guardrail going down the steepest part of that southbound 17 hill. I was doing around 80 mph and I can still picture in my mine the look on his face as he froze with a split second before impact. He had no time what so ever to think what next to do. It took a big chunk out of the plastic bumper of a 96' Chevy Lumina I drove back then.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Gorgeous pics, Ron. You never cease to amaze me with your pictures.
Jim

 

[old digger]

Nice landscapes!
Imagine the view without the modern roadways.

 

[ronwoodcraft]

Ron, if you're on the SB side you can probably still smell the smoke that was boiling
off my brakes as I pulled in there.

Dropped off the hill from Flagstaff on a gorgeous Fall evening...only had 10,000 of
boxed meat on board. Easy grade...right? Sure.

At about 4 miles down I noticed the brakes were warming...dropped a gear and
kicked in the jakes. Not enough...still on the brakes too hard (20+ lb.).

About a mile from the pickle park I hammered the brakes to get all that was
left out of them, dropped to 5th and pretty much idled my way into that RA.
Almost no big trucks there, so went all the way to the last spot before finally
stopping it and setting only the tractor brakes (rears would have welded..lol)

So much smoke a couple of 4-wheelers came over with fire extinguishers at the
ready...another 50 of 'em just stood there staring at it..

No flames, thank God, but I sure stunk up that place for about an hour..

Lesson learned: Respect the hill, and always carry a clean pair of shorts!

A few years ago I was coming down that hill and saw a truck in that escape ramp. It used up about 75% of it before stopping the truck. There was a lady driver standing by the road waving for someone to stop, so thinking maybe someone was hurt I stopped, and she asked me if I could give her a jump start. She said it was her first trip out, and she thought she could back out. I told her that those escape ramps are designed to bury the truck, and it probably wouldn't start because of a ripped out water hose or something, and the truck automatically shut down because of low water, fuel line, or something, and even if she got it started it was not coming out of there with anything short of a wrecker, so she was going to have to call her company.....Don't think she believed me because when I left she was trying to flag down someone else.