Good Story

fightheheathens · May 21, 2007

so...i took a trip to yosemite this weekend to do some camping and shooting of the falls since they are at full force this time of year. we camped outside the park and on the second day the timing belt on our car blew out. long story short, currently im trapped in Groveland California because the local mechanics only know about fords and chevys, not BMW's. luckly i have a good sence of humor. Groveland is about 1000 people, small and has the oldest saloon in california. I finally got a new computer with photoshop so whenever i get back to civilization i'll be able to put up pictures not only of yosemite but also my little adventure in groveland, california.

anyone else ever had an adventure like this?

pandinus · May 21, 2007

To bad about your car. I hope they'll figure it out.
Good that you have a sence of humor about it though. I once had a trip to Crete, where I went sightsing in a rented car. I drove for hours, and came to this lovely beach..... then the car stoped.... out of gas, and the needle for the gas gauge was aparently stuck on full.... So long story short, I got some nice shots of the the local fishermen, and a good cup of coffee at the restaurant.... (They had not had any tourists visiting since the '70 or something...) They sold me a gallon of gas, and pointed me in the right direction to the nearest gas station.... (It took about 5-6 hour before they realized that I was stranded, my greek has never been good (I've never learned greek) and their english was pretty much non existent.)

Torus34 · May 22, 2007

Man, I don't even have a BMW, much less adventures like yours!

Hope everything works out well in the end.

LaFoto · May 22, 2007

Oh. Oops. I have a BMW.
But I don't wish for THIS KIND OF adventure with it!
But I've had others... I remember! :idea:
I was reporting about it in_this_thread_from_12_Oct_2005

. It includes a BMW, and a tractor.

Alex_B · May 22, 2007

I managed to slide and slip with my car into two other cars which were going in front of me ... this all happened on a single track road in a very remote part of the scottish highlands. Took ages for the police to arrive, even longer for the mechanics ... and my car was the only which was still able to drive

This all happened in an area with close to zero traffic .... I guess I hit the only two cars around within a 10 mile zone

The_Traveler · May 22, 2007

I ran out of gas on a motorbike (gauge still read full) 30 km on unpaved road from closest pavement in rural northern Laos. Orange-robed monk, passing by on a bicycle, helped me to buy a liter of gas (in a old whiskey bottle) from a unmarked store 3 km away.

usayit · May 22, 2007

Yeh... I did a really stupid thing several years ago...

On a whim, I took my Jeep out into some remote areas for pictures and blew my hydrolics to my clutch.

.. no cell phone signal...
.. forgot to tell someone I was going out there..
.. it was hot ..

Luckily I walked a few miles and got a signal on my cell and called for help.

A couple years ago... I made the EXACT same mistake... (i'm such idiot at times). But this time, I was in a small town.

My mountain bike and provisons are now standard equipment when I do such things... One of these days, Darwin is going to get the best of me..

mysteryscribe · May 22, 2007

Never ran out of gas in laos but I drank the local whiskey called makong and spent serveral hours throwing up monkey blood.... don't ask.

abraxas · May 22, 2007

Way out in desert back country once I had a set of points on an old truck break at the little goodie that rides on the distributor cam. Fixed it with a piece of scrap wire. Pretty cool, stayed out for another two days before getting it fixed.

&

I killed a man in Reno, just to watch him die.

Just kidding- I always wanted to say that.

gmarquez · May 22, 2007

For those who travel Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back by car, you may know of a little town called Yermo, about 45 minutes or so east of Barstow on highway 15. We lost use of our tranny (they car kind, not the gender identity kind) 30 minutes east of there. Also known as "the middle of nowhere".

abraxas · May 22, 2007

gmarquez said:
... Also known as "the middle of nowhere".

I signed up go on a four day trip in June to study some of the historical sites and old trails out there- Want me to look around for your lost trans?

BTW, there's a saying about, "getting sand in your shoes." If you got it, and you'll know if you did, PM me and I can hook you up with some websites and people/organizations of others enjoying the affliction.

DSLR noob · May 22, 2007

BMW = Bring Money With (you). That's what happens when a part breaks. I think its like $900 for a BMW 3 series front bumper because of all the sensors and crap. A ford mustang bumper is $255 ish. Those crazy Germans and their expesive parted cars.

(that is the base non painted bumper and you can't order it without the sensors)

fightheheathens · May 23, 2007

well its an old BMW 92... which is before everything was all electronic and stuff. We blew the timing belt and possible bent a valve....the car is still at yosemite and we ended getting a ride to a train station to get back to san francisco. fun times....
We did learn lots of good stuff about emergencys though, like having hard copys of phone numbers so when your cell dies because you only expected to be gone for 2 days, not 4 you can still find the numbers, etc etc

gmarquez · May 23, 2007

abraxas said:
I signed up go on a four day trip in June to study some of the historical sites and old trails out there

Yah know, if you get the chance, see if there are any good photo ops at the old Solar Generation test bed they have (had?) out there. I've always thought that it would be a cool place to visit, and with all of the polished hardware (mirrors/heliostats) contrasting with the raw desert landscape, I bet there are good dawn/dusk pictures to be had out there.

abraxas said:
PM me and I can hook you up with some websites and people/organizations of others enjoying the affliction.

I'm so lazy, how do I PM?

(Still more OT, but do you know anything about the Pisgah crater and the Pisgah "cult"? I can't find any information on the internet on the "cult")

abraxas · May 23, 2007

gmarquez said:
Yah know, if you get the chance, see if there are any good photo ops at the old Solar Generation test bed they have (had?) out there. I've always thought that it would be a cool place to visit, and with all of the polished hardware (mirrors/heliostats) contrasting with the raw desert landscape, I bet there are good dawn/dusk pictures to be had out there.

I've never gone down to the solar plant. I've been so caught up with the natural and historic. There's another solar plant at the cross roads of hwy 58 and 395 I started to shoot once about 10 years ago, but ended up thinking modern stuff wasn't for me and went looking for petrified palm tree fragments (never did find any).

Yermo (Spanish for desert), Daggett (named after a Lt. Govenor of California) & Barstow despite appearances are quite historical areas with some pretty cool stuff- an accquired taste though. Historic Route 66 passed through there. Casa Desierto rail station in Barstow is cool. Much, much more,..

gmarquez said:
I'm so lazy, how do I PM?

(Still more OT, but do you know anything about the Pisgah crater and the Pisgah "cult"? I can't find any information on the internet on the "cult")

I've been out to the crater and Hector mine a few times. It's an excellent place for shots in the morning sun as well as just being a plain radical environment. Although I've only been in one lava tube (cave) out there I've heard there are several. A bit hard to find unless you know what to look for and about where they are at.

The grand-daddy of locations out there is Afton Canyon. The whole valley was underwater about 10-20,000 years ago and due to most likely an earthquake, the giant lake breached the shoreline and poured into soda lake (baker) and created another lake and eventually that filled up and emptied into Death Valley. Anyway, Afton Canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of the Mojave Desert and the Mojave River flows above ground there. Excellent for Sunsets and even more excellent for sunrises further down at the mouth of the canyon (but it can be tougher to get to). The dirt road down to the campground is passable by passenger car, and weekends there is reasonable traffic "in case." If you're not into 4x4, after I get my work done I'll try to PM you some links. Group trips out of museums usually have enough high clearance vehicles for car-pooling.

Yikes- I better run.

The site link below needs some updating, but has been online for 12 years and shows many of the places, but all over the desert.

http://mojavedesert.net/