Riding the Casey Jones to Elk Park!!!

Slightly over a year since I posted last---I am wondering if anyone will even check this post!


On Monday, August 17th, I was invited to ride the Casey Jones rail car to Elk Park with NARCOA-certified driver, Kevin Baldwin, a very mechanical guy from Silverton.  NARCOA stands for North American Rail Car Operator's Association---a group which organizes and administers private individuals who drive what are known here as "pop cars" on the narrow gauge rail tracks.

Here is "Casey," waiting on the tracks for the passengers.  It was built to carry 11 people but seven of us really filled it up!  There is disagreement about the purpose of this vehicle:  some say it was used as an ambulance and ran up the little rail lines that carried people to and fro from the mines up the nearby valleys and some say it was to carry the mine bosses to town for lodge meetings!  According to The Rainbow Route, a rather definitive book about the railroads in San Juan County. it was actually used for both!

Looking at Casey from the front you can see a flat white area over the windshield with a little red sign on it.  That is the gas tank!  There is a gasline on the right (black) running down to the engine.
The engine is from a Cadillac car  which was built into this funny-looking conveyance, replacing the original engine.  The Casey appeared in the news the spring of 1915!!

Almost time to climb aboard!  Kevin, the driver, is at the rear, checking to make sure all is in place and everything is working.  He and another passenger had to prime the engine---they had to pour fuel into each piston chamber with a tiny oil can and little funnels!  It actually has an electric starter and it started merrily (and noisily) on the first try!

There were ten other rail cars in our parade, with Casey Jones leading the way.  Here we are, all turned around at the Y at Elk Park, ready to ride the rails back to Silverton.  It was a great way to spend a summer afternoon in the high country!!!

A Visit to Red Rock Country in Utah

Toward the end of August, friend Lois MacKenzie from Silverton and I loaded up in her little blue Toyota pickup and headed for the back-country of eastern Utah...the land of huge red rocks and muddy rivers.

We stayed with the Rozman family (Lois' cousins) on their cattle ranch which is situated NW of Moab on the Green River---a long way from anywhere or anyone.  What a wonderful time we had seeing their cattle, horses, and irrigated fields which are emerald jewels in the desert.

Next it was on to Moab where we enjoyed a very cozy and elegant B&B.  The annual music festival was just beginning so we took a jet boat down the Colorado River to a sandstone grotto below the horseshoe bend in the river which is below Deadhorse Point (for those of you familiar with this area).  

We walked through a tree tunnel of willows pulled back carefully with ropes and found ourselves in the grotto which has a US Park Service capacity limit of 125 people.  There we found seats for 75 guests and wonder of all, a beautiful Steinway grand piano, parked on the sand, ready to play!

We enjoyed an afternoon concert of Classical music as well as a contemporary horn solo
(played from a ledge far above us, with long rests so we could hear the echos of the horn),
and a Columbian harp piece (do not think angel music!).  The acoustics were amazing; I could
hear the first violin breathing during a Beethoven quintet!

After the program we enjoyed wine and elegant appetizers with the musicians and then all
had another boatride back to Moab.  Probably the most unique concert setting I have ever
enjoyed---right up there with seeing the opera "Aida" staged at the Baths of Caracella
in Rome.

Our final day found us loading firewood, a log-splitter, and a chain saw into Lois' truck
and heading back home to our cool mountains.  Great trip---hope we go next year!

 The Rozman's Irrigation System with river water

 Feeder Cattle Having Breakfast with a Stone Corral in the

background that was used for wild horses at one time

 Lois and Kerry loading hay for the cows

 Jetting along the Colorado enjoying the cliffs

 The huge red cliffs are seemingly endless...

 Arriving in the Grotto Area

 Boats preparing to let us ashore...

Lois heading into the tree "tunnel" that led into the grotto

 The piano just within the shade of the grotto

 In the grotto---lots of photos taken!

 Lois and Penny with the piano

 Ready to begin...

Some of the excellent musicians, Columbian harp below

Old Threshers Reunion-Iowa

Recently I took the train from Grand Junction, Colorado to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa to visit friends, Karen and George Chapman, former Silvertonians.  While there I had the fun of visiting the annual Old Threshers Reunion, an extravaganza of steam tractors, draft horse demonstrations, and  many other replications of "old time" methods of accomplishing tasks---such a delightful trip back in time for me, as much of what I saw had been used on my family ranch when I was a child.

I saw a horse drilling a well, making patient trips round and round the well-site.

 Next came the threshing machines, driven by great belts attached to steam-powered tractors.
The chaff was flying, the grain was pouring into a wagon and the dinosaur-looking machines
were spewing straw into the breeze!

Another treat was called "The Cavalcade of Power."  It was actually a parade of  over

900 antique cars, trucks, tractors, steam-powered tractors, teams of horses, and other assorted types

of vintage equipment.  They paraded past the grand stand and some were competing by pulling heavy loads in the rather loose soil.  One steam tractor pulled its front wheels right off the ground!  There was even a horse-drawn school bus!  It was delightful watching though dusty.

 

 

Another interesting demonstration was seeing how sorghum (syrup that tastes sort of like

molasses although it seems sweeter) is made from cane.  They had a masher machine that squeezed the juice out of the stocks and then it was cooked down over a wood fire, with someone stirring and skimming the green bits (stalk) off the top.  It takes 18 gallons of cane juice to make one gallon of sorghum syrup.

 

 

Lastly were two bits from my farm/ranch girl history.  I guess the old adage about taking the girl off the farm but never removing the farm from the girl is true.  I discovered a white gasoline powered iron, such as my mother had, at a museum Karen and George took me to.  It was many steps ahead of the flat irons that were heated on the coal stove that our neighbors used.  Mom would pump up the pressure (see small pump in photo) and then I would have to go into the next room when she lit it in case it exploded!  I can still hear the hiss of the burning gas as she ironed...the second bit is that I found a B Model International Harvester tractor (Farmall).  Such a tractor was the first motor vehicle I ever drove (I believe I was eleven).  I would drive and pull a small wagon containing corn silage for our cows in the winter and my dad would stand in the wagon and toss out the food to the cows.  One time he said to go faster so I hit the throttle---kazoom!  Away went the tractor and trailer with me at the wheel and Dad flew right over the back end of the wagon!  (Needless to say we had to have a little visit about gradually increasing the throttle speed!)

 

The Chapmans were wonderful hosts (thanks, good friends) and I had a most enjoyable time visiting some of my roots and learning some new things.  Old Threshers Reunion in Iowa---a good time!

 













Continuing South in Peru...

(In case you are new to looking at blogs, on this one  you can click on a photo to enlarge it.  When
you are through looking at it, look for the X in the upper right hand corner to close.)

Working our way farther south along the coast of Peru, we enjoyed a boat trip to the Ballestas Islands, often called "The Galapagos of Peru."  It is a wildlife sanctuary, home to 300,00 birds!      We saw brown pelicans, Peruvian Boobies, Inca Terns with red feet and beaks, Humboldt Penquins, pelicans, cormorants and South American Sea Lions, all happily living together.  Even the sea lions have no enemies because there are no sharks in the waters along the coast.

Another adventure was going dune-buggying in the huge sand dunes on the northern reaches of the Atacama Desert, the dryest area on Earth.  Unknown to us, our guide sent a camera with our buggy driver who insisted on taking pictures of us!  In my halting Spanish I said "no dinero" because I thought he was going to try to sell the pictures to us!  Of course he insisted on taking pictures (I am
sure he was hoping for a big tip from Alex, our guide)---anyway, here are a few.  It was breath-taking, not only speeding wildly up and down the dunes but enjoying the scenery!

 Ready to Roll---hang on to your hats!

Enjoying the shade of the buggy on the dunes

 

 Sand as far as we could see in all directions!

 The oasis where we started---that is us going up the dune.

One more shot in the dunes---it was just like being in

one of those desert movies where the oasis is a

mirage and the guy on the camel is lost!

Another very interesting thing we did was to fly over the Nazca Lines in a four-passenger Cessna.  I had wanted to see the lines ever since Charlie introduced me to the knowledge---no-one knows why they were created by the Nazca culture about 2000 years ago.  They were made by removing the dark volcanic rock that covers the light sand.  There are over one thousand designs scattered over a thousand square kilometers; 1500 kilometers of lines, all on a plateau between two river beds (dry) running from the Andes to the Pacific.  Below is my one good photo and my favorite geoglyph, the hummingbird.  They weren't really discovered until the 1930s and when the Pan Amerian highway was built it went right through one of the figures because no-one knew it was there.  Only after passenger air service was introduced did pilots notice the unusual designs and line.

You may have to enlarge this to make it more clear.

 

We enjoyed traveling to southern Peru and going up into the mountains to get to the Colca Valley,

a valley advertised as being deeper than the Grand Canyon.  In one particular place the Andean

Condors ride the air currents coming out of the canyon, which was quite spectacular.  They have a

wing span of ten feet and we saw 10-12 at once floating up out of the canyon!  En route we crossed

over a pass that was 16,000 feet and also had a chance to stop along the way to purchase hand-made

treasures to take home from local ladies.

 Penny and Marie at the pass---over five miles above seal level!  (the little

stone cairns were like the ones we saw in Iceland---you add a stone and make a wish.)

 Penny with her new hat, purchased from this lovely lady.

After the picture was taken she adjusted it on my head

so I could see better.

 Looking across the Colca Canyon with all the Inca

terraces which are still farmed.

 Peru has so many geologic faults that they even post signs

along the highways warning you of them---in case the earth

has opened up or heaved.

One of the condors sailing on the thermals---absolutely awesome

in the original sense of the word.

We genuinely enjoyed our wonderful trip and owe our guide Alex thank we'll never be able to give

him.  He planned a full ten days of learning, sight-seeing and adventure.  Many days started at 3 am and ended when we got to our hotel at 10 pm but it was sheer delight.  Please come visit me and we'll

look at the rest of my pictures and I'll over-whelm you with the history of pre-Inca civilizations!!!

 

 

Lunch on our final day in Peru, with our guide, Alex.

Marie and I enjoyed our final pisco sour, the national drink

of Peru which we learned to love when we were

in Peru four years ago!

Go to Peru when you can---the people are wonderful and there

is so much to see and do that is new to North Americans!