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!