Friday, April 28, 2017

Golden Spike Rally - Sacramento

And I was OFF .... to the Golden Spike Train Rally in Sacramento.  I knew it would be a short 3 hour trip ... and like Gilligan, I hoped I wouldn't get lost.   It went pretty smoothly getting packed up and ready to go.  When I loaded Jonathan, he started screeching like a banshee and no amount of kitty kitty or disco Jon would settle him down.

That of course put the dogs on edge.  They are highly attuned to the bird since he has better hearing than they do.   I went out one door, whereupon Cooper snuck out faster than I could flip a switch.  He's a runner, a problem child, but luckily he ran straight into the garage where he was quickly captured.

Then it was out the back door with Cooper in hand and Jessie on a leash.  It turned into a Three Stooges comedy.  Jessie got right to the door before backing out of her collar and running back to the house, which made Cooper do a dance in my arms, forcing me to put him down.  Then HE ran back to the house.

On the second try, I carried Jessie until my arm about fell off ... she's a pretty hefty gal ... and I had to put her down, whereupon they both ran AGAIN back to the house.  On the third try, I actually got them both in the rig, but had to return to lock the house.  Cooper's Houdini skills kicked in and he escaped AGAIN!!

By now I'm laughing so hard I can't see straight.  I guess they don't really want to leave the nice big back yard.  Finally, with both harnesses in place, they reluctantly climbed in the rig and began shaking in their boots to the still screeching Jonathan.  It's a ZOO I tell you!!

Traffic wasn't bad, but the wind sure was.  Even at 55 mph, and sometimes down to 50, the wind whipped me back and forth across my lane.  Right off the bat, a 70 mph Greyhound Bus passed me with a SWOOSH that pushed me over two feet.  YIKES!!  I hate it when that happens.

The views were nice and green with loads of white flowers alongside the freeway.  All that water has made California beautiful again.
Even the forever brown golf course near Stockton was pretty ... except for all the electrical towers.  By now the wind had settled down, but I kept up my 55 mph in the interest of fuel conservation.
Arriving at Cal Expo, they were quick to check me in and send me off to my parking site.  Lucky for me I have one of the halfway level sites.  They usually put me in the big gravel lot in back, but for whatever reason, they moved our group to the paved parking ... all except one.  Kurt and Betty Simon are relegated to the gravel.
We had some great appetizers for dinner, followed by classroom orientation on the activities, all in the middle of the parking lot, since the building was occupied by another group.  Today we're off to the Automobile Museum, then over to the Train Museum in Old Sacramento.  The last tour of the day will be the Underground Tour.  I can't wait for THAT one.

In the old days, all the buildings along the river were built EVEN with the water level.  Most every year, it would flood.  Eventually the people got smart and raised the level of the streets, over 20 feet in some cases, but left the buildings intact, building second and third floors instead.  You can actually wander through what is now the basements of many of those original buildings.  Pictures tomorrow.



2 comments:

  1. You should have gone to the Escapees WARE rally and then it would have been a short trip.

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  2. You are actually 50 miles further north of where I am now ... but the trip would have been much prettier!! That's beautiful country up there.

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