The End

  We woke up this morning in the Boulder Creek RV Park in Lone Pine. We debated what we might do, and decided to g to the Lone Pine Movie Museum.
   One of Lone Pines' claims to fame is that Hollywood found it and have shot a lot of movies in the Alabama Hills, jusrt west of town, going up the Mt. Whitney Portal Rd.
   Many of the old Westerns were shot here, and some contemporary films. The Museum is a lot of fun, if you liked the old westerns. There's old automobiles that look like they were still on the showroom floor.   
  There are collections of the old weapons, clothing, saddles which are attributed to the movies.
   There's a section devoted to Roy Rogers, another to Will Rogers. All the old "Cowboys" have a little homage paid to them. Smiley Burnette, Andy DeVine, Lash LeRue, Johnny Mack Brown, Randolph Scott, Audie Murphy, Gabby Hayes, Tex Ritter, Rex Allen, Hopalong Cassidy......So many of the actors had some of their things on display. Hopalong Cassidy's display included the things that any 6 year old cowboy would want. The lunch pail, a two gun rig and the whole black outfit, just like Hopalongs black outfit. I thought I was cool when I had my Davey Crockett outfit with the wooden gun! Hopalongs outfit was really something!
   At Roy Rogers display there was a small poster which outlined the rules that Roy tried to live by. It was to inspire a young cowpoke to be like him. You were admonished to stay clean, help out around the house, etc.. If you are old enough you;ll remember when your favorite "Hero" would offer some rules to live by. There's nothing around like it today, is there.......
  But we took no pictures......If you are ever in Lone Pine, I'd recommend that you stop in and have a look around.
  After the Museum, we decided to drive home. We got here about 7:00 tonight. Now all we gotta do is unload and clean the millions of bugs off the front of the truck and the camper......LOL.   

We're back in civilization, sorta

  We last wrote from Jamestown. Since then we have been to Yosemite, through Tioga pass to the Eastern side of the Sierras, and today we visited Bodie.

   First, here's some pics of Yosemite. It was beautiful there. Lots of tourists, and some rain, but we were able to see quite a bit. There was a bit of snow around, here and there. The top pic is of the rig parked in the campground, the next is Patsy and Sassi in a little patch of snow.

   The top photo in this group is of a guy we met who was trying his luck at fishing (with bait..?..) and the lower photo is Bridal Veil Falls. I don't think the photos do it justice, but you get the idea. We hiked up to Mirror Lake......It turns out it's a "Seasonal Lake". This time of the season, it's not much more than a stream running through the valley, but you can see where it fills up when the snow melts in the Spring. It was still a beautiful spot, and the stream was beautiful downstream from the lake.
  I'd guess it was about a mile and a half hike to the Lake. Guess what happened when we got there? It started raining! So, we had to hustle back to the camper and dry off. It was worth it, though. 

  Here's a shot through the windshield at the weather passing through Tuolomne Meadows. It started raining when we were in Yosemite, and it followed us all the way through Tioga Pass and almost all the way down the grade to US 395. It was pretty cold (For a Southern California couple). But it wasn't bad driving and we fared OK.
  We stayed at a little campground south of Bridgeport, and got up the next day to visit Bodie. Bodie is a Ghost Town. In its heyday, it was a town that revolved around the mining, and processing, of Gold Ore. The big Stamp Mill is there and you can take a tour of it, if you want to. At one time, it boasted a population of 10,000 inhabitants. There were two churches and 65 Saloons. Also a nice two story school house.
  Bodie was a rough town in its day. The literature reports that there was a lot of killing, fighting and "sinful living" in Bodie. The story goes that a little girl found out she and her family were going to move to Bodie, so she wrote in her diary "Good-bye God, we're moving to Bodie". The pamphlet says it became a pretty popular phrase in the old west.
   If you can imagine a town that closed, and looks like all the people just vanished and left all their belongings behind, you have Bodie. The mill last processed ore in 1938, but in the late 1800's it was a busy place. There is really too much of a story to show and tell on this blog. But we spent the day there and we were both just fascinated with the whole "thing".
   For instance, the General store still has the goods on the shelves. The school has all the desks, blackboards, books and toys for the children. The Fire House has the Hose Cart and Chemical wagon in it. The homes still have the stoves, furniture, some clothing, and we even saw a little bowl of assorted buttons in the window of a home. Lots of antiques! Sewing machines, washing machines (All were human powered). There was electricity in the town as a lot of buildings had light fixtures in them. There were a lot of outhouses, but you could see how as the "Modern age" approached some installed indoor plumbing, bath tubs, gas stoves, etc.
   I better post a photo or two, or I'll keep writing about the town....

Here's a look inside the Methodist church. The pump Organ is still there, the pews, etc.. Truly amazing!

Patsy shot this photo of a bowl of buttons sitting in the window of a home. There's some glare from the glass window, but you can make them out.

Here's a shot looking down one of the streets. There were LOTS of old buildings and homes. I have some great video of a lot of it. I'll try to post a video of the general area......

  I think this video is a panoramic shot of the area. I haven't edited anything I shot, and the preview is so tiny, it's hard to tell what it is. I think this was shot as we first got there.
  The grave yard fascinated me. There is actually three (maybe 4) graveyards.....One was the Masonic Graveyard, another was the I.O.O.F. (International Order Of Odd Fellows) graveyard, and another was the Ward (Which I took to mean the town folk) graveyard....However there was a fourth option....If you were deemed to be be too unsavory, you were buried outside the fence, and most times with no grave marker. There were a lot of graves, and some are being well maintained by someone, others are in a sad state of repair. There were a number of graves for little children.....It must have been some rough living back then.....
  While we were there, there was a couple of guys making a new grave marker and etching the "particulars" onto the stone. I mentioned earlier, that the town was abandoned around 1938....Well we saw a gravestone of a guy who was buried there in the late 1960's. So, I guess some folks who lived there, but moved away, wanted to be buried there. It really was an interesting place. Lots of old cars and machinery....I could go on, but I fear boring you.
  Let's see where we end up tomorrow.
  We hope all of you are doing fine!    

Where in the world are we?

  Tonight we are camped in the same campground we camped last night.....It's a bit of a bit of a Zoo. There's a diverse group of folks here, and there are plenty of them. The good news is we think they are all wierder than we are!....LOL.
  We drove a lot yesterday, and I was too tired to post on the blog, so let's see what I can remember.
  We left Felton and ended up in Jamestown, or Columbia...or where ever we are, but it's near the aforementioned places.
   We went to the State Railroad Museum in Jamestown, aka The Sierra Railroad. It's a beautiful facility with one of only two Roundhouse / Turntables that have been operating since the turn of the last century. I got some great video of the number 3 engine steaming up, backing onto the turntable. getting turned 270 degrees and pulling onto the lead for the track we went for a ride on. (If you like trains, that's a really cool thing to watch). They were saying the turntable may become "history" in a few more years.
   Also, almost all of the engines and some of the train cars have been in movies, starting before there were even "talkies". Over 100 movies have been shot using the equipment from this railroad! From Buster Keaton, Clint Eastwood, Michael J. Fox and Michael Landon to name a few folks who have been here shooting scenes from Movies like "The Great Chase", "The Virginian" "Pale Rider", "Eldorado" and "Back Tto The Future 3", to TV series such as "Little House On The Prairie", Petticoat Junction" and a couple others thast escape my memory.......
  Engine number 3 was called to pull our train today. It was a big deal, as this engine is seldom used. It's sort of the Queen of the fleet. It recently underwent a complete overhaul that cost $1.5 Million dollars! It was disassembled down to the last bolt and all new "everything" was installed, including a new boiler.

   Here's a pic of the engine as it was being steamed up. I was able to get some great video of this engine steaming yup, and backing onto the turntable and being directed to the right track to pull our train.
   We had a good time on the train and then went for a drive to the city of Angels Camp to see what we could see. We walked around town and found a Museum. It had a lot of equipment relative to Gold Mining and related industries. They had a big water wheel, and an operating model of a 5 stamp Stamp Mill. They had a collection of wagons and carriages that had to exceed 100 pieces. These are all kept indoors and out of the weather. There were LOTS of things to see.
   Tomorrow we're hoping to cross Yosemite and end up in Mammoth. It looks like we're headed for colder weather!

   Here's a video of the "Petticoat Junction" water tank....It was was removed and replaced by a tank with a roof on it....The new tank holds more water, too.
  There was a LOT of old railroad "junk" laying around. Complete locomotives were waiting to be restored. I guess the State is contemplating closing Parks like this to save money....Seems like the wrong thing to do. There are only 5 paid employees, but 250 volunteers!
  Hopefully, we'll be writing from a nice campground tomorrow night....If we find a Campground.....and if we have the Internet.......and if my computer doesn't quit again........and if something happens worth posting.......C-Ya!

  

Gotta get caught UP!

  I think we were up in Vacaville the last time I posted anything. We visited with Mike Kate and Ethan. They looked great! Ethan is a foot taller than the last time we saw him. We didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked, but busy lives will dictate schedules, sometimes  ....Well, we're in Felton now! Yesterday we found a nice little campground that is the prettiest one we've been in yet. There's lots of tall Redwoods, Berries ripening on the vines, and rain.....Because of the rain we just sort of vegged out and relaxed.

The last photo shows a Redwood Tree stump that was felled a little over 100 years ago. Trees like this are the reason the little tourist railroads exist today. They are the remains of industrial endeavors.

  Today we went to the Roaring Camp And Big Trees Narrow Gauge Railroad to see what we could see. The rain continues off and on, but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, so we decided to ride the train tomorrow.

Here's a Video of the Shay they have. It will be pulling us around tomorrow. Today it was being serviced and checked.....
   

   This little railroad has some of the most popular types of engines used by loggers and miners. The video shows a Shay, but the one thing a Shay, Heisler and Climax had in common were the powered trucks that swiveled on each end of the Locomotive. This was so these litte engines could negotiate the sharp turns required to get in and out of some of the canyons they had to work in. These engines were not fast, they only hit about 15 MPH going flat out. But they could turn sharp and pull a lot of weight.

Here is a Climax Locomotive the railroad has, and will be restoring. It shows you how little these "museums" have to work with sometimes.

   Those cylinders, which rise at an angle going to the right of the picture, are what did all the work. They are sitting where they would normally sit on this engine. The boiler is about 30 feet to the right. Doesn't this look hopeless? They'll restore it and it will run again.......

What could this complicated looking engineering creation possibly do? It's fancy enough to do something important, I bet! well check the next photo...

A long time ago, it held the door to a Boxcar shut.....

Pictured above, is the Station at Roaring Camp Railroad

Here's the water tower, which still works.






   So now, we are in the Safeway Grocery Store parking lot waiting where we can access the internet.
We ate at the little restaurant at the depot and I was surprised to find they had RC Cola! I like RC Cola! It was a nice treat!

we're baaaaaaack!

Well, we've not been able to get on the Internet for a while, 'cuz the service didnt exist....Also, we were fighting a little rainwater leak in the camper. Now we are on the Parks' I-Net, and the leak is fixed, so here we go!
   I thinl when we left all of you,we were in the "Scary Campground". It wasn't all that scary. It was inhabited by an odd collection of folks, and it hadn't been maintained since 1945, but we were able to get a good nights sleep and clean up a bit for the next day.

   I liked how you had to battle the thorns on the Roses so you could hook up to the utilities...LOL. Lots of screaming kids and barking dogs, but someone must come around about 11:00 PM and kill them, 'cuz they all got quiet about that time....
   We left wherever that place was and headed for a Walmart at Clearlake to restock a few things. After a beautiful drive through the hills and mountains, we arrived at Fort Bragg. It's actually one of the biggest towns we've seen for a while.
   The first stop was to buy tickets to ride the "Skunk Train". While we were there, the days train was returning to the station being pulled by their steam engine........The other day, I mentioned they had a Shay locomotive, I was wrong, they don't. Also, our train was going to be pulled by a narrow gauge GP-9 diesel Engine. It would be nice to have the steam engine pull or train, but beggars can't be choosers, ya know?
   Next, we headed for the campground. It's really nice. It's the Pomo RV resort, and it is really nice. Lots of vegetation between campsites, very clean, and everything works!
   Here's some shots of the train ride

 These were shot out the back of the train.

   Still pix don't do it justice. I shot video, but haven't edited them yet.......

Here's one of Patsy and Sassi having a good time.

    The train ride was relaxing and interesting. There's a number of things the Conductor points out along the way. There's a 1,000 year old tree, and on one of the redwood trees you can see the spring board the feller stuck in it about 20 feet up. That would have been where he would have started cutting, but for some reason, the tree was never felled. There's a number of homes and cabins along the way. Some of them have no roads to them, so the residents rely on the train for supplies and transit.
   Tomorrow, we are going to head South toward Vacaville to see Mike and Kate and Ethan. It may take a few days, but we'll get there.
    Oh yeah.....The leak? I found some sealant at a locl hardware store and went on the roof to see what I could find....I found a few microscopic cracks in the plastic skylight over the bed. So, I gooped 'em up. (Along with any other suspicious looking culprit). The forecast is for a lot of rain tomorrow, so we'll see how I did......LOL