The Trip: Day Seven

From St. George, Utah, to San Diego, California.

We stopped for some geocaching in the Virgin River Gorge.

At the first cache there were lots of interesting rocks.  If you don't like rocks, well, just skip this part!

With a pen, for scale.

To another cache we drove up a dirt road until Matt decided that maybe we ought to walk.  It was pretty hot, but we made it to the cache area.  We didn't find the cache, though.  There were some small rock arches that were pretty neat.  I didn't take any pictures of those.  I took a picture of this, though.

We got through Las Vegas OK, but could see the clouds off in the distance.  I believe we were over the border and into California when I took this picture.

The temperature dropped appreciably, down to the 70s, and we had some rain.  And some lightning, off in the distance.  Here is a still from the movie linked below, so you don't even have to watch it!

Oh, just watch it!  I even edited out a couple of minutes of us just driving along waiting for some sparks.  You're welcome!  Lightening movie.

A not-very-deep lake has formed after the rain.

The heat came right back up. Still hot in Baker!

Here we see a concrete arrow just peaking over the ridge line. This is the arrow #13 on the LA to SLC path a mile or so from the Afton Road overpass near Dunn, California.
 

Link to excellent quadcopter video by elrojo14:  Los Angeles to Las Vegas Airway / Airmail #13 Concrete Arrow 

Link to a website: Arrows Across America -- California  

Link to a website: Concrete Arrows and the U.S. Airmail Beacon System

The abandoned, sort-of, Lake DoloresRock-A-Hoola Water Park, or something, near Newberry Springs. 

Link to Wikipedia: Lake Dolores Waterpark
Link to website: Owner Plans To Revive Long-Closed Lake Dolores
Link to website: Reopening  Lake Dolores Water Park Is Only A Wet Dream

We stopped at the Harvey House in Barstow, to explore a bit of railroading history.

We ended getting a bit of space exploration history and happenings at the Goldstone DSN Visitor Center inside on the second floor.

Whee, I'm in space!!

The guard said this one the original lamp, over a hundred years old. Deserves more than one picture!

Two

Three!

Wikipedia link to information about the Harvey House:

Railroad cars that carry automobiles. Here's a link to information about the car in the middle there.

Arizona & California RR business car.

Why is that tree there???

Somebody move that tree!!!

Link to listing on Waymarking.com

Link to article including an interview with someone who rode on it

GE 44 ton diesel locomotive.  I have a model of one of these, and it is yellow, too!

Link to listing at Waymarking.com

Santa Fe baggage car.  It was so long we had to back WAY up to get it into frame!  I really don't understand not having a reporting number on the car!

I don't know what you call this, but there it is.

Link to listing at Waymarking.com

Dinner at Barstow Station Mall in the McDonalds. Link to Roadside America page...

Driving down the 15 at Pala Mesa, the lights on the freeway coming down the grade were very pretty.  Sadly, this is the best of ten pictures.  One probably needs a tripod and a staple platform for this sort of thing.

Driving distance was about 449 miles.

Well, that's it for the Big Trip To The Eclipse.  Thanks for reading!

The Trip: Day Six

So, this day we traveled from Curlew Campground, Utah, all the way to St. George, Utah.

Contrail.  At Curlew Campground, before we departed.

Contrail zoomed in upon.

I tried to get a picture of the gas price, but failed. This is the Snowville Flying J, in Utah.

We decided, after seeing a sign (or something) to make a detour to the Golden Spike Nation Historic Site.  'Cause, TRAINS!

We were driving down the highway when we saw a sign that said Rocket Museum (Or maybe Rocket Garden).  We looked at each other.  Greg came up on the radio.  Yup, let's go!!  Trains AND rockets, who could resist!

I liked the license plate frame on this car.

(I altered the license plate number)

There's a geocache there.  Two, actually.  I didn't have any data service so I didn't know about either one.  But this one I spotted.  Not having read the cache description I didn't know one was supposed to wander the exhibits gathering clues to the combination of the padlock.  Fortunately for me, the last person had not fastened it properly, so it just came open.  I emailed the cache owner about when I got home.  Excellent cache, I would like to say!

I forget what this one is.  I had heard of a lot of these rockets so they were interesting to me.  Each one had a placard telling all about it.

That big tube is a section of space shuttle solid fuel booster.

This was really helpful for figuring out when to go next!!

A couple of guys were painting stuff in the very very warm sun.

Tried to show the wasp nests my son noticed.  You can just see the guy painting over there on the other side.

We made it to the Golden Spike Historic Spot next.  It was air-conditioned, had clean restrooms, helpful folks, a nice store, and informative exhibits.  There is a picnic area outside, too.  I highly recommend it. 

Obligatory selfie.

Greg at the spot.

Telegraph wires.

Closeup of harp-type switch stand.

Looking back towards the golden spike area.

GE 25-ton diesel.  I figured out it was a GE AFTER I had already emailed the park service...
UPDATE: I got an email from a locomotive engineer at the Golden Spike National Historic Site and he said "It is a Class B-50/50-IGE733 Locomotive Built by General Electric in 1950."  It sure is a cutie!

I believe Kelly would approve of this woodpile.

An old Montgomery Ward tool box!  Can't telll if the picture if the picture is blurry, or the tool box is just old!

Peering through Jupiter to locomotive 119 where Greg and Matt are talking to the docent.

Oil cans.

The top of the crosshead on Jupiter.

Crosshead.

Matt is trying to get the engine house cat to face the camera. The engine house guys said the cat hasn't been around around for a while.  All the girls visiting were quite taken with it.

TWICE on this trip a dragonfly would perch on Greg's car antenna!

The guys at the engine house said there was a broken rail that was keeping them from running the locomotives.  This is it.

Another view.

A dust devil off in the distance.  Two really.

This railroad crossing is where the broken rail is.

Several cars, including ours, tried to go out the in road.

This is where we ate lunch.  Shady, but very warm today!

Visitor's center.

I forget which direction this is.

A panorama of the Golden Spike Visitor's Center area.

Another panorama of the Golden Spike Visitor's Center area.

We left the Visitor's Center to head down the road to the Spiral, but decided so many miles of dirt road was not something we wanted to do, so we headed back towards the highway.

We stopped here to take some pictures of plants.  I took a picture of the gate. This is on 7200 N Road, the road from the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

A log-periodic antenna. It is entirely possible I called it a logarithmic antenna at the time...

Matt wanted a picture of the interesting uplift, I guess you would call it.

So I took a  number of pictures, trying to get a good one.

Maybe without a billboard?

And here we are

Closeup with pole

Closeup without pole.  How did I do that?

I hope it don't rain.  Well, it did, a bit, but not too bad.

I forget why I took this picture.

Link to an article about the proliferation of billboards in Utah.  This image does not represent a good example of billboard pollution, but merely reminded me of it.

Well, that is blurry!

Matt commented on how pretty this mountain was, in the setting sun. I took a whole BUNCH of pics. This is the best one.

 
This is not the best one.

 
Neither is this one.

Nice rainbow!

The same rainbow, just few seconds later.

It's pacing us!!

Matt liked the view here, too, so I took a couple that are nearly identical.

Two motorcyclists on the wet road.

I just thought these two pictures were interesting.

Maybe I should put my glasses on?

I believe it was at the Flying J Travel Plaza in Beaver, Utah, that I glimpsed this GIANT BIRD, probably a ROC, swooping down, possibly upon some unwary traveler!!!

 Or maybe it was  on a trailer...

The distance of today's driving was approximately 437 miles.