Almost everywhere we went on our vacation through Utah and Arizona, we would see this natural desert varnish that forms on the walls of canyons like this one at Canyon del Muerto, a part of the Canyon de Chelly National Park. I took a series of photos to get this vertical panoramic view of the sheer cliff from the rim of the canyon all the way down to the native Ruins at the base.

From Wikipedia:

Desert varnish forms only on physically stable rock surfaces that are no longer subject to frequent precipitation, fracturing or sandblasting. The varnish is primarily composed of particles of clay along with iron and manganese oxides. There is also a host of trace elements and almost always some organic matter. The color of the varnish varies from shades of brown to black.

Originally scientists thought that the varnish was made from substances drawn out of the rocks it coats. Microscopic and microchemical observations, however, show that a major part of varnish is clay (which could only arrive by wind). Clay, then, acts as a substrate to catch additional substances that chemically react together when the rock reaches high temperatures in the desert sun. Wetting by dew is also important in the process.

Another important characteristic of desert varnish is that it has an unusually high concentration of manganese. Manganese is relatively rare in the earth’s crust, making up only 0.12% of its weight. In desert varnish, however, manganese is 50 to 60 times more abundant. This significant enrichment is thought to be caused by biochemical processes (many species of bacteria use manganese).

Even though it contains high concentrations of iron and manganese, there are no significant modern uses of desert varnish. However, some Native American tribes created petroglyphs by scraping or chipping away the dark varnish to expose the lighter rock beneath.

Desert varnish often obscures the identity of the underlying rock, and different rocks have varying abilities to accept and retain varnish. Limestones, for example, typically do not have varnish because they are too water soluble and therefore do not provide a stable surface for varnish to form. Shiny, dense and black varnishes form on basalt, fine quartzites and metamorphosed shales due to these rocks’ relatively high resistance to weathering.

Click on the image for the really big view.

We saw this house on old Route 66 between Seligman and Kingman, Arizona. I have always loved southwestern style architecture. This house is quite a bit like one that I would love to live in someday. On a quarter acre not too far out of town with a spectacular view would suit me fine.

Last Week I reported on the return of my Para Ordinance Warthog subcompact .45 ACP pistol from factory service. The pistol had feed problems which we could not seem to remedy, so it went to the Para facility in Tennessee for a thorough going-over. In the last report, I tentatively gave the pistol a good to very good performance rating. Today, I’m happy to say that the gun had absolutely NO misfeeds in about 90 rounds.

I took this picture of my little pistol after I cleaned her up following our weekly trip to the range. She’s aways photogenic, but today she behaved as she should, in my opinion, and I’m proud of her.

I did have one stovepipe, but my feeling is that I might have flinched or squeezed off the round before I completely braced my grip on the pistol. This photo shows the spent brass stuck in the port with another round positioned to feed more or less properly. I racked the slide and the spent brass fell out while the next round went in the chamber. After that, it operated normally until we exhausted all the ammo we brought.

Another benefit is that without worrying about misfeeds and having that bug you, the pistol pretty much hit the target where I pointed it. Bob shot ten rounds through her and had the same observation that the rounds hit where he pointed the gun.

I owe the Para PR folks and Michael Bane a heartfelt thank you for getting me on track with this delightful little pistol.

As part of our usual routine, we took off for the gun show. The big story today wasn’t so much about the gun show, but about the 25 mile journey each way.

Normally, we get on the interstate and head towards the next county where the show is held. Today was no different until we spotted a column of smoke off in the distance. Something was fully engulfed in fire up ahead but we didn’t know what.

We continued down the interstate when it started to become apparent that the smoke was either right next to the road or maybe on it. Traffic started to back up and we eventually slowed to a stop. Stop we did and parked in that very spot for the next 20 to 25 minutes. We tuned to the radio to hear that a big rig and a motorist had been involved in a wreck. We also heard that it was mostly off to the side of the road but that the Highway Patrol was only letting traffic through in the left lane. Eventually, we crept past the incident where the fire department was foaming down the big rig. I got the top photo as we passed the scene. Click for bigger.

This part of the story is about the gun show. There are five buildings that are chock-full of everything from soup to nuts (literally) with the main theme being about guns and ammo. It takes us a couple of hours to browse through the exhibits and negotiate several purchases of targets, ammo and accessories. Our last stop is at the ammo concession since ammo is the heaviest stuff to carry around. We finished up the deal and headed out to pack the truck with our new goodies.

In the interest of getting home to start preparing dinner, we got on the interstate again and headed back. A couple of miles before we got to the place where the fire occurred, traffic again slowed down. Not because of any obstruction, but because everyone had to rubberneck to see the clean up operations still underway three or more hours after the time of the accident. The three right lanes on the interstate were still closed where a flatbed and a crane truck were getting the burned-up big rig ready to get it off the road.

I snapped this photo as we passed in the opposite direction. Click to enlarge the picture and notice the people gathered in the elevated walkway on the right to watch the clean up operation.

Traffic sped up to normal after we passed, but we saw that the opposite traffic was backed up along the interstate for over 17 miles.

Other than the inconvenience, it was a pretty good day.

I took this perspective photo of the business end of our Remington 870 security shotgun a couple of weeks ago.

We’re off to the gun show in the morning. We’ll have a report afterwards.

Almost three weeks after it was over, I still go and look at the vacation pictures. I stitched together a group of photos to produce this nice panoramic view of Grand Canyon from the Watchtower near the east end of the National Park. Click on the thumbnail to open the large image viewer.

I have been reassigned to another job in another location. I hate to move. All that packing up, making arrangements to transfer the services, etc. Even with the aid of an administrator, changing job assignments where a physical move from one facility to another is a pain.

That having been said, the job change is a good thing. It takes me out of the ‘doghouse,’ a less-than-desirable ‘Dilbert’-style cubicle facility and puts me into an office tower in a well-known beach town. My office will have a door that closes and locks and walls that go to the ceiling. There are two windows (a corner office) with a view of a local park and a shopping mall.

As for the old job, the product line is a very good thing. Decoupling from that fact, the skill set for the job I was doing required little other than some fundamental knowledge of computers and a little analysis. Not to brag, but it was not much of a challenge and didn’t take full advantage of my experience.

The new job is similar to systems that I worked on in the past. My domain knowledge and skill set dovetail perfectly with this project. Literally, a return to the true definition of ‘aerospace engineering.’ I could tell you more about it, but then . . . well, you know.

“Fairyland” is the nickname for this view from the top of Bryce Canyon. I cannot disagree with that . . .

Click to see the ginormogantic size.

Sunday we took these guns to the range. My two Glocks, a .45 ACP G30 and a 9mm G26 are in the left side of the Pelican 1450 Case. Damsel’s .45 ACP Warthog and 9mm S&W 908s are on the right and her .357 magnum S&W 686 in the center.

The case hasn’t been this crowded since before our vacation when Damsel sent the Warthog to the shop. Although you can remove small cubes of foam to customize for a particular item or items, we haven’t removed any because the guns we take from week to week are not always the same. Besides, the foam compresses and the fit is snug. The snug fit keeps the guns firmly separated during transport.

As we reported last week, the Para Warthog is back from the service center. The “work accomplished” section of the paperwork indicated that they installed a new recoil spring assembly and firing pin stop. They also adjusted the trigger pull to the factory spec of five pounds. When they received the gun, the trigger pull was only 3.5 pounds or so. They test fired the gun after the work with 40 rounds of ball and hollow-point rounds. They reported all functions OK.

Today, we test fired the gun with an estimated seventy rounds. Most of the time, all ten rounds went through without incident. There was one time when the round did not cleanly enter the chamber and jammed. I’m not comfortable with doing the tap and rack when that happens, so I ejected the magazine, cleared the round from the pistol, put the unspent round back in the magazine and reloaded. The gun properly functioned after that. I also paid attention to making sure that the gun got a little lube every 50 rounds or so.

I watched Todd Jarrett’s video on how smaller people should hold and fire a short-barreled .45 pistol. In the video, I believe that I’m firing the gun using the proper technique with wrists and strong-side elbow locked. In the video, you can see all ten rounds dispensing without problems.

We’ll have more to report in the weeks to come.