Windex?

Shortly after entering western Idaho on I-84 this summer, we saw a solar power farm, then another one some time later.  Passing by the second one, it occurred to me that the panels need periodic cleaning and I asked Trish, "How do you suppose they clean those things?"  She, of course, was as clueless as I.  I followed up with, "There's probably a guy with a BIG bottle of Windex that does the cleaning.  It's his life's work.  Probably takes a year to clean them all, and by then the first one is dirty again.  Talk about job security."

The largest solar plant in the US is Solar Star in Rosamond, CA: 3200 acres, 1.7 million panels, 20.9 SF per panel.  That adds up to 35+ million SF of panel surface!   Rosamond is in the Mohave Desert, same desert I'm sitting in right now.  The Mohave is dusty.  And there are lots of birds, birds that haven't been toilet trained.  

No, Windex, paper towels and dozens of spray-and-wipe workers aren't gonna get the job done any time soon.  Besides, Windex and paper towels do a lousy job.  Home brew* and a squeegee are the way to go.

Here are some non-Windex devices:



A drone view of another method.

https://boingboing.net/2018/05/25/drones-eye-view-of-how-solar.html

There are several types of robotic devices similar to the one above, and some of these are fully automated, like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8b6mE6meIM

*Home brew for cleaning windows - and residential solar panels?
1/3 cup cleaning ammonia
1 cup isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol
1squirt Dawn liquid dish soap
1 gallon water

*

Golden Spike, cont.

The railroad route, Central Pacific in blue, Union Pacific in red.

Our visit to the Golden Spike Historic Site was greatly enhanced by our viewing of Hell on Wheels, a TV series that ran 6 seasons.  The main character, Anson Mount, pictured below, was fictional.  Colm Meany played Thomas Durant, a real person - also a robber baron and a nasty, despicable, sumbitch with the morals and ethics of a goat.  Baaaad goat.  The series can be streamed via Netflix.  Here's an overview: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1699748/




Hell on Wheels was the name given to the tent towns that sprang up every place the Union Pacific builders set up camp.  It was a rowdy, bawdy bunch: gamblers, whores, purveyors of rotgut booze and so on.



There's a whole trainload of mind boggling facts about the building of the TCRR.  One that really impressed me was the 1750' tunnel in the Sierra Nevada mountains built through solid granite at the rate of one foot per day.  The per-day rate increased to a whopping 1.8' per day when they started using nitroglycerin.

I suppose any civil engineer worth his/her salt knows how to build a tunnel, have that tunnel take the shortest route possible, and finally, come out at exactly the right spot.  I'm not a civil engineer, have no idea how it's done.  Seems a miracle.

Historic Trails

50 years ago, congress passed the National Historic Trails Act.  Now, the National Park Service manages and administers 19 historic trails.  Most folks know about the Oregon Trail, arguably the most famous of the bunch.  That said, southwestern folks might disagree, claim it's the Santa Fe trail.

I was unaware of the Trails before visiting Golden Spike National Historic Site this summer.  Being a collector of NPS brochures, I gleefully liberated 4 Trails brochures there.  My collection now  numbers 92, including a few duplicates.

The California Trail is the longest at 5600 miles, followed closely by the Trail of Tears, 5045.  Selma-Montgomery is the shortest: 54 miles.  The oldest is the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, which dates back to the 16th century; it stretches from northern Mexico to New Mexico.

Several east-west trails share the same routing through the Great Plains, starting from the Missouri River between Omaha and Kansas City; Independence and St Joseph seem to have been the most popular.  The trails then follow the Platte River to various branching off points.

Learn more about the Trails at:
 https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationaltrailssystem/national-historic-trails.htm

2018 Summary

Above and below, views of Monument Valley from our campground.

Here it is, the good, bad and ugly of our summer adventures.

1.  Left LHC May 29th, returned September 12th; 107 days on the road.

2.  Towed the RV 3358 miles.

3.  States visited, in order: CA, OR, ID, UT, CO, UT, AZ.

4.  Upgrades:
     A.  2nd A/C unit.  Now we're ready for the hot Midwest next summer.
     B.  Top of the line toilet, old one leaked.
     C.  TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system).

5.  Casualties:
     A.  One RV tire.
     B.  One microwave fuse.
     C.  One converter?  Jury still out.
     D.  Two RV batteries?  Ditto.

6.  Biggest oops: not checking the surge protector lights when plugging into friends 30 amp outlet.  The outlet had reversed polarity which blew the microwave fuse and may have toasted the converter and the two house batteries.

7.  Biggest challenge: moving in the 3 slides, and raising the jacks and landing gear when the RV batteries were totally discharged at the North Rim.  Problem solved by plugging the RV pigtail into the truck with truck idling and s-l-o-w-l-y moving slides in.  Then had to wait 30 minutes for batteries to recharge enough to raise landing gear.