California Thoughts
July 21, 2008
By the time I finish writing this and send it out we may be in Denver or at least close. We will have taken a week to drive in short hops from Sacramento. We don't drive far any day and try to not drive on Sunday. As we leave California and head to other places I have to tell you that it has been a mixed bag and not exactly as I had hoped it to be. We have definitely had some firsts. To have a first is not something new when you are traveling as much as we do, but they are not always so noticeably definable. I think that we have had to change our schedule at least five times. To be sure we do not normally have a specific schedule more than a couple weeks ahead and often not sooner than two days. So when suddenly it is necessary to change the two day schedule by a week or more it is noticeable. But on the good side I have had at least one lifetime firsts. I grew up on a farm where there were many Northern Bobwhite Quail. There were many times that I flushed a covey and was so startled that I nearly lost it. I never hunted them but it sure was fun to see them in the wild. When I was in Arizona I was excited by seeing the first Gambrel's quail I had ever seen and then later a covey of perhaps ten or more. But in leaving California I saw the first baby quail of any kind that I had ever seen. As we were leaving a camp one morning there were five adult Gambrel's quail right at the edge of the road and as I approached I saw at least three tiny babies heading away from the road under a camper with the adults. At most they were about a third the size of a sparrow. Had circumstances been different I could have watched them for a long length of time instead of just a few seconds. As you know some of life's special moments last only a few seconds and some last longer.
THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE IN 1978
The last winter that we spent in Florida was one in which it was not uncommon to see several columns of smoke at any time. They were burning the sugar cane fields. The smoke would never last very long. As you have heard on the news California has had over two thousand forest fires fires so far this year. We were lucky to have stayed out of the smoke most of the time but it was always close. Usually it was close enough that when we wanted to go see some sight there was the question, "Do we want to go and not see well and take pictures that look like they were taken in fog or stay home?" Often the answer was to stay out of the pollution. When we were in Sacramento we did not fare so well. There was a day that the smoke was thick enough to block out the sun by 4:00. Most days it made for very colorful sunsets. The foreground was nothing special but the sunset was. In spite of the smoke we did go see the Golden Gate Bridge. With a bit of imagination and the ability to ignore the smell of smoke in the air it was possible to believe that the bridge was in the fog. However I chose to send you a picture that I took in 1978, the only other time I have been there. The girl is my daughter.
Serious proposals for the bridge began in 1917, but many factors delayed its start until 1933. In 1937 when the bridge was completed after delays caused by the stock market crash in 1929 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Today it is the second longest in the US, shorter only to the Verranzano-Narrows bridge in New York and ninth longest in the world. There was great opposition to the building of the bridge by the Southern Pacific Railroad who operated a ferry across the bay. It was also opposed by the US Department of War because they thought it would interfere with ship traffic. On an average day there are 120,000 vehicles that cross the bridge. Tolls are only collected from the south bound traffic and average $5.00 each. That means the original cost of 35 million could be paid today within four months. But of course the cost of maintainence is a bit higher today.
RIDER OF THE PONY EXPRESS
Sacramento is a special place to me for a couple reasons even though I have never been there before this summer. First of all I am fascinated by steam trains and by the transcontinental railroad. At 12:47 on May 10th, 1869 the first transcontinental railroad was declared complete at Promontory Summit by the driving of the golden spike. In fact it was in Strasburg. Colorado in 1870 that the Denver extension of the Kansas Pacific completed the first coast to coast railroad, but even then it was not a single rail. The first seamless railway was completed in 1872 when a rail bridge was built across the Missouri River eliminating the river ferry. Still Sacramento was the terminus of the Southern Pacific railroad which built eastward. Sacramento was also the western terminus for Pony Express from April 1860 to October 1861. Even though it only operated eighteen months it is so embedded into the romance of American Western history that it appears to have operated for fifty to a hundred years. In 1845 it took six months to get a letter from the east to the west coast. In 1860 the Butterfield Stage line could deliver a letter in twenty-five days from St. Louis provided there were no winter storms. The Pony Express cut that time to ten days even through snow storms. The pony express operated 190 relay stations with 50 riders and 500 horses. The riders could not weigh over 125 pounds and they could carry 20 pounds of mail and 20 pounds of supplies, including a pistols and rifle or second pistol, a bible, a knife, a water sack, and a horn to alert the next station to have a fresh horse in position. Eventually all but one pistol and the water sack was eliminated to cut down on weight. Horses were changed every ten miles and the riders changed every 75 to 100 miles. The eastern terminus of the pony express was St. Joseph, Missouri. Sometime perhaps I can send you a picture of the Barns there.
CANYONS, MESAS AND ROCK FORMATIONS OF EASTERN UTAH
I have gone from Denver to Salt Lake City several times over the years but I had a surprise today when I drove along I-70. I was unaware that so many canyons, mesas, buttes and rock formations were along the highway. I finally realized that I have gone by way of Wyoming or angled north when we reached Green River, Utah and never went straight through on I-70. The colors that are seen are so varied and change with the movement of the sun. Around every curve is a different canyon or different rock formation that is a treat to the eye. Several million years ago this was an ocean bottom where the silt built to great depths which was converted to siltstone and sandstone. The area was uplifted by the mountain building process and erosion by water and wind created an area of great beauty. It is hard to believe that this whole area will be eroded away in a few more million years. I guess the best advice that I can give you is to see it soon or it may disappear.
Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road
No comments:
Post a Comment