A Bit More on Day Two

Well, Anton already told you most of it. The morning was a panic (as described) followed by despair. Anton tried to get me to buck up and not worry about the damned car, and how much we might end up paying for the gashes we put in it. We had to clean it ourselves--it was early enough that other car washes weren't yet open.




Then, we tried and failed to think about fixing it all, and decided to take off. Luckily, getting to Solar Two (while difficult), brightened our spirits.

Driving in.

SEGS I & II, the parabolic dishes next door.

Heating Facility.

Storage Facility.

It was half Disneyland, half graveyard. The tower was a bit awe-inspiring, but it was surrounded by great fields of 18-foot-high mirrors that stood, flat, like gravestones. At least one tower had actually collapsed and crashed to the ground.

The Graveyard of Heliostats

A Fallen Mirror.

Anton Inspects the Mirror

At some point, we saw some figures in the distance, who turned out to be quite friendly and helpful. We learned the importance of dressing for the occasion--our hardhats, glasses, and "engineer" dress (t-shirts and jeans) made us look the part, and our obsessive picture-taking and exploring made us look intense rather than touristy. When we approached, we said hi, and told them we were from MIT, which didn't surprise them. We thought it was because they had been warned we were coming to check it out. But apparently MIT is involved in the decommissioning, so they thought we were contractors, which was awesome. But they let us wander around, as long as we promised that they could pretend they never saw us.

A view from the tower.

More Inspecting.

Ancient Electrical Monitors.

Insane heating pipes. How could you possibly need so many?

Even More Thermal Stuff.

Anton Charms Our Hosts.

A View of the Graveyard from the Tower.

And some obligatory pictures of us on location:










And so, we left. Before we went, we were told that the great tower will be detonated in a week; we realized, as we left, that we'll be some of the last engineers to ever witness the tower in person, to stand on it. Weird.

So then we left. We drove out, booking it to LAX, worried we'd be late. It was stressful; we were fast, everyone else around us was completely insane. But as we went, we got to enjoy the landscape turning from desert to palm.







We then arrived at LAX and caught the biggest break we've caught in a long time--turned out, I'd bought insurance, and so the stress of the damage to the car was suddenly and serendipitously relieved. We then moved on through Long Beach's nearly nonexistent mass transit system to the Long Beach Airport (which was basically 3rd-world level), and took off to SF. We're now here for a solar conference which starts tomorrow (today we rested). We'll update you guys on that, too, when it comes.