Wind River

Wind River - Official Trailer - 2017 Crime Movie HD
Voltage Pictures

Pretty good. Our guy is a hunter from the Fish & Wildlife Service whose job is to track down and kill predators that are killing livestock in the area*. The local sheriff calls in the hunter when he finds a young woman dead in the snow. The FBI gets called in because it happened on an Indian reservation, so now we've got a cute little girl FBI agent added to the mix.

The 'story' bandied about in the movie is that the woman died because she was running so hard and so far in the sub-zero weather that the moisture in the air froze inside her lungs and the ice crystals punctured the alveoli in her lungs. The alveoli started bleeding and she basically drowned in her own blood. It's a nice theory, and it's sounds nastier than just freezing to death. Rumor has it that the later is just like falling asleep. I don't know about that, but I do know I absolutely hate being cold. I don't mind cold weather, I used to go skiing up on Mt. Hood. If you're dressed for it, it's fine, but if you aren't it totally sucks. Anyway, I did a little checking to see if it was a real thing, and according to this guy and this guy, it isn't. Regardless, it made a good story.

The show was full of trucks, snowmobiles and guns, every Yankee redneck's dream world. None of them little, pukey toy cars that people use to drive to the coffee shop. Even our cute little FBI agent is driving a full size SUV. Her explanation for why she shows up in bumfuck Wyoming in the middle of winter with nothing but a light jacket (and a gun) is simultaneously totally unbelievable and totally believable at the same time. No right thinking person would do that on their own, but bureaucracies don't give a shit, go to bumfuck NOW and sort out whatever it is. You've got a charge card, use it.

There were a couple of gun fights: a small one early on with the cute little FBI agent where she proves she's got the chops to get the job done, and big one at the end that involves everybody and most everyone dies. The best part is we didn't have any of that mealy mouthed blather about not killing the bad guys. Fuck that shit, these guys are no damn good, shoot them dead and be done with it. My kind of movie. Too many Portland drivers are escaping justice. Thank god for movies where I can see them get their just desserts in living color.

Wikipedia page about the movie.

* Couldn't find any evidence that there is such a job, but Alaska and Idaho are paying a bounty on wolves.

Medicine Bow Peak

Medicine Bow Peak
The horizontal line across the bottom of the picture is Interstate-80

Last year was the 60th anniversary of the crash United Airlines Flight 409 into Medicine Bow Peak in Wyoming. There were a spate of stories about the crash, and I spent some time looking them over. I also put together a rough map of the flight plan.
    When we were driving back from Iowa not quite a month ago, our route took us through Cheyenne, Wyoming, where we spent the night. The next morning we are headed west on I-80 and I look over and see these mountains and say "that's where that airliner crashed".
    I didn't get a picture, but Google Earth bears me out.

Prompted by looking at the terrain around Chidago Canyon, site of Mr. Spock's return to Earth. Via Mr. Healy.

On the road in Cheyenne Wyoming

Cheyenne, WY, C&S overpass

We've gotten off of Interstate 80 and are driving into town and I see signal trestle over the railroad tracks that run parallel to our road. There are four sets of lights mounted on the trestle, which I suspect means there are four tracks. Not too much farther on I see this overpass (above) with a train on it. A train track crossing a train track?!?! I don't think I've ever seen such a thing before. There are bridges that carry train tracks over roads, and bridges that carry roads over train tracks, but a bridge that carries train tracks over train tracks, that's gotta be a first.
    On top of that the train on the overpass was loaded exclusively with what looked like sections of wind power pylons. I would have liked to have got a picture, but I was running on about 3 hours of sleep and pulling my camera out was beyond me.

Cheyenne Wyoming Train Overpass from Google Earth

It's a little spooky how much Google Earth knows about us. Taking a nap this afternoon I felt a series of thumps, Train going by a hundred yards away.
On a side note, a couple of blocks past this bridge there is a street called Missile Drive. Cheyenne must of been a hot bed of activity during the cold war.

On the road in Rapid City South Dakota

Gillette Wyoming 150 BNSF engines idle at Donkey Creek Trains start at the two minute mark.
700 miles today, all on Interstate 90. Just past Gillette I happened to glance over and noticed more locomotives than I had ever seen in one place, but then in a flash it was gone.

Saw the smokestack in Anaconda Montana, a national cemetery in Sheridan or Gillette, I forget. Half a dozen truck stop /coffee dispenseries. Flashing lights in my rear view mirror. Got stopped by a Wyoming state trooper for going 84 MPH in an 80 zone. "We have the highest speed limits in the country, but they are strictly enforced." He let me off with a warning.