My 12 days in Colorado are coming  To an end...  I am on board Southwest Flt 551, Albuquerque to Denver... Then on to San Francisco...

The flight was scheduled to board 2:45... People started to line up at 2:30... It's now 2:55 and the "A" folks are pretty much all in line... We have just had the first boarding announcement... " If you have not yet, find your place in the boarding line " (nothing about if group "A"... Just find your place..)

Now aboard, the flight is far from full, and I have a window seat, and a row to myself.   We climb, the Rio Grande shining below... Heading north east...  Now away from Albuquerque, following  the route I just drove from Alamosa...  It looks dryer and browner from above.

It has been a working trip, inspecting and documenting four 19th century railroad cars...  Preparing drawings and planning their restoration...

Our work site was in the village of Antonito Colorado... A small town of just over 700 people, in the San Luis Valley, just north of the New Mexico State line...  It's at about 7,800'...

We stayed in Alamosa, a bit over 30 miles north... By local standards a city...  We have stayed here before... But since the motel, then independent has associated with a chain, and the motel restaurant has gone corporate... And where before the menu had lots of item smothered in chili ("green or red?" I am of the green camp) now it looks like a Denny's... It is not an improvement.

Each morning we would drive south to Antonito... Set up computers and climb into, under, and over the four cars...  This is our third trip to Colorado for this project...  We are not sure if it is the last, yet... Lunch was generally at the "Dinning Car", a local diner... (stranglely, the recept says it is the "Train Wreck") Where much of the food is properly smothered in chili, and the great defining question "green or red?" is well understood.   Our fellow diners were truck drivers, farmers, hunters, and the local sheriff, currently running for re-election... One day at lunch, our waitress at lunch was a young girl from Wisconsin, who recently moved to the San Luis Valley with her father, leaving the Amish, so he could hunt elk without having to pay non resident fees... She wanted to be a rodeo barrel racer...

Driving back and forth between Antonito and Alamosa we traverse a piece of America which is different than San Francisco...  This is farm country... Hay, barley, potatoes, sheep and cattle... There are a couple of tractor dealers in Alamosa, and the auto parts houses all carry parts for "Cars, Trucks, and Ag".  The Colorado Potato Administration Commission " is a bit to the west in Monte Vista.  Sunday we saw hose drawn carriages, presumably Amish or Mennonite on there way to church.

You drive slow through the towns around here...  65 seems find on the two lane roads... But the speed limit is 25mph in town, and they mean it...

We took one day to drive over to Durango... A chance to see similar railroad cars used by the Durango and Silverton Railroad... But it was also a drive across Wolf Creek Pass... In fall in full color the aspen golden...

I noted (but did not eat in) a restaurant on the South edge of town... the Serious Texas barbecue and mini golf... It may be a fine dining establishment, but I find it hard to take any institution which includes put-put golf in its business model as serious.

Still aboard SWA Flt 551... The pilot has announced we are on final approach... Seats and tray tables need to be raised and locked in their full upright position...

This morning I got up about 6:30... Breakfast at the Resterant that no longer understands smothering food in chili (green or red?) then out the car with our luggage... Heading for Albuquerque...  Heading out of town we pass the Alamosa Hunan Restarant... "Happy HOUR all day" and Big Al's Furniture. With its  Duck Commander banner...

South through La Jara, through Antonito... This time not stopping... South into New Mexico...  We pause in Tres Piedras to take pictures of the long abandoned  railroad water tank.   The last train came by in early 1941... its starting to lean, and will eventually fall... its right near the old Pink school house...

Now on the ground in Denver.... But back to the journey... We pick up the interstate near Santa Fe...  We are driving next to a truck withw "lazy boy" mud flaps.... I want to drive a truck that says "Lazyboy"...   Now  traveling south on I25 just south of Santa Fe... we spot a rest area on the north bound side... soon after we see a sign for a rest area... Off the freeway to find a second sign... Rest area 8 1/2 mile round trip... They expect you to get  Off I25, head the other direction, off at the rest area, back on ( still the other direction, off at the next off ramp to turn around head back south... Mike didn't have to pee that bad...

Into Albuquerque... We need to gas the rental before we turn it in...  The gas station we used last visit was closed and we went in search of gas, somewhat lost, diverted by an accident and road closures... Eventually we find gas ( and Mike's bathroom) and the rental car center and the airport shuttle... Check bags and check in... I win the lottery and get TSA Pre...  H

Beyond security, we gather for a last beer, and lunch... Then they head for gate 5 and their flight to Sacramento... I head to Gate 8... But we have been there before...

On to Colorado

Up before dawn... and off to the airport... 

There was no line to check bags... I started to input information into the keosk but the lady behind the counter asked for my name and I was free from dealing with the machine... Security was slow and disorganized... I had forgotten a pocket knife in my backpack, which I surrendered to TSA...

Now at the South West gate... Alisha is telling us that "It is a completely full flight and cabin space in the overhead is extremely limited and they will be gate checking any large bag if you are in boarding group C" (which I am)....  but for only $40.00 they will upgrade you to an earlier boarding position (A 16 - 20)

Now boarding... "don't pass up a seat"... "we will be gate checking big bags"... "Don't delay the flight"... 

In the end the strategy works... We are loaded and good to go a few minutes early...  I end up in the first row in the aisle, with a hearing dog...  The flight attendant is thanking the gate crew, for they have done a good job of managing bags on board... I know this because I am only 9 feet away... seated in the first row with a very nice old yellow dog and can hear them talking about it...

Now in Phoenix... I found my gate but have more than an hour to wait... I find a mexican place... it is now lunch, so tacos and beer... they offer me a second (beer) I may have suggested "that would be unwise..."  Phoenix does not have fee internet, but I have a phone that can serve as a wifi hot spot... and I am posting the blog for last weekend... when I can get the phone and the computer to talk to each other...  Connectivity was better in Ft Churchill... in the desert with the coyotes...

The flight from Phoenix is full too, but in Phoenix the ground staff makes no announcements about bags or baggage space...

We still manage to board, find seats and places to stuff our carry ons.. The new FAA rules allow electronics without interruption, so I sit, turn on the I pad, listen to music and work on the blog and the project...

It's a short rushed flight...  The flight attendant takes a drink order, (Sprite) but neither drink nor precious peanuts come before they announce we are descending and tray tables must be raised for landing...

Outside there are broken clouds...  The weather reports suggest rain.   Soon we are turning, lining up for our landing... Crossing the Rio Grande...  It's a bit grey outside... To the north it's raining...  We are one the ground, taxing towards the pink and turquoise terminal building in the sun.

As expected, disembarkation is a slow process... I land in Albuquerque a few minutes late... my friend arrive a few minutes early from Portland... I go to the baggage claim as planned, and receive an email asking where I am... I answer as Kyle walks up... 

Bags claimed, we claim the rental, then head out and promptly stop for lunch at a small Mexican place by the university... for me it is the second mexican lunch of the day...   It begins to rain and we get back on the road... heading north towards Santa Fe... then on to Alamosa... Near sunset we see the ghost of a railroad water tower... abandon since 1940...  It is dark when we arrive... we check in... more or less unpack then eat at the hotel restaurant... 

It is now after 9:00 (8:00 Pacific) and we are checking emails... I suspect we will be in bed early... at least I will be...

Into the desert, a trip report

Last Thursday, drove from San Mateo to Ft Churchill Nevada, a one time US cavalry outpost along the Carson River east of Carson City.. It was a rushed trip, sandwiched in between a conference in Carson City the previous weekend, and a working trip to Colorado following... 

Even if rushed, it was relaxing... a road trip over the Sierras... camping along the river with camp fire and friends, a bit of off road exploring, then home to pack for the next trip.  We call our small group "The Action Team" and have a facebook page...  I am the semi-official "old guy" among the 20 and 30 year olds...

The drive over was spectacular... I left at dawn, with a wonderful sunrise as I drove over the bay...  I was against traffic, so travel was generally easy at least for me... traffic inbound was thick, heavy,  and slow.   

In the Valley the road side was littered with tomatoes... a seasonal sign that it was not yet winter...  I stopped in Valley Springs to visit a foundry, and order some cast parts for a railroad car I am restoring...  The foundry is a bit of a dinosaur... dark, dirty and gritty... 

Beyond I picked up Hwy 49 north, then Hwy 88 and headed over Carson Pass...  The trees were starting to turn colors, but the transition was confused, with one tree in vivid yellow, the next half green and yellow, and nearby a stand of ghost trees, with their leaves already gone...  the confusion of color was universal... in the aspen up at the top of the pass, among the cotton woods on the east side, and even among the maples and fruit trees in town...  Only the poison oak seemed to be in sync, all having turned vivid red.

Over the pass, then down into the Carson Valley, Hwy 395 north... then onto Hwy 50 East... in Dayton I picked up gas and ice, then headed off on the old Ft Churchill road... dirt... badly wash boarded... but now away from civilization.

I reach camp... find friends and start to set up the tent and such... Much of camping involves sitting by the fire... with occasional trips to the ice chest for drinks or snacks...  Strangely we have decent 3G and I set up a wifi hot spot... it kind of defeats the concept of outback and away, at least until the batteries in the phone die...  

We are camped by the river... near Buckland Station... A onetime Pony Express stop, but also a gathering and camping spot for the overland wagon trains, heading west... a place to rest before tackling the Sierra passes.

Being fall, or at least later in the year, it is cool, even cold at night... Cold enough to make the fire especially welcome... cold enough to make you think about getting up before the sun..    The cayotes are yowling and calling all around us...there must be 3 or 4 packs...

The next morning we eventually rise... building up the fire again, making coffee and cooking breakfast; biscuits in a cast iron dutch oven, bacon in the heavy cast  iron fry pan...  Then head south in the Jeep... in search of the lost refrigerator car east of Walker Lake...

The car (really only half a car) was built in 1883 or so for the Carson & Colorado Railroad as a box car, rebuilt as the railroad's only refrigerator car in the mid 1890's, It was set aside, and became a shed about 1905 or so.  Eventually, it was cut in half, with half hauled into the nearby hills to become a cabin at at the Catblue mine... (there are rumors about the second half, suggesting that it may be somewhere further south, up a side canyon above Mina)  A friend had visited this half a car in the early 1990's... he said the route included 5 miles of the worst dry dirt road he ever encountered...

Our quest takes us through the Piute reservation at Shurtz, then east beyond the pavement, on Two Springs Road... to Dead Horse Springs... then south on a numbered road (still dirt, marked as "minimally maintained")   until we found a obscure unmarked road off to the right...   This road was not even "minimally maintained"... We climbed up a canyon, then over a saddle... the road bad enough to make me get out and walk it before trying to drive in at least one spot...  The road hadn't seen a blade in years... with sage brush growing tall between the wheel tracks.  Beyond it crossed several alluvial fans, each badly cut by dry streams... with the road turning uphill until a crossing point could be found.  Four or five ridges later (with alluvial fans between) we see the mine and car...  the road to the mine is not clear... I ask if the most obvious route is the road or a stream bed... the answer from passenger seat being "I think the stream bed is the road" (in fact it was not... there was a track nearby, but the stream bed was probably the better choice, and eventually lead us to the road... ) 

Our search was not exactly wandering aimlessly in the desert... Andrew had located the car on Google maps before we left, and had studied the local roads, (including a route around the dreaded 5 miles of bad dry road) and had down loaded maps... His maps were detailed enough to show the uphill jogs in search of stream bed crossings... We had 3G occasionally... It is increasingly hard to get away from it...

Once at the mine Andrew and I swarmed the carbody while Justin and Liza explored the mine and the other buildings... We took measurements and photographs... took paint samples... Ate lunch  then started measuring and photographing and sampling...  We dug a shallow trench to get limited access to the bottom of the car... found more than one rat's nest underneath (leading to jokes and discussions about Hantavirus... which apparently is a variety of hemorrhagic virus... leading to Ebola jokes...)

About 4:00 we called it a day... for we wanted to be out of the mountains and onto paved roads before nightfall...  We reached the pavement (and the railroad) at Thorne... the one time railroad station site for Hawthorn... we considered driving the dirt road along the tracks, which  a passing 4x4 (the first person encounter since we left Shurtz) said was passable, but not good...  but instead drove into Hawthorn (though the bomb bunkers) and took Hwy 95 north... stopping in Yerrington for supplies.

It was dark when we reached camp... The cayotes were calling... the stars amazing... 

The next morning we headed north and wast...  first stopping at Buckland Station... the old stagecoach stop, now historic house... Then on to Dayton where we visited the local museum... tried to identify the route of the now abandoned railroads through town then headed further west in search of the railroad between Dayton and Mound House...  the first bit we found quickly became a private driveway... with no trespassing signs and a gate...  We returned to the highway, turning north towards Virginia City, trying to find where the railroad crossed the road... It wasn't obvious, so once beyond the fudge shop (this is a traditional tourist route... and what traditional tourist area is complete without fudge shops, tee shirt shops, salt water taffie shops (even far from the board walk and the sea, but the tourists need their taffie)) where we took unmarked eastbound dirt road along a pole line...  Once away from the highway we could see the right of way to the south... and soon found a road leading to it...  The line included some heavy earth work... cuts and fills... we followed it a bit in both directions... eventually reaching private property to the east, and a washed out fill on the west.  Once we found the right of way, we could then find where it crossed the highway...  heading for the white door of a large warehouse built across what would once  have been tracks... 

Then back east to Dayton... pausing for fuel and ice... then onto the old road the railroad grade occasionally visible across the river... (rumors suggest there are a couple of  box car bodies to be found... but it's on private land... there is a plan to explore that next year.. with permission from the owners of course) We saw two herds of deer, grazing in the alfalfa fields... including a couple of bucks and a few fawns.  Past Hodges Transportation, home of the National Automotive Testing Facility... the folks who trail rate John Deer 4x4's, jeeps and such, including Army tanks... the Jeep carries a "Trail Rated" badge...  There are tanks and armored personnel carriers about... And cows... 

We pause at Ft Churchill to explore the cemetery, fill the water jugs at Buckland Station, then return to camp...  We play "cards against humanity" until well past dark... then cook dinner and sit by the fire...

The next morning I was first up... building a fire and making coffee... since this was our last day I was not concerned about rationing fire wood... then I started to break camp... rolling the tent, the tarps, the sleeping bag and such, loading the jeep for the drive home.

I leave about 10:00... It is slow through Silver Springs and Dayton... there is a herd of wild horses near the road... Into Carson... I was here a week ago... then up heading towards Carson Pass... the road is slow, crowded with people looking for fall colors... driving slowly, parked by the side of the road, hiking in large groups across the meadows...  There is color, likely peak color... but the trees are confused and the peak will not be as spectacular this year... likely the drought is the cause... 

Up over the pass, traffic thins... my pace picks up... down through Jackson, down through Clements and Lockford, now in the Valley again... to Lodi (Oh Lord, Stuck in Lodi, again...) then onto the freeway and home...  where I take a quick shower... unpack and start to pack for the next trip... tomorrow's trip (literally)

Now I am back in the desert again, this time in Phoenix... less than 24 hours after I left... a different desert... a different trip... in two hours I will be in Albuquerque... then into the mountains, the Rocky Mts... but for now I am Phoenix...

If its Monday it might be San Mateo...

For a variety of reasons... I seem to be traveling this fall... off to Nevada, no less than three times, the first over the last weekend in Sept... that for  research... then after a weekend at home, back to Carson City for a conference... home on Sunday, then off to Nevada again on Thursday for a long planned camping trip... back Sunday then off to Colorado on Monday for two weeks... home on Friday 10/31, then off to Florida late on the 1st... only returning and sticking around at home the second weekend of November... 

Back in 1967 Mom took my brother and I on a European vacation... including a bus tour of the continent starting in Belgium...  Soon after there was a book "If this is Tuesday this must be Belgium"  followed by a movie, then a made for TV movie...  Previously there had been a New Yorker cartoon, (if this is Tuesday this must be Sienna) and a CBS News documentary...  There is a long tradition of parody about modern travel and the rush from place to place... 

My fall schedule was something of an accident... long planned activities that seemed to pile  up on the calendar on the page entitled October... then spilling out into September and November...  

I have long attended an annual fall conference on railroad history in Carson City... the conference has morphed over time... once under the wing of the State Railroad Museum, now under the auspices of a independent historical society... but generally the 2nd week of October finds me in Carson City...   I had committed to giving a presentation at that conference... so, two weeks before a trip to Reno and the library at the University of Nevada was needed... two weekends down...  

A group of friends has an annual camping trip to Ft Churchill...  We intentionally move the date from year to year... seeing the place in spring, summer, and this year's date, chosen several years ago is in the fall...  One more weekend down... 

I occasionally do consulting on issues of railroad preservation... one of those projects in Colorado... and we (our team of three) needed to go to Colorado to complete our work there (at least for now.) that trip was added to the calendar, right after the camping trip... (with less than 24 hours at home between the two trips) 

Finally, the lovely Tina (aka the wife) received email from our travel agent... offering several cruises... one caught her attention... a music festival at sea... "Women Who Rock..." featuring female Grammy winners... including Emmylou Harris and the Indigo Girls... I have been known to go to music  festivals, and may be a fan of Emmylou and the Indigo Girls...  I like music festivals but Tina doesn't like porta- potties, but on a ship that isn't an issue...  It fell immediately after the Colorado trip... and as it leaves from Miami, it offers the chance to visit the son, who lives in South Florida...  After a round of "this might be fun", "are we crazy" and "oh, no schedule conflicts", and "its just 4 days"... and "we can afford this" and "it falls over our anniversary" (34 years)... we booked it...  So, over 7 weekends, I find myself traveling on 6 of them... 

There will be some variety... in places, in reason for travel, and in traveling style...  The first trip found me sleeping on a friend's couch... working in a library and a museum... the second in a casino hotel (but there might have been a day of high Sierra dirt roads on the way home, with aspen starting to turn)... the third camping in a tent in the desert (with some remote dirt roads included, and likely peak aspen color on the way over Carson Pass)... The 4th in a motel... but working in an unheated building in the San Luis Valley of Colorado at about 7,800' in the south San Luis Valley, (expecting to see golden aspen) with the last aboard a cruise ship with stays in nice hotels at each end... 

A history conference is very different from a music festival...  In the process I am managing to find some remote dirt roads to explore... but also walking about in downtown Miami... I have seen mule deer in the Sierras, and expect to see alligator in the Everglades (both of which taste delicious...)

So, today is Wednesday, between trips 2 and 3... I am making two pots of chili for desert camp... pulling down camping equipment, checking stoves and lanterns, and packing two suitcases... one for the desert, the second for Colorado... 

With more travel will come more blogging... for now goodbye and good travels, Randy