A Jeep Thanksgiving

 Hi and welcome once again to another adventure. Over the past decade or so the MTNMAD family tradition has been to Jeep on thanksgiving day then hit Denny's for some grub. This year, do to a social status change, we Jeeped then headed home for the traditional turkey dinner. So I guess that's the new updated tradition. Anyway, we headed back to the Central Pacific rail bed to follow it all the way across. We stopped at a small spring and had a rock skipping contest. Bob won and if you look close in the foto you can see the stone in flight after the first skip!

 The bridge I am driving across is one from 1865. This was the only one I dared cross so I did. As I said before, the majority of them are all deteriorated to a point that even walking them can be a trick. For some reason, this one is still good enough to cross. Who knows how long it will last? It's truly a sad thing that all this history, especially one as important as the transcontinental railroad, are rapidly disappearing. It is a testament to the workers from back then that their work is still around. You can follow the rail bed to the Sierra Nevada mountains for the most part and that is on the bucket list of things to do. 

 We made it across the flats to the other side only to be stopped by a locked gate. What the hell? Why do you leave one end open and the other end closed. So, we did the proverbial U-turn and drove back the way we came, 5.2 miles, to the main road and went west on the modern road. I would have liked to have ridden the train back then from San Francisco to Ogden. I'm sure most of the scenery would have been the same. Not much has changed out there over the years. Fact is, I am sure there would have been more human activity out there with all the railroad stops and towns. Now all we have are fotos and remnants of the places they lived.

 We went out to the point where the lake and road, at one time, were very close to each other. The background of the above foto was at one time a small island in the lake. In the 80's, it was an island with the only access by means  of boat or swimming. As you can see now, its not even close. We got out the pistols and set up some cans and everyone took turns blasting away. Next year, we will plan better and have a larger selection of targets and guns. But, we still had a ton of fun with what we had and made the best of it. The weather was damn near perfect today for our ride and we all added color to our faces. 

After shooting, we headed for home stopping at every mud hole we could find. It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand. We stopped at the climbing hill to see who could set the high mark. I sadly must report old yeller got out climbed today by Sam's Jeep. Though I think the new 3.6 Penastar motor in the Jeeps is to high revving for good, slow, rock crawling, I will admit the higher horsepower it has does really well. I just didn't have the power to win today. UGH! Oh well, I will admit when I lose and I lost today. Doesn't mean I'm happy about it, but oh well, you can't win them all. We made it home and cooked out tiny turkey and it was a great meal. Though I don't like turkey, the whole meal was very very good and I ate too much. Later on my friend Ken stopped by with his woman friend and we told stories of the good old days. All in all, it was a great day with the one exception. Have a great black Friday and I hope all of you enjoyed your thanksgiving day as much as I did!  Jeep on my friends!