Monday 22nd
Our weekend of Bluegrass fun is now over, we had a great time, renewed some old friendships and made some new ones.
We have stayed on at Turlock so that we could take a side trip back to Jamestown. We first visited here in October of 2011, but did not have the time to visit Railtown. This is a railway museum way up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in Gold Country. Not only is it a working railway museum it is also the location of many films that used railways in them. High Noon being one of list of 106 films shot here.
The most famous one for us was Back To The Future 3, released in 1990. All the real life train sequences were filmed here. However that is not all, the train used in the film was the Sierra No 3 Loco, which is still here. We opted to take the tour, which we found fascinating, John our tour guide was happy to tell us all sorts of things about the railway and we were happy to ask questions. There were four of us on the tour, which usually lasts an hour. We started at 12.20 and finished at 4.25.
The highlight for us was to not only see the Sierra No 3, but to be able to climb up into the cab and stand where Doc and Clara had been. We also saw some of the props, the different chimney stacks they used (complete and after the little explosion on the train).
We had a wonderful time and learned a lot about american railways of the last century.
We drove back down to Turlock in the evening, stopping in Oakdale, which as we all know is the Cowboy Capital Of The World (so they tell us), to eat in a very nice Chinese Restaurant where they serve dishes of gigantic proportion, such that we had to take half of our meal home with us.
Great journey from Tombstone, in AZ, to the Napa Valley, in CA...............................................Including Jim and Connie's Party!
What we did!
This is the blog of our 12th Trip to the U.S.A.
On this trip we arrived in March and spent a week with our friends Connie NA Jim at their Bluegrass Party, in Florida.
We then flew to Phoenix, where we collected our rig and then explored Southern Arizona, from the cowboy city of Tombstone in the East, to the desert City of Yuma in the West.
Travelling north along the course of the Colorado river we visited the London Bridge at Lake Havasu before exploring the Mojave Desert, including some more of Rout 66 and Calico Ghost Town.
Moving North West through California we shared in the CBA Bluegrass Campout in Turlock, before visiting Bodega Bay to follow The Birds. After sampling the delights of the Napa Valley we joined in The Fiddle Convention at Cloverdale before storing our rig and returning home after seeing some friends in San Leandro, near San Francisco.
This blog gives a day to day record of many of the things we did on this trip.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
April 22nd - Doc and Clara Ride the train in Railtown
Labels:
California,
California State Park,
Gold Country,
Jamestown,
Movies,
Museum,
Railtown,
trains,
Western
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We enjoyed Jamestown but didn't take the trip - just nearly got ran over by it while trying to video it! Love the photos
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