Bob Barnard Track Engineering

I crave your indulgence in today's blog as yesterday was my 65th birthday, so my lovely wife Xan and I played hooky and went on an exploration of Arizona. Now don't think that turning 65 means a pipe and slippers and retirement for me. I see it as just a date, and a time to look forward to life's next challenges rather than a time to reflect. As Winston Churchill said after the battle of El Alamein, "This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning."

So we took the trusty Honda Accord to drive the Apache Trail. This was constructed in the early 1900's as the access to the Roosevelt Dam built on the Salt River, and for 22 miles of it not much has changed. Still it was a scenic drive at a time when automobiles were in their infancy, so how bad can it be? Then President Roosevelt likened the scenery as better than the Alps and a lot of other places combined. It is certainly an incredible landscape, but I think you have to appreciate the desert to compare it to the Alps. Anyway, as an engineering feat it is incredible, especially the climb to Fish Creek Hill which literally crawls up the side of a cliff. Only 10% grade, but made for horse and cart so it must have been a challenge. Today it is only just over one lane wide. It was a good job we did not meet the UPS van here, and yes we saw one later!

Check it out at:

http://phoenix.about.com/od/daytrips/ss/apachetrail.htm

The drive links the three dams and lakes now on the Salt, but the most impressive is the Roosevelt Dam. Work started on September 20th 1906, that's right, 105 years to the day and forty years before I was born. What a coincidence. Originally built as a rock gravity dam it has been heightened by 77 feet and turned into a concrete dam, but the original predates the Hoover by probably thirty years in which technology grew considerably. So, after a leisurely picnic and good bottle of red by the lake we wandered home via Globe and the huge copper/gold mines, one of which is owned by our old friends from Oz, BHP.

On another Indian theme, the one in Asia that is, the Spanish newspaper Marca has photos of "progress" on the F1 circuit:

http://www.marca.com/2011/09/20/motor/formula1/1316529187.html

It is not pretty viewing, especially given Charlie's recent ringing endorsement.

Anyway, returning to my birthday. I had many emails from friends all over the world which touched me deeply. I seem to have had a positive impact on many lives, which outshines any other achievements I may have had. Thank you all.