So, Klinger the Jeep is now the car of choice… The new car…
A new car equals a road trip… we have a road trip brewing…
I need to be in Ely for a symposium… on Saturday September 22nd… I am
giving a paper on narrow gauge railroad cars, where they came from and their
design… I want to be there on Friday,
the 21st… Chris is demonstrating how to rivet… it should be good… hot metal, big hammers… noise… I have done some riveting, but not for many
years… a cold windy night in Rio Vista… A street car was involved… there were about 5
of us… we took turns on the bucking bar, on the rivet hammer, and huddled
around the forge drinking brandy when not trying to keep warm…
I also need to be in Carson, to do more paint work on the Stanford
Car… aka V&T 17… So… a plan
Wednesday, up early, drive to Carson over Highway 88… Spend
most of the day with the railroad car doing paint matches… That evening, drive
east and spend the night in Fallon… They
have a Best Western and I have a coupon for a free night… evidence of previous road
trips…
Thursday, drive to Ely via Hwy 50, the official “Loneliest
Road…” (Hwy 6 is less traveled, but less reported… I will visit Hwy 6 later) It’s a short drive, maybe 250 miles from
Fallon to Ely… there are old stage coach stops, pony express stations, the
nearly ghost towns of Austin and Eureka… wide open spaces… There will be dirt
roads… I may see cows…
Ely, my destination is a copper mining town, said to be the
most remote place in the lower 48 states… to support the mining they had a
railroad, the Nevada Northern, and a railroad shop… and that railroad and shop
is now a museum… and the museum is hosting
a symposium on railroad history…
Friday & Saturday, at the symposium… then, my talk done, on Saturday, head home…
fast… hard drive… via the less traveled hwy 6…
the true “Loneliest road”… via Tonopah…
over Boundary Pass and the site of the onetime
town of Mt Montgomery… into the Owens Valley, then over Tioga Pass and through
Yosemite… I need to be home for an
early Sunday flight north with the lovely Tina…
Home will mark the second half of the vacation… without
Klinger… a flight to Vancouver (Canada) and a cruise to San Diego… the seasons
are changing and Alaska is not a cruise destination in winter and the ships
need to head south… we will join a ship for its southern migration…
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