Friday, September 28, 2018

Plans
We left Jerome KOA camp at 9:15am to sunny, cool day.  Twin Falls/Jerome ID area is known for Perrine Bridge, Snake River Canyon, the "Twin Falls" of Pillar Falls and Shoshone Falls (Shoshone is taller than Niagara Falls, NY) as well as large agricultural farming with irrigation. This is also where Evil Kinevil tried to jump across Snake River Canyon.

We headed east on I84 to I80, through Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Our plans are to once again, camp Friday, Saturday and Sunday in order to relax a bit, attend worship and see local sites.

Morton Thiokol's "Rocket Garden" displaying rocket and
missile propulsion systems for USArmy, Navy, Air Force
like the Nike Polaris, Sidewinder, TOW, Minuteman, Patriot
and the Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motor,
lying sideways.

NASA and Morton Thiokol's Space Shuttle Reusable
Solid Rocket Motor. Note the third black ring from the right.
That's the ring that failed and led to the explosion of the Challenger
Space Shuttle.  The man walking right, in green, told me the story
to the left. And he said he was in the Air Force during the Vietnam War
working inside a Minuteman Missile Silo.

Morton Thiokol, Promotory, UT
We saw signs to "Golden Spike National Historical Site", so we detoured off of Rt83 East and drove 40+ miles (on a  quarter tank of gas and a full 5 gallon container in the truck bed).  We stopped and walked Morton Thiokol's "Rocket Garden" Display.  

Morton Thilkol had a major influence in American rocket and missile propulsion systems for the US Army, Air Force, Navy and NASA, including the ill-fated Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. As we were viewing the missiles, a man walked up to me and pointed to the big black ring on the space shuttle booster and said, "that's the one that failed! An engineer from Morton Thiokol (Robert Boisjoly) warned NASA about the weak rings and suggested delaying the launch, but NASA and Morton Thiokol, under intense pressure, decided to launch anyway.  Morton Thiokol got the blame, not NASA.  Typical government." 






Golden Spike National Historic Site, Promontory, UT

The Golden Spike National Historic Site in the distance.
You can see the two steam locomotives middle right.

We then drove to Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory, UT.  This is again an excellent site run by the National Park Service.  It is the exact location where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads joined the country in May 1869. (read Stephen Ambrose's excellent book, Nothing Like It In The World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869).

There were two steam trains on the tracks, re enacting the date and event, both in service. During the NPS Ranger's talk outdoors (a blue sky, crisp and windy day), we saw each steam train reverse, then come down the tracks and stop again in front of us.  It is real impressive to be near a steam engine as well as see the smoke and steam and hear the whistles and engine noise.  Read my photo caption on the Union Pacific Rogers Locomotive #119.

We viewed an excellent NPS film about the history of the transcontinental railway, how it was built and what it took for each railroad to work east and west, the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha, Nebraska west and the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento, CA east.  

This was during and right after the Civil War and getting laborers was very difficult, especially after the North and South lost 620,000 men, roughly 2% of the USA population at the time. The Irish and Chinese (Central Pacific) were highly regarded as hard working and industrious and essential and there are plaques laid around the site acknowledging them.

Right hand caption says, "Original sign placed by the Southern
Pacific(formally Central Pacific Railroad) right of way facing east. 
Photo taken sometime in the 1930s."

You couldn't ask for a more beautiful picture of an historical
event. The Union Pacific #119 is on the right and the Jupiter
of the Central Pacific is on the left.

The actual golden spikes are located at Stanford
University in Sacramento, CA. Leland Stanford was
President of the Central Pacific Railroad as well as
a US Senator and Governor of California.

During the outdoor lecture, the audience snickered and laughed when the Park Ranger said, "Congress paid each Railroad to build, told them how to build and even how to grade, but didn't tell the Railroads WHERE to come together. So in April 1869 the graders going west passed the graders going east because they were't told where to stop.  Finally, Congress said, 'meet, decide and agree where to joint the tracks'. So after the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads had graded past one another for 250 miles, they stopped."

Union Pacific Railroad #119, build by Rogers Locomotive
and Machine Works, Paterson, NJ (1832-1905). Rogers
built over 6,000 locomotives with "The General" of Civil War
fame and "#119" of Transcontinental Railroad fame being the
most famous.

Central Pacific Railroad JUPITER

There needed to be a town built every 30 miles because the steam engines needed water, so that's why water towers were so ubiquitous out west.  The Union Pacific used coal in their steam engines and Central pacific used wood, with coal being the more efficient, but the Central pacific didn't have any coal and couldn't compete with efficiency.  

But the fact that the continent was joined by rail meant that a six (6) month journey now became possible in two (2) weeks. 

This event CHANGED the United States forever, dramatically: in business and commerce along the rails moving freight to and from the coasts, with immigration (and emigration) of eastern people moving west to settle. This does not include the sad extermination of millions of buffalo by both west coast and east coast hunters. 

And finally, the US Army could now move troops around the continent very quickly, helping to change relationships with Indians and eventually settling the Indian Wars in the Plains especially. (1851-1890). 

This 1916 Southern Pacific "Last Spike" stone monument
was the first monument commemorating the exact location
of the event. It was resonated and moved here.

"Wilma, ...once again, in the middle of stinkin' nowhere
and lovin' it."

Drive I84 to I80 Eastbound
We drove right along the northeastern bay shore of the Great Salt Lake, drove by the well known Tabernacle on Temple Square, Ogden, UT.  Beginning in southeastern Oregon, we drove through stunningly beautiful hillsides with green valleys and high rocky brown hills.  We literally drove right along side the Devils Slide in Weber Canyon, UT near Croydon, UT, near the WY border.  

We saw cowboys on horses herding cattle along a very steep hillside in UT.  

This part of Rt 84 and Rt 80 was all historic road, all or on parts of the... Oregon Trail, the Mormon Pioneer Trail, the California Trail and the Pony Express Trail. 

We saw a herd of 50+ Buffalo in Lyman, WY down from our campground.  All in all just a terrific and beautiful day.  

We arrived in Lyman KOA, Wyoming at 5:15pm, set up camp and went to dinner 10+ miles away at Mountain View Drive-In, WY burger restaurant. On our return trip from getting groceries, we saw the most gorgeous, impressive western sunset.  

And finally, we also heard good news from Dirk/Sharon Postma that they are planning to leave tonight from Canon City, CO and will probably stop by our campsite for brunch.  They need to drive to Pendleton, OR to repair his Keystone travel trailer.  Ironically that's where we camped last night.