Our third rally day started in the meeting room with the usual morning coffee, fruit and muffins. At 9:30, we car pooled over to Colfax, where we got a short talk on the history of Colfax, and the building of the transcontinental railroad over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With almost perfect timing, at the conclusion of the history presentation, the W/B California Zephyr AMTRAK stopped just outside the visitor center. I won't mention that I had predicted it would be late, but contrary to my prognostication, it arrived right on schedule. How come when I ride AMTRAK, it's never on time!
I've ridden the E/B California Zephyr 3 times, once as far as Denver, and it's truly an incredibly scenic route over the Sierras. I often wish I could go back in time, and watch how this very difficult section of the first transcontinental railroad was built. I think another long distance ride on AMTRAK is in my not to distant future.
From Colfax, we drove down I80 to Auburn, where we were the guests of our chapter president, Kurt Simon, and his wife Betty. They have a beautiful home just outside of Auburn, and more specifically, Kurt has an incredible HO gauge model railroad that's all computer controlled.
Kurt (pictured above), says that he's been working on this project for about 10 years, but most of the electronics, which includes an elaborate local area network (LAN), is mostly done. The scenery, the supporting infrastructure like people, buildings, & vehicles, and the artwork are still a work in progress.
I can relate to the sign above Kurt's head.
With the time, and resources, Kurt's model railroad is an example of what can be accomplished, and simply put, it is indeed impressive!
Today is departure day, and we've had a great time with our friends. Dan & Betsy St.John have done a magnificent job of organizing all of our activities, and the bar for future rallies has been set at a very high level. We thank them for all of their work at putting this event together.
We have awakened to rain this morning, but despite the not so pleasant weather, we're still headed over the Sierras today, where the wet stuff isn't supposed to turn into the white stuff. But, I was wrong about AMTRAK yesterday, so here's hoping I'm not 2 for 2!
Grass Valley Fairgrounds RV park - $30 Cumulative $110
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