Saturday, October 8, 2011

Going.......Going.........

Hi and welcome back. I decided to take an afternoon adventure today to just get out of the city and play. The chosen destination for today was two fold. The Spiral Jetty and Promontory Point. We hit the point 1st and lo and behold , the trains were out. It used to be they put them away right after Memorial day, but not anymore. The new date is October 10Th! We took some fotos of the trains in the sun then headed south to the Jetty. As you can see its slowly going away. This is a good thing in my book because I think it is so much prettier when it is encrusted with salt. My opinion....... you can decide for yourself.
As you can see, the Jeep found some mud. I really don't know how it does it, but it seems to know where the mud is and its out of my control. I just sit back and enjoy the ride. Today was the one time I was glad that they have "subaru'ed" the road. Yes there were cars out there but it made it possible to return to Promontory in time for the train run. I sure enjoy hauling ass on dirt roads. In fact, I would love to have a chance to race in the Baja 1000. I wouldn't even care if I won. Just the chance to do it.
This is the 119 from the Union Pacific. It was built in 1979 in California almost to the original specs. It is a very beautiful locomotive and burns coal like the original. I learned something new today I had never noticed. When you go out there to see the trains,the Union Pacific is on the north and the Central is on the south. In between the trains is a replica of the Laurel wood tie where the golden spike was driven.
If you look under the 119 , you will notice that the ties are rough cut by what appears to be axes. Look south under the Jupiter, and you find precision cut ties made in sawmills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the 30 years or so I have been going out there I had never noticed this. I also learned that the wood burning Jupiter would last 20 to 30 miles on a full load of wood before having to stop and add more to the tender. The 119 burned coal and could go almost 100 miles before needing to refill its tender. Interesting fact. But, both could only go around 15 to 25 miles before needing water! Ok, enough history for today. Enjoy your fall weather while you can cuz I'm predicting a very long, hard winter my friends. Jeep on and enjoy the ride!