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Day 4: Donner Pass to Reno

Early start today… early as in 4am NZ time early! Tahoe is pretty cold at the hour of the morning, but i wrapped up warm and was soon on my way. For the curious… here is what $29 buys you…

Not shown is the heater that would probably shoot flames on the highest setting, and the nicer-than-home bathroom.

Was soon on the road and heading for Truckee… yes I had a plan in my head. Drove through some amazing fog on the way, according to the car it was about –2 to -3°C outside. The frost was just amazing…

Frost on the barbed wire / Looking across the fields

Truckee was similarly cloaked, only colder. Parked in "the only free parking spot in town" which just so happened to be right outside the train depot and had a good nosey around. Couldn't see much on account of the fog, but got some shots of the snow fighting ...

Day 3: Donner Pass again

Earlier start today, much to do. Did some quick errands and then was off up the hill to try and catch the Amtrak. Evidently I missed that so decided to go exploring and try and find the Norden snow tunnels. The road I was supposed to take is now a snow trail, so enquired at the ski booth about snow shoeing in there, but it was going to be $25 just to stomp through some snow! Wandered up to the tracks to have a look and spied a Union Pacific worker, so had a chat to him and he told me about a short cut :-) Wandered back to the car, just missed a downhill freight (snow sucks up sound) so jumped in the car and chased him downhill, aiming for a Yuba Pass meeting. No sooner had I hit the I80 than I saw him crossing a big grain train, so quick U turn at the next off ramp and was back at Soda Springs in a couple of minutes. Found the shortcut and snow shoed into the snow sheds. Missed another freight while getting ready… seriously?! Not even midday and I've already missed 3 trains!...

Day 2: Donner Pass

Awoke bright and early to the mournful cry of a train horn, funny how things like that can arouse me so quickly! Decided that 6:45am (3:45am NZ time) was a little early to be getting up, so went back to sleep :) Woke up much later on, seems that I was rather exhausted, I guess plane-sleep doesn't count for much. Got ready and hopped in the car and headed up the hill. First stop was Alta…

Alta is little more than a few buildings, but it is lovely and peaceful. The whole place radiates that sleepy Sunday morning feel and the pines dwarf everything.

"Main" street of Alta / Cars sunning themselves, check out the snow plough on that thing!

Around the road a bit there is another wow place, American Gorge. The view from here is amazing, gazing out over a massive valley with pines everywhere (no photos, sun was all wrong). I found a cowboy hat spiked on a branch, which I thought a little odd. Tried it on&#x...

Back to the States – Day 1, NZ to Colfax

Well here I am in Colfax, California! And what a journey it has been. Three weeks ago I booked my tickets and I was excited as. Then those 3 weeks stretched out and it's felt more like 3 months. And to top it all off, Friday morning, just 2 days before I was due to fly out, I got a very nasty surprise regarding my terminal and provisional tax payments – so much of a surprise that cancelling the trip entirely was looking quite likely. Luckily about 3:30pm on Saturday afternoon the revised numbers came through and I decided I could afford my trip after all. Wow! Uncertainty at that hour of the game is really nerve wracking!

But it all worked out and so with just 24 hours till lift off I managed to get my suitcase all packed and down to the airport in time. Flights over were very straightforward, even with all the extra security screening (although watching Aliens and Planet of the Apes on the plane led to some interesting dreams). Breezed through San Fran no problems a...

Coalinga to San Francisco

Woke up really early on the 14th and packed the car, then went in for breakfast. I was really excited to find they had real cereal and milk! It's been a good 6 weeks since I had something wet for breakfast and I wolfed down two bowls full. Read the local newspaper which was very narrow and quite tall. Lead story was about all the destruction that the previous days storm had wrecked, including a death on the I5 not long after we'd driven past there! Other big story was that Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governator of California, had introduced legislation requiring an ignition-linked breathalyzer in certain counties for DUI offenders.

After breakfast we jumped on the road and headed a short distance up the '5. Turned off at the San Luis Reservoir and headed down towards the coast. Much smaller roads here. All along the '5 we'd seen signs labelling the land a "congress created dust bowl"; did a bit of reading and turns out they've lost their subsidized water here and the land is rev...

Barstow to Coalinga

Woke up to a cool (for the desert at least), windy day on the 13th. Since we still had a day+ to get San Fran I turned it into an impromptu rail fanning day; after both the UP and BNSF main lines out of LA run through Barstow! So drove around a bit and saw a few trains in not much time, then drove down the old Route 66 again and lay in wait. Sure enough I was soon rewarded with a UP/BNSF crossing…

Nice GE ES44AC on the front (almost identical to a dash 9 or AC4400) but a boring SD70 coupled to that. I poured on the gas to chase the BNSF but it was hard work catching it, so went into waiting mode up the road a bit. Sure enough I was soon rewarded by a hot BNSF intermodal romping along at a good 60mph. So with Ange on the camera we paced along side it, then I got what I'd come for: a red signal. This meant the train slowed right down to a stop while an opposing trains screamed past, then the magic happened: a full 0 to 60, flat-t...

San Diego to Barstow

Woke up earlyish on the 12th to a cool gray morning and packed everything up, then headed off on the Interstates for the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Got there, paid $9 for parking in the middle of nowhere (*#%#!?!) and made our way into the park. After about 5 minutes of walking past shops and cafes and bookstores we saw some animals.

First up was aviary with some ducks… hmm… and a few other odd birds. We then worked our way over to the cheetah enclosure for feeding time, which was very popular.

 

The cheetahs were quite patient waiting for their lunch, and knew to wait on their little concrete pads. Oh and there were 3 of them there; not bad for a solitary animal. The keeper was in there with them too, handing out their chunks of meat; good luck seeing that at Orana Park!

After that was over we went on a safari tour on a weird snake train bus c...

San Diego Zoo & SeaWorld

Had a lot to do on the 11th. First up was the zoo. Didn't take too long to get there, but boy was the car park impressive! Cars and cars and cars and cars. Was as bad as the A&P show in Chch! Had quite a walk and there was a queue not just at the ticket booths, but also at the entrance! After 5 minutes or so we got in and headed in the quietest direction. As luck would have it we found the Tiger Trail and soon came across the tigers themselves, who were cuddled up to each other and sharing a log. One got up and the other quickly grabbed its log and paraded very proudly around with it. They then followed each other around, showing off their log. At one point one dropped it into the stream, but rather than leaving it it quickly scampered down to the bottom and waded in to rescue its log. It then emerged very proudly holding LOG, as Ren & Stimpy would say.

  Cuddled up / Sitting watching

LOG

...

Gila Bend to San Diego

Things are rapidly drawing to a close over here. Goal for the 10th was to drive to San Diego. Long drive. Woke up saw a few UP trains trundle past, then hit the road and headed for Yuma. Long slog on the i8. Not much scenery wise, just more desert (and not even that interesting). Yuma was biggish, main interest for me was the big stack train we passed on the way through. Then it was back on the road to San Diego. Here things got a bit more interesting. Unbeknown to me we passed within a mile of the Mexican border a number of times. What I was aware of were these things…

US Border Patron compulsory checkpoints. Note the large portable floodlights all around and the plethora of patrol cars all lined up ready for anything exciting. I wasn't sure what to expect here, but we actually got flagged right on through; apparently we weren't suspicious enough, and Angela was under strict orders not to flash anyone in a uniform!

Sen...

Tucson to Gila Bend

Another day, another phone call to the rental car company. Like I said, got my account credited so the amount charged to me should now match the amount I was quoted. Amazing how complicated such a simple thing can be. Passed some interesting characters on the car; motels like these seem to attract interesting types.

Here's the motel in all its early morning glory; out of sight to the left and right are the half dozen pickup trucks and motorbikes that seem standard fare around here.

We hopped on the highway and headed… oh so slowly thanks to all the traffic lights and road works… towards Oracle, AZ, just out of Tucson. What's there you ask? Well suppose a very wealthy Texan built a very large hot house and then sealed 8 people and plants and everything they need inside for 2 years to see how they did…

… you'd end up with this. It's called Biosphere2 (#1...