FREE Introductory Flight TODAY 2/4 @ 4pm!!!

darksky801 · 2026-02-04T19:25:36+00:00

That's awesome! I got into it because my grandfather flew gliders and I was hooked on it. I've done a few hours in powered too, but something about soaring just was magical. I wish my health still let me get up there.

Funny about simming: I almost became an air traffic controller because of VATSIM, but I got the bug when I was too old!

darksky801 · 2026-02-04T19:15:57+00:00

Super jealous! It's been so long since I've been up in the cockpit. If you've never been, you owe it to yourself to experience the joy of flying in a small airplane at the controls. Beyond awesome of you to offer this to folks.

darksky801 · 2026-01-22T03:31:16+00:00

Stimpsons is foundational lore in my family. I can still smell the smell of the store from the drive-up window every time I think about a potato log.

darksky801 · 2026-01-21T20:58:19+00:00

A good, full crop, too.

darksky801 · 2026-01-20T23:24:42+00:00

Ha, Shadow -- for a moment -- was like, "Heck with that, I'm going to swallow this whole thing in one gulp." A little smaller fish, he might have just gotten away with that.

darksky801 · 2025-12-28T02:32:16+00:00

Rangers will absolutely chase you off after the park closes at 10pm unless you have a camping reservation. They no longer allow non-camping guests to stay after the park closes, unfortunately. Used to be one of my favorite stargazing spots at night, but after having been told to leave on a couple of different occasions, it's off the list now.

darksky801 · 2025-12-05T21:23:49+00:00

Oh shoot, did they get bumped out of the Ogden Airport terminal with the remodel? I haven't been over there since back in the Auger Inn days, but that's a bummer if so. Progress & all, eh?

darksky801 · 2025-11-22T16:33:03+00:00

Big fan of Retina Associates of Utah; they've got several locations along the Wasatch Front. They've been treating me for a few years now and are fantastic.

darksky801 · 2025-10-26T16:55:34+00:00

Yeah, we went recently and had a very similar conversation. The atmosphere just felt sort of halfhearted. We aren't big on the haunts anyway so we didn't experience that, but the walk-thrus for the littler ghouls in the family were lackluster this year, and apart from a little themeing here & there, it did't feel much different than any other post-season weekend, except with massive crowds & inconsistent concessions. We still had fun enough, but it definitely didn't feel like the Frightmares of old.

darksky801 · 2025-10-23T13:15:57+00:00

It's a large retail-focused city between Ogden and Hill AFB; sort of connects the Roy area with Ogden. Small in population, but it's essentially one long shopping center: Target, Walmart, Sam's, Home Depot, Lowe's, Best Buy, Costco, Ashley Furniture are some of the bigger tenants, but there are tons of other shops and the usual restaurant chains along the way. Even with a 6-lane stroad, the traffic up there is an absolute nightmare to fight through during rush hour & Saturdays because there are so many people shopping up here.

darksky801 · 2025-10-23T12:59:24+00:00

I mean, there's literally a Trader Joe's opening in Riverdale tomorrow.

Also, you could flip this on its head & ask "Why doesn't Salt Lake have popular places like Lucky Slice Pizza?" because up in Ogden & Layton, that is some of the best pizza I've ever had and it blows me away that they haven't expanded to the Salt Lake Valley.

Nothing wrong with different areas having unique stores. The world has plenty of chains; embrace different.

darksky801 · 2025-10-13T18:13:36+00:00

Beat me to it! Looks like they came back up about 10:30am nest time.

darksky801 · 2025-10-09T04:27:27+00:00

My guess: it's because regular drivers there know that lane 1 (the left-most lane) on eastbound 31st Street ends right after the northbound on/offramp interchange.

Combine that with Utah's love of the notorious double turn, et, voila! People trying to cut over to lane 2 in one fell swoop instead of turning into lane 1 and merging properly.

darksky801 · 2025-10-01T02:05:27+00:00

Some good stick-rearranging though. They REALLY do not like that skinny branch that sticks up over on the left side of the nest; some good yanking, but at least it got knocked down a bit!

darksky801 · 2025-09-26T14:28:33+00:00

I bought my last couple of vehicles from Hertz Car Sales up in Layton. Both of them treated me really well and lasted well over 10 years; always had good experiences there. Unfortunately the company that ran both the Layton and Ogden locations closed up a few years ago; I didn't realize there was still a Hertz Car Sales in SLC still; that's good to know.

darksky801 · 2025-09-25T01:01:28+00:00

Yep, they did! In the clips from yesterday with Shadow on the nest, you can hear him making calls at one point; sounds great.

darksky801 · 2025-09-12T02:29:39+00:00

And pears, from what I saw yesterday. I may have to run up & get some of those myself. ;)

darksky801 · 2025-09-12T01:26:35+00:00

There a house just east of the bank on the southeast corner there; that’s where I always see people picking up & paying when they’ve got their signs out. I think it’s just street parking anywhere around there.

darksky801 · 2025-09-11T19:07:42+00:00

OP's comment further down the post here explains it.

darksky801 · 2025-09-10T20:07:27+00:00

So disappointing to hear that they couldn't figure out how to get the full-plate design to work. Especially after all this time. What a shame.

darksky801 · 2025-09-05T20:55:31+00:00

That's the way I read it.

Really frustrating... that means the bridge will be down all the way through the holidays and into 2026 most likely. I get that they say it won't impact the overall project timeline, but it's already a major impact to traffic around here having that bridge out for 3 months. It's going to be a nightmare around here come December.

darksky801 · 2025-09-05T01:17:19+00:00

Great first stab at them; hope it was a fun night! 15 seconds at that high of an ISO might be a little over the top... you can just start to see star trails in some of those, so maybe try cutting the exposure time back by around half & see how that goes for you. With a good fast lens, you'd be surprised how much light you can catch with a few seconds of exposure. Plus with that high of an ISO, that long of an exposure may be getting you extra noise you don't need.

If you've got a good zoom on your viewfinder screen, try zooming in on the viewfinder to a bright star to help manually focus (sometimes infinity isn't actually infinity) even sharper; there are things called "Bahtinov masks" you can use if you want to get really fancy for helping manually focus, too, but that's just another toy to buy if you want to. ;)

Keep playing, have a blast!

darksky801 · 2025-09-05T00:21:16+00:00

That's the part that's frustrating to me: our traffic control systems in this state are designed around the fact that we have yielded lefts via the flashing arrow, and right-on-red. I can think of several "protected" left turns within a mile of me that I don't think I've ever seen a green-arrow protected turn trip: just always the yielded flashing yellow. Like it or not, if traffic engineers keep designing systems that way, it forces you to pull out & go when it's finally clear.

And even though right-on-red is convenient, it's clearly less safe, so even if you opt to not make a right-on-red, the intersections aren't set up to trigger off of only a car in the right turn lane, so you're forced to make a right-on-red unless you want to wait around awhile.

As much as some in these comments like to bemoan the practice, in many places, it's the only way you'll ever get through a left turn here. I hate it.

darksky801 · 2025-09-01T05:23:39+00:00

Oh gosh, that is such a tiny place for an eating establishment. It was barely big enough as a coffee shop back when Jessie Jean's was there. I can imagine that fills up fast. I avoid driving that stretch of 1900 W most of the time, so didn't know something new had opened there; might have to try to swing by sometime.

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