Planes trains and automobiles... 10 days on the road

It's the 9th  day on the road... With one more to go... Near 2000 miles, some in the jeep, more in a sub compact rental, a couple of airplane rides, with more to come tomorrow, mostly chasing trains...  There were four states involved... California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado...

This was really two trips, overlapping, one planned, the other not so much...

It started a week ago Thursday, early, in the Jeep headed east towards the High Sierra, pausing in Grass Valley to pick up Andrew a friend and for this phase, my traveling companion... Then over Donner Pass, Southward at Reno, eastward at Carson... Leaving the Pavement for a bit at Dayton... into the desert, along the Carson River towards Ft Churchill... Pausing at Johnson Transportation's weirdly secret testing grounds... Pausing for a photo, for Klinger the Jeep wears a "Trail Rated" badge ( as all Wranglers do) based on tests at Johnson Transportation's site...

We regained the paved road just past the adobe ruins of the fort... Andrew and I and others have a group camping trip planned for August, at a campsite nearby along the river... Now headed south again, through Wabushka site of a previous blog post, through Yerrington where the sign on the fairgrounds suggests that the county fair is scheduled for August when I expect to be camped nearby...

Through Shurtz, an Indian Reservation, home of the Walker River Paiute Tribe… with signs offering Indian fireworks… and while traveling thought the phone (a cell phone, of course) call... From Kyle... Kyle and I have submitted a bid for a preservation study for 5 railroad cars... And the bid has been accepted, and the timeline is short and the window of opportunity tight, and can I fly to Colorado on Sunday... As in next Sunday...

The phone goes dead… connectivity lost… for, this, this place, is the desert…

We drive along Walker Lake… to Hawthorne, home of the once Navy, now Army weapons depot… It is a city of art based on unexploded ordinance… bombs in red white and blue as roadside art… bombs as decoration in the cemetery and war memorial, bombs as windmills in the playground… and a bomb museum… with town, cell phone service returns and I call the boss (as in work, not as in wife, but both are good Sheila’s…)  I get through to her machine and leave a message… I send Barbara (the work assistant, aka the work wife, but also good friend… ) “Barbara… not coming in next week… “

On to Tonopah… our destination and base for a few days… We were here to chase the ghosts of railroads, now long gone across the desert… This is the site of the Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge Conference… three days of tours of mining sites with papers and presentations in the evenings… informal talks at breakfast… We visit the Tonopah mining museum… the local history museum (I end up in the library with rolls of microfilm of 1904 newspapers….)  Andrew and I find a used book store… a book store lacking a cat, but with a resident dog, a book store dog… all was good… I speak to the boss, trip approved… talk to Kyle… reservations are made…

The next day the conference visited Goldfield Nevada… once (1910 or so) the largest city in Nevada… today there are 200 or so full time residents… The still active courthouse, county seat was the site of a card cut to settle a tied election a few years ago… the court bench was a wonderful mix of olive leather with gold moldings… It spoke to locomotive decoration circa 1890…  across the street was the apparently collapsing three story brick and stone high school… Walls in decay… we went off in a caravan to explore the town… the one time three railroad yards… old buildings and piles of junk…

Back into town, to explore the high school…  into the collapsing building… free to explore… then lunch then off into the desert again to explore the old railroad rights of way…  there were wild flowers… there were sites of old railroad bridges… no bridges but sites… and at one site one of the cars got high centered and well stuck… one rear tire high in the air, one front dug in and spinning… Kliinger the Jeep to the rescue… wench cable played out, D clevis in the trailer receiver… car unstuck…

Back to town… a bit more exploring, then back to Tonopah…

We had dinner at the Mitzpah… the old hotel… then more talks and such, drinks at the bar with friends… and to bed…

Sunday, conference concluded, we rise at dawn, without coffee, and head back, west, then north through the desert...  I have about 12 hours to drive 575 miles… Google suggests 9 hours… I need a few minutes to pack, to shower and such…. The race is one…

We pause at Mina at the Desert Lobster for coffee...  Across Donner Pass, pause in Grass Valley, then on, through Sacramento and 100 miles beyond, home, to quickly shower, pack and turn around, back towards Sacramento, to meet Kyle, reboot the trip

We are flying Southwest to Albuquerque... via Las Vegas… About 200 miles from where I started this morning… but for me something a bit more than an 1,100 mile journey… If I didn’t need to get home for some winter clothing…  An hour later we are airborne again…. To Albuqueque… and a short taxi ride to the hotel... The next morning coming too soon.

Early morning Monday… up, shower and pack…. Downstairs for the free breakfast and a shuttle to the rental car center… to claim the car… an economy car… from the web site “Like a Fiat”… the clerk tries the upsell… “like a Fiat”… me, “I collect Fiats… I have a couple”  Clerk… “er… whops…” Me, “Fiat owns Jeep…” Clerk… not talking… Kyle… laughing….  We end up with a very small Toyota, per Kyle, “Toyota by Fiat”

North, through Santa Fe, to Antonito Colorado to the railroad yard where we meet the railroad general manager, a friend, and see the first railroad car…

We drive across La Manga pass, a bit over 10,000 feet, I with John, the railroad GM, Kyle with his assistant… there were snow flurries but nothing was sticking… Welcome to the Rockies in spring…

We were her to visit Chama… Chama is a railroad town… 100 years ago a division point and helper station for trains headed over Cumbres Pass…. Today it is the headquarters of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad…. And the reason we are here… the railroad wants to create a historic passenger train… we are here to evaluate cars for the train, and write a general plan for the project…

We spend the first afternoon looking at the cars and meeting the people… then dinner at the High Country… country place, great food… Kyle has a problem downloading photos… His cable is missing… my computer can read cards, but not the size he uses… We try the local store and they have a cable…

Early the next day we meet John for breakfast at Fina’s…. This is local… small town… everybody knows everybody…  but with Chilies…

We start our formal evaluations… crawl under the car end to end, inside we streach a tape and make notes… measure the width looking for sagging and failing walls… first car has sill failure… but has lots of steel added so is a good candidate… the second has good bones… by the third we have a system and are making fast progress… the third is a former business car… (until a wreck in 1909) and retains a lot of original material… we are excited…

Back that evening to the High Country, then back to the motel to work on our notes… the next morning breakfast with John again… this time at Fosters across from the depot…

Then across La Manga pass again… back to Antonito, to inspect and evaluate another car… it is cold and windy… we explore the yard and look at other cars… then head north, through the San Juan Valley to Alamosa and lunch at a Mexican place… This is the land of green and red sauce and we try both when ever offered… check out the local railroad yard (sadly no longer narrow gauge) then over La Vita pass, in snow threatening…

Across the front range, reaching the plains at Walsenberg, then north through Pueblo, to Colorado Springs… and find our hotel despite go ogle maps and navigation (it took us to a locked back gate)  We contact our contacts… then go an find the site… so we know for the next morning, then go in search of food… we target downtown… locating it by looking at house architecture and progressing from newer to older assuming that older was closer to downtown… we pass Colorado College, my grandfather’s and mother’s college, and so in a sense home, even if I never lived here… Mom took us for a visit many years ago… but today, really tonight we, this time Kyle and I are in search of food… we target the railroad station because that’s us… and find next door a recommended Jamaican restaurant, Spice Island Grill...

To the hotel… to bed, up early to meet the locals at the Trolley Museum where the restoration shop holds another, the last car…  Its restoration is well underway, so instead of evaluating the car we find ourselves evaluating the project, its progress and the shops capability… we come away impressed, then bug out for Denver.

So, North through Denver, to Golden Colorado (golden being a noun, not an adjective) to the Colorado Railroad Museum… we meet the director… we talk shop… finally we get a few minutes to look around before being reminded (via a call from Sacramento) that the library will close soon… so we dash over the the library where we are expected, and boxes of stuff are pulled for our inspection…. We work long past closing time… then Wander among the narrow gauge trains until the staff, wanting to go home threatened to lock us in.

Our hotel is across town, and then further, on the place where the city fades and the plains begin… where the airport is… we have reservations in a nice airport hotel, on the high plains outside of Denver, the airport just beyond...  We find a good place for dinner (Ted’s Montana Grill… Tina and I ate in their flagship Atlanta place a few years ago… Ted is Ted Turner… He owns TV stations and a sports team or two and a ranch in Montana… and lives over the Atlanta restraint in the penthouse… )

We wake up earlier than we want, but in truth late, and I take Kyle to the airport…

With Kyle gone... I get one more day with the old papers and old trains… I am successful.

Now, sunset Friday... One more night away from home... A morning flight (early, but not too early) stopping somewhere along the way to Sacramento, to reclaim Klinger (the Jeep), then drive the 100+ miles, not to home, but instead to work... to work... to deal with weddings and a bride....

And eventually, after work, home to the wife and her cats and Emma the dog... I am looking forward to it.