Day 5: Road Trip North

(Above: The chase begins. A typical scene played out over the week.)

We had a relaxing Monday morning in Bakersfield. The Wheelman had to conduct business so the other three of us reviewed some of our pictures and did some internet hunts for a places to stay the night. The Wheelman had to leave us in Sacramento at a reasonable hour so that meant a new rental car in our future and we were on our own until we left on Thursday.

This day started with a quick trip to the train station in Bakersfield. It turned out to be a nice modern and attractive facility with bus platforms and plenty of parking. Amtrak California - San Joquin Service - had just a tad more rail service there than the Downeaster out of Portland but the facility was so much larger and far more spread out. They also had a much larger bus presence. Population density there is huge compared to Maine so busses head off in many directions. I had to add an Amtrak California bus photo for Skull (after Fiddler reminded me to).

We had to scoot along to make Sacramento, so we headed out to follow the old ATSF line north. The route took us through Shafter home of a small museum which the Wheelman featured in a previous post and slide shows a while back. The line is single track with many sidings. We saw a meet or two and managed to photograph a train or two.

This line also features Amtrak California. We managed to see one of them as we neared Corcoran - home of the state prison. Having the schedule helped. A northbound freight was in a siding waiting so Fiddler got dumped out at the switch (above photo MP940.9 Angiola) and the rest of us ventured back to the last crossing. I imagine the video will be better. My shots of the trains illustrate the flat agricultural land, but don't do much as a photos.

Videoman and Fiddler got out at a bridge overlooking Fresno yard. Those videos should show something. I didn't bother with stills. The light was all wrong and a yard is a yard unless you have a telephoto for closeups. We took this opportunity to get gas as we picked up Fiddler. Apparently the next southbound Amtrak went by during this time so Videoman got something.

We dined at Che Jack in the Box, Fiddler got some more video tape and off we went to Sacramento. The Wheelman tooks us by the docks in Stockton as we switched over to I-5. This proved interesting despite the lack of photos. Here were large ships taking on cargo in the middle of the previously flat valley surrounded by city. Quite a neat sight. Sacramento came up relatively quick and I made mental notes about the rental car return process as we turned in the Escape.

The Wheelman was going to drive 4+ hours back to work in another car but worked his Blackberry magic and got a flight instead. We'd worn him down over the last few days. Meanwhile I got our Chevy Impala lined up. We said our goodbyes and headed out. Someone left an exact copy of our now trashed cooler laying out for re-use (apparently). A good omen we hoped.

We wanted to drop in on Roseville and Rocklin but chose to limit ourselves to Rocklin. The Wheelman's famous luck was still with us since an eb train showed up as soon as we stopped. The day was getting late so we pretty much headed straight for Donner Pass and an interesting but free stay in Reno. It was too dark to see the east side of the pass but we saw a lot on the way up. The motel turned out to be under renovation so it was a mess. But we used points instead of money so it wasn't so bad once we got squared away.

This was a relatively light day for photos but heavy on travel. We covered a lot of ground. Portola and Keddie Wye were the next targets....

BC