Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad

Arriving to pick us up.

Yesterday Arlyene treated me to a ride on the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad and it was a treat.  I do think the name should be changed to the Close To Mount Rainier, Kinda Scenic, Railroad.  We only saw the mountain on the drive down, never from the train and the scenery is what you might expect traveling down a valley near a big Pacific Northwest mountain.  We crossed a few creeks and a river once or twice, saw a farm or two and some pretty dumpy living abodes close to the tracks.  What this trip is really about however is old railway stuff and on that score I rate it much higher.  I am not what you would call a railroad buff like my friend Craig but I really do appreciate these steam engines and all the old steam powered logging equipment and the history that goes along with it.  The ride is about a half hour one way at the blazing speed of 10 mph but it feels faster then that because the track is old and so are the cars.  At the far end is a museum and rail yard called Mineral.  There we found lots of cool stuff including several engines and steam operated logging equipment.  The entire trip is about 2 hours.  There is also a  later in the day trip that includes dinner cooked at Mineral.

Following are a few pictures.  Click on any of them for a larger picture then to go back press the ESC key.

Blowing off steam while waiting to pick us up.

Do we look excited?

Not very good at "Seflies"

Not butt friendly.....

Old time roadside in Elbe

This one is for Craig.  Well...they are all for Craig.

LAKE PLEASANT 2014

We are back at Lake Pleasant now for 4 months or so..  Site 215.  If we get bored here we have the play ground right behind us.  Traffic from south Tacoma to Bothell was surprisingly heavy for late morning on a Sunday.  Welcome to the Puget Sound gridlock.  Trip was otherwise uneventful.  The new air governor seemed to be doing its job just fine.

Now we have a very dirty coach to get cleaned up this week.  It will be nice to have two cars again too.

Now in Space 215

Plenty of space.  At least for now.

It can get a bit loud back there when occupied.  Have to turn down my hearing aids I guess!

Trees!! Mountains!!

As we traveled up I-5 to Eugene today we saw trees and snow covered mountains--sights we haven't seen for many months.  It felt like the first time I left Southern California to my new home in Seattle.  Never having been north of Bakersfield (at age 23) I found there were trees, "growing on the side of the road, and nobody planted them!"

Mt. Shasta

Durango RV Resort Red Bluff, CA

We have made it to Red Bluff, CA, staying at the Durango RV Resort on the Sacramento River.  Tomorrow we continue north to Eugene, OR (our longest driving day 360 miles).  On Friday morning we have an appointment at the Cummins repair facility only a couple miles from the RV park we will be staying in, then Saturday move on up to Castle Rock. 

HEADING HOME

In a couple days will be leaving Las Vegas heading back to Seattle for the summer with a detour south to Cathedral City, CA (where it is even warmer)  to visit my dad before actually heading north.  We plan to be back in Seattle about June 1st.

Before leaving town we took Paul to the show at Excaliber where we had taken him once before several years ago.  It was an early birthday present since we will not be back for the real thing.  Sunday Arlyene and I went to the Ballagio Gallery of Fine Art expecting to see a Rembrandt and a Monet.  Apparently we misread the material.  Saw some nice paintings but not by anyone I had ever heard of.  While there however we enjoyed the display at the Conservatory so I have posted some pictures.  I wish I could post the fragrance too, it was awesome.

With Paul waiting for dinner show to start

Close up of Snail's Shell

The Valley Of Fire

Today we took a 137 mile loop tour of the "Valley Of Fire" state park north of Las Vegas.  It was a perfect day for the trip, no wind, mild temperature (70) and just enough overcast to keep the sun from getting nasty. In another month or so this trip is likely to just be too warm for our webbed feet.  Once in the State Park the landscape reminded both of us of the Moab, UT area where ARCHES and CANYONLANDS are located. Below we share a few pictures of todays geography lesson.  We continue to discover how much more there is to the Las Vegas area then just "The Strip" (which we go out of our way to avoid.)

The trip back through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area was yet another geography lesson with lots of changes in formations and landscape.  Wasn't prepared to take pictures of that so they will be the subject of another trip.