Sacramento and Columbia

Stardate RV101609
Today we travelled from the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to the KOA in West Sacramento via the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield. That’s it! Nothing else. I am trembling from all the excitement! I would say it was from a sugar high but Claudia and I didn’t go there. Over Gizmo’s most vocal objections, we bypassed the factory and came straight to the RV park. Everyone got parked quickly and we started kickin’ it and getting ready for tomorrow’s tour of Sacramento. Dinner was interrupted by a flock of very noisy geese that flew over the rig…well within shotgun range. I leered and went back to my dinner. I would much prefer roast goose but settled for the half-eaten fried egg sandwich. Stardate RV 101709 We were picked up by the bus and headed for the capitol to pick up our guide. We did a tour of the capitol,



the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial

and the Rose Garden

before driving around the downtown area

Sutter's Fort

Old Town

Sacramento River

We did a tour of the Railroad and History Museums

and returned to the park. As I was walking the Giz, the honkers came back and did another fly-by, again well within shotgun range. Several guests commented about what I was thinking. Claudia made chicken enchiladas for dinner and then promptly fell asleep. I washed the dishes quietly and then…here I am at the computer. Tomorrow is a Free Day. We will be tied up with paperwork, phone calls and laundry. One of these days, I will find out what “free” means.

Stardate RV 101809

Today was another “Free Day”. I guess that means we work for free today! “Work”…that’s what “free” means! Eureka! I FINALLY figured it out! We vacuumed, washed, scrubbed, wiped and cleaned the motorhome while we did the laundry. The laundry hamper was well past the “overflowing” mark so it REALLY needed to be done. Even Giz got sprayed for fleas. The only thing/person/item that was spared was Valentino. He got his water changed a few days ago so he skated today. The weather has turned snotty and cold so my afternoon session of sunbathing in a speedo has been cancelled. I just got a phone call from some of our group that went to Lake Tahoe. It seems they went out on the sightseeing boat and it hit a sandbar and was stuck. Oops! There was a lot of laughter in the background and they said they were getting either free or two-for-one drinks.

Stardate RV101909

We travelled to the Marble Quarry RV Park in Columbia today. Columbia is in the “Gold Country”, right off Highway 49 (which was named after the 49ers, in case you didn’t know). It’s a tight, rustic park with all back-in parking spaces. It took all my talents to get everyone in without any problems. If I were a cat, I would have used several lives yesterday. After parking everyone, we (the staff) started setting up the Community Room for tonight’s dinner, which was donated and prepared by Linda and Larry.

We had pork tenderloins, ranch beans, salad and ice cream.

The dinner was delicious and greatly appreciated by the guests. THANKS LINDA AND LARRY!

Stardate RV102009

Today we carpool into Jamestown to see the Railroad Museum and do a hysterical, make that “historical” tour of Jamestown itself. The railroad tour was phenomenal!!!!! We started off at the old Jamestown Station

and then moved to the roundhouse. We saw several cars and engines but the #3 engine, the “Movie Train”, was at the shop getting a re-build. Although the engine was in the shop, they did have the bell.

Another engine on display was a 1922 Shay, which is a geared engine, capable of pulling a log train up a 10% grade

(The maximum grade for a “normal” steam engine is 4%.) The reason for this is that the Shay is geared very low. It’s maximum speed is 15 mph, but it usually runs at about 10. The docent then showed us the turn-of-the-century First Class car, complete with upholstered seats, a stove AND a toilet.

(No holding tanks in those days! It was a plain gravity device.) We also saw the blacksmith shop

where all the tools used to repair the engines were made on-site and several examples of specialized vehicles. The first was the Supervisor’s vehicle,

complete with a steering wheel. The wheel, however, was used to set the front brakes. Turn to the right…brakes on. Turn to the left…release brakes. The foot brake operated only the rear brakes. Then there was a smaller utility vehicle made from three year’s of Ford car parts, 1920-23, I believe.

They also had two hand cars, one a “jawbreaker”,

named so because it would break your jaw if you weren’t paying attention, and a 3-wheeled “skeeter”.

We then went outside to see the “Armstrong Turntable”,

so named because it took 40 strong arms to turn it. It was later retrofitted with an air-powered gearing system that is still powered today using the original riveted air tank.

How that thing holds air, I’ll never know! There was even a portable air tank for jobs away from the main tank or air lines. These old tanks still hold up to 120 pounds of air (which is just enough to air up the tires on the RV). We then went through the movie museum where several old props were on display. One was the front of an “engine” where the front light was a garbage can lid and a camera prop was made of wood.

There was also a display of some of the many signs used to establish the location of the film.

If you know what to look for, the front of the Jamestown Station could be New York, Los Angeles, or whatever place sign was attached to the building as the scene was shot. There were also a few fake smokestacks on display.

These fake stacks were used to turn a more modern oil-burning train into an older-looking steam engine. They even had the remains of the train stack that was blown up in “Back to the Future”. After purchasing a railroad hat pin for my collection, we returned to the park to lead a guest back so they wouldn’t get lost. After returning to the park, we re-returned to Jamestown for a Chinese lunch and some shopping. Most of the stores were closed on Mondays, but also on Tuesdays and even Wednesdays because the tourist season is just about over. We did find an old store with all kinds of “stuff”. I found a really nice six-inch cast-iron frying pan for $7.95…perfect for frying up one extra-large Grade AA egg for a fried egg sandwich. Yum! After my purchase-of-the-day, we re-re-returned to the RV park where Claudia promptly fell asleep while watching some damn medical show about cholesterol. Hell, that would make anyone fall asleep! When she woke up, we got back to work correcting the trip logs, working on the budget and future trip logs.

Stardate RV102109

Today we did a walking tour of Columbia and got things ready for tomorrow's jaunt to Midpines, the gateway to Yosemite. We just heard the waterfall is flowing. Yahoo, Hot Damn and Whoopee!