On a burnt up Turbine

My Friday at work...
I took off on an adventure to
Garner, Iowa.

I had earlier in the week put together
a power point slide that featured
an article about a Turbine that
had "fallen down and started fire"
It just so turns out that it was one
of our Loan Program Turbines...hmmmmm

Well, we best get a picture of THAT, then!

SO that's what I did. I headed to Garner...



The weather map (which i've gone over MULTIPLE
times on how it is disgracefully inaccurate....)
said that the clouds should be breaking up there at
around noon and the sun should come out.....

I guess I'll be optimistic here and say
that the cloud patterns at least made for some
really dramatic photographs.
Oh. and there were silos, everywhere.

But upon nearing Garner
I saw a wind farm to the west, in Goodell.
My logic was that...okay, this is rural Iowa, right,
so "Garner" could be......like.......anywhere 15 miles
within some near gas station that's probably next to a bar
(it unfortunately wasn't, I later learned)
with a 1989 rusted out Bronco parked out front....
So I began the search....

for this ONE...
ONE...............
this ONE....... turbine that had caught fire....or broken.
Did it fall over? was I looking for an even bigger mystery
of a FALLEN turbine?
....guys. There are....hundreds
upon hundreds of these turbines out there.
field upon field of them. I'm not even joking.
From Goodell up past Garner.....turbine after turbine...
so I drove
and I drove
and finally nearing 2pm
(3 hours after I began this journey)

I found 'er.

Dear article writer of the Des Moines Register thing...
it didn't "fall and started a small fire" you fuck
it clearly had mechanical issues While running
which compromised its ability to hold the big ass blades up
and Then fell...

and my guess would be that it fell pretty hard.
It would have been Sweet to see...

I think....this may have been an important part...

but either way....
I felt Really good that....at 1:53pm I said to myself
"okay, i'm only driving around until 2pm and then I'm done
I can't do this anymore, I'm heading home..."
and at 1:55pm I saw this......stick w/ a burnt top sticking up in the air.

I must say though...as I stepped out of my car
to go walk right up to it.....my heart was RACING.
For multiple reasons.
1. Farmers are currently in full harvest...so everyone and their mom
and son and daughter and cousin.....they're all outside
would someone come over to me and tell me I need to leave?
2. If there were a big gust of wind, would one of those remaining
metal chunks fly down on me??? I mean, even if it landed on my skull
and split my body in twain, I'm sure I'd still probably live,
I'm...freakin' invincible....but still! It was a scary, and I think rational, thought!
and 3.... its just ...eery. The whole...dramatic cloud situation
this...massive thing of....crap that had been on fire and me being
overly tired and hungry.....oh, and I had to pee.
Like...I was ready to pop-a-squat in the field and relieve myself,
it was that bad.

Okay. well.
I hope you enjoyed.
You're pretty privvy to get to see these pictures
I'm pretty sure they're copy-righted via the Iowa Energy Center...
but now that I credited them to the IEC i guess we're okay.
...whatever. I took the damn pictures!