Golden Spike Rally at Garibaldi, Oregon

A group from our Golden Spike train fan club met in Garibaldi, OR to take in the sights of the Oregon Coast in that area. One of the places we attended was the Tillamook Air Museum.



They claim this is the world's largest wooden building.

 

 

I just HAD to CHECKOUT the F14 that was on display. This is one of the few F14s that I have seen that still has the engines and at least one of the Air Inlet baffles in the intake duct. They say this one can still fly.

 

 

 The doors are 130 feet high and the building is 1000 feet long. You can fit 9 football fields inside.

We camped at the Old Mill RV Park in the heart of beautiful down-town Garibaldi.

 

 The sunsets were beautiful even though there was fog rolling in.

HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE

While in Eugene, Oregon on a nice sunny morning, I decided to drive to the coast and go to the recently renovated Heceta Head Lighthouse. When I arrived at the lighthouse at 9:00 am, it was surrounded by thick fog.

While waiting for the fog to lift, I took the lighthouse tour. The lighthouse had reopened after a two-year, 1.6 million dollar makeover on June 8th of this year.

I climbed the stairs to the ever rotating Fresnel lens with its powerful 1000 watt lamp.

After the tour, I spent some time watching the Common Muers and Cormorants that were nesting out on the adjacent rocks..

 

 Every ten seconds the lens will rotate from one target on the lens to the next.

Watching the waves crashing against the rocks is always interesting.

Even with all fog it was a very interesting day at the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

NEW CAMERA

Not long after arriving in Salem, OR, I purchased a new Nikon D7000 DSL camera with an 18 to 200 mm zoom lens. During the past four and a half years, I have taken almost 45,000 photos with my small Cannon PowerShot SX110 IS camera. It has served me well, but I felt the need for better lenses and sharper images. Made a good deal on the camera, not to mention no sales tax here in Oregon.

The following pictures were taken here in Hee Hee Illahee RV park where I am staying for several months this summer. I took a few test photos with the Nikon to see what it could do right here around the rig.

Even at dusk and at night I was amazed!

My neighbor's dog however, was not interested at all in the camera.

LAS VEGAS TO SACRAMENTO Part 2

After leaving Goldfield and spending the night in Tonopah, I continued my journey north on US95. I was amazed at the bareness, but yet in its own way, very beautiful landscape. The first city that I came upon was Hawthorne. This town supports the military base located here at the southern end of Walker Lake.



 



Upon arrival in Fallon, NV, I headed west on I-80. A few miles west of Reno I stopped for the night at the Gold Ranch RV Resort. This was about two miles from the California border.

Text morning, I continued over Donner Pass to Sacramento.

Along the way a caught a glimpse of Donner Lake.

On the mountain just south of I-80 one can see the show sheds for the Union Pacific Railroad.

From here, it was all down hill all the way to Sacramento. I spent one week camped at the California Expo Fairgrounds. I visited the Leland Stanford Mansion and the Sacramento Old Town including the Underground Tour.



LAS VEGAS TO SACRAMENTO

I left WHATEVER HAPPENED IN VAGAS IN VEGAS when I left that town. I took US95 north through Beatty. There is not a whole lot of anything, except open country, until you get to the town of Goldfield.




 Back in the early part of the last century, this placed was a booming town.

The main activity in Goldfield was mining. There is plenty of evidence of that by the numerous mine tailings left behind.

 

 In 1905 the wooden hotel in town burned to the ground. In 1908 the brick Goldfield Hotel opened. It featured the finest food that was prepared by European chefs. It had one of the first electric elevators west of the Mississippi River. The 110 guest rooms are now all deserted, except room 220, where they say a ghost lives.

Goldfield was also the location of the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad freight depot and repair yard.

 

 

(to be continued)

LAS VEGAS REALITY TV SHOWS

While in Las Vegas, I visited several Reality TV Show filming sites. The first three shows are seen on the History Channel. I did them all in one day. The first stop was at Counts Kustoms where they film the show Counting Cars. I looked around the many custom cars for a while.

I talked with "Horny Mike" about his bus. You can see where he gets his name.

 

I talked Scott into having his picture taken with me.

 

 

 

Next Stop was at Rick's Restoration where they film American Restoration.

 

Their "Bone Yard" where they keep spare parts and future projects.

No cameras are allowed on the inside tour because I could take a picture of a project that would be on a future show. These photos were taken in their lobby.

 

 

Next Stop was the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop where they film the show Pawn Stars.

 

 

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The Last Stop was at ATM where they film the show Tanked. It is shown on the Animal Planet Channel

 

It turned out that the main Stars, Brett and Wayde (shown below), were away in Florida doing an install on an aquarium..

They both love parrots and they were all over their shop.

 

This shark was keeping an eye on the birds!

 

I did get to meet one of the stars known as "The General".

Along with Frank and Agnes.

 

So you see what happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas!