Day Trip to Sacramento
I was overdue for lab tests, and my doctor is still in the Bay Area. Palo Alto Medical Foundation is part of Sutter Health. The nearest lab to me that is open on weekends is in Auburn, but if we had to go that far, there were a couple of places in Roseville and Sacramento that we figured we could visit on an out-and-back day trip. Today was the first day we had available in a long time that was clear enough that we felt safe making a trip over the mountains and back again in one day. I decided to go to the lab in Roseville, which is open 7 AM - Noon on Saturday. In order to be sure of having plenty of time, I planned for us to leave at 4 AM.
I set the alarm for 3 AM and was pretty much ready to go by 4 AM.
Lisa surprised me with a very nice ham-egg-cheese breakfast sandwich on a Dave's Killer Bread bun. While I did want to get going, I reckoned we could go ahead and eat breakfast first.
After enjoying our breakfast, we got moving at 4:30 AM. The sun doesn't rise until about 7 AM, and I reckon this portion of the trip was probably the most hazardous part, what with potentially icy conditions and some difficult keeping track of the correct lane due to the pavement markings being a little tricky to see due to snow removal having obscured them in places. But on the flip side, there was very little traffic.
We stopped at the Donner Summit rest area on Interstate 80, where it looks like around four meters of snow buried the area. There is normally a pond visible here; the snow wall blocks the view.
I'm happy to see lots of snow up here.
We made it to Roseville about 8 AM, and there was hardly anyone else at the lab. I was in and out in under ten minutes. The presented a quandary: the two places we wanted to which we wanted to go today wouldn't open for another two hours. Lisa made a suggestion, and it led to us doing something we've wanted to do for a long time.
We've known there was an aviation museum in the Sacramento area off I-80 not too far from where my late sister's nursing home was located, but we've never seen it. We decided to find where it was, and by the time we got there, it was only fifteen minutes until the museum opened at 9 AM (and indeed, they let us in a few minutes early). General admission was $15 each.
This is the Aerospace Museum of California, formerly the McClellan Air Force Base Museum, and located adjacent to the now-closed US Air Force base. It contains an interesting mix of aircraft, rockets, and aviation history exhibits, some on loan from the USAF, and others donated or on loan from other sources.
There are certainly some very interesting aircraft here.
Not all of the vehicles are real. This is the bubble ship from the 2013 movie Oblivion, which I admit to never even having noticed. This machine does not actually fly, but it is the full-size version built for the movie. The displays around it explain how it was was inspired and how Hollywood made it appear to fly.
The upside-down plane here is a real racing aircraft that flew many times and won numerous races before being retired and donated to the museum.
Amelia Bearhart is the museum's mascot and can be found throughout the museum. Kuma Bear was much taken with Amelia, but Lisa didn't even notice she was there.
While Lisa was taking a rest break, Kuma asked to fly the little plane we found.
He took a turn in the cockpit, but couldn't figure out how to make the plane go.
Besides the indoor displays, there are many aircraft on display outside. The weather was clear and fine, and I was able to shed the outer two layers of clothing with which I'd started the day in Fernley.
As usual, click through any of these photos to look at the rest of those in the album of museum photos I took.
We only spent a couple of hours at the museum, and could have spent more, but we did want to get home (or at least back over the mountains) before dark. We may return to explore in more depth some of the museum's offerings, like their Flight Zone simulator. By now the shops we wanted to visit were open, so we moved on after I got a coffee from the museum's Old Crow cafe, named for and with decor inspired by the aircraft of WWII Triple Ace Colonel Clarence “Bud” Anderson.
There is a Ham Radio Outlet store in Sacramento. It used to be in Oakland, but relocated to Sacramento some years ago. Lisa had never visited this store. She bought a new antenna, but is still searching for the right mount for it. Now that we own the East Lot, she has more ideas for things to do radio-wise, with no danger of annoying the next-door neighbor.
Next is was back to Roseville and Railroad Hobbies. Lisa bought nothing here, but I'm a sucker for books and magazines.
I found this book about the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad. Despite its name, it never did reach Tonopah, as passengers had to change to the Tonopah & Goldfield railroad where it connected with the LV&T at the latter town. Alas, you couldn't get to Westercon 74 via this route, as the railroad only operated 1906-1918.
After Roseville, we headed to Auburn, where we stopped at the Raley's grocery store and bought stuff for lunch. We initially planned to go up to the Gold Run rest area, but I had a better idea that turned out much better as it happens that Gold Run (not the same as Gold Ranch in Verdi NV) is closed for repairs.
East of Colfax is an exit for Secret Town Road. Those of you who have followed me for a long time may remember that I've stopped here a few times on my travels between the Bay Area and Fernley in the Rolling Stone for a rest. At the end of the paved road is this location that overlooks the UP main line through the Sierra Nevada.
We sat and ate our lunch, then walked down to have a closer look at this line-side equipment. This appears to be a railroad flange lubricator. It looks like the box on the near rail contains both the grease and solar-powered equipment, which must be pumped under the railroad to the far track.
No trains came by while we were there, although we did see several other trains along the line both going to Sacramento and coming home.
We stopped at the Donner Summit rest area eastbound. The contrast between the pre-dawn darkness and under bright afternoon sun is striking.
There was still plenty of snow here. Also lots of people (not pictured here) playing in the snow despite the many signs saying "No Sno-Play." There was a California Highway Patrol vehicle in the rest area, and at first I though he was going to try to shoo people back into their cars and out of the snow, but he did nothing.
It was a really nice day to be out for a drive in the winter. The weather was clear, the roads were mostly dry, and only the knowledge that there was an incoming storm kept us moving along.
We made one more stop, this time at Gold Ranch where I cashed my $7 of winning lottery tickets, but then bought $20 more because the PowerBall is up to more than half a billion dollars.
By now, Lisa, who did not get as much sleep as I did and was very fatigued, let Kuma Bear move up to the front seat of the Astro and set herself up to nap in the rear seat as I drove the remaining fifty miles home. We got home while it was still light.
Most of the snow on the East Lot has melted with the above-freezing days we had in the latter part of the week, just in time for tonight's projected 5 cm new accumulation. We'll see what this looks like tomorrow.
The local birds were happy to see us - or rather, to see the pile of birdseed I set out for them.
I'd put a lot of wood in the fireplace before we left this morning, and there was still plenty of heat in the fireplace when I got home. I brought in more wood from the main box so that if I wish, I need go no farther than the front porch tomorrow.
All in all, it was a plenty good day, although driving 300 miles is more tiring than it used to be. I'm glad we got to see the museum, and got out for a good day away from home, which is good for our mental health.
I set the alarm for 3 AM and was pretty much ready to go by 4 AM.
Lisa surprised me with a very nice ham-egg-cheese breakfast sandwich on a Dave's Killer Bread bun. While I did want to get going, I reckoned we could go ahead and eat breakfast first.
After enjoying our breakfast, we got moving at 4:30 AM. The sun doesn't rise until about 7 AM, and I reckon this portion of the trip was probably the most hazardous part, what with potentially icy conditions and some difficult keeping track of the correct lane due to the pavement markings being a little tricky to see due to snow removal having obscured them in places. But on the flip side, there was very little traffic.
We stopped at the Donner Summit rest area on Interstate 80, where it looks like around four meters of snow buried the area. There is normally a pond visible here; the snow wall blocks the view.
I'm happy to see lots of snow up here.
We made it to Roseville about 8 AM, and there was hardly anyone else at the lab. I was in and out in under ten minutes. The presented a quandary: the two places we wanted to which we wanted to go today wouldn't open for another two hours. Lisa made a suggestion, and it led to us doing something we've wanted to do for a long time.
We've known there was an aviation museum in the Sacramento area off I-80 not too far from where my late sister's nursing home was located, but we've never seen it. We decided to find where it was, and by the time we got there, it was only fifteen minutes until the museum opened at 9 AM (and indeed, they let us in a few minutes early). General admission was $15 each.
This is the Aerospace Museum of California, formerly the McClellan Air Force Base Museum, and located adjacent to the now-closed US Air Force base. It contains an interesting mix of aircraft, rockets, and aviation history exhibits, some on loan from the USAF, and others donated or on loan from other sources.
There are certainly some very interesting aircraft here.
Not all of the vehicles are real. This is the bubble ship from the 2013 movie Oblivion, which I admit to never even having noticed. This machine does not actually fly, but it is the full-size version built for the movie. The displays around it explain how it was was inspired and how Hollywood made it appear to fly.
The upside-down plane here is a real racing aircraft that flew many times and won numerous races before being retired and donated to the museum.
Amelia Bearhart is the museum's mascot and can be found throughout the museum. Kuma Bear was much taken with Amelia, but Lisa didn't even notice she was there.
While Lisa was taking a rest break, Kuma asked to fly the little plane we found.
He took a turn in the cockpit, but couldn't figure out how to make the plane go.
Besides the indoor displays, there are many aircraft on display outside. The weather was clear and fine, and I was able to shed the outer two layers of clothing with which I'd started the day in Fernley.
As usual, click through any of these photos to look at the rest of those in the album of museum photos I took.
We only spent a couple of hours at the museum, and could have spent more, but we did want to get home (or at least back over the mountains) before dark. We may return to explore in more depth some of the museum's offerings, like their Flight Zone simulator. By now the shops we wanted to visit were open, so we moved on after I got a coffee from the museum's Old Crow cafe, named for and with decor inspired by the aircraft of WWII Triple Ace Colonel Clarence “Bud” Anderson.
There is a Ham Radio Outlet store in Sacramento. It used to be in Oakland, but relocated to Sacramento some years ago. Lisa had never visited this store. She bought a new antenna, but is still searching for the right mount for it. Now that we own the East Lot, she has more ideas for things to do radio-wise, with no danger of annoying the next-door neighbor.
Next is was back to Roseville and Railroad Hobbies. Lisa bought nothing here, but I'm a sucker for books and magazines.
I found this book about the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad. Despite its name, it never did reach Tonopah, as passengers had to change to the Tonopah & Goldfield railroad where it connected with the LV&T at the latter town. Alas, you couldn't get to Westercon 74 via this route, as the railroad only operated 1906-1918.
After Roseville, we headed to Auburn, where we stopped at the Raley's grocery store and bought stuff for lunch. We initially planned to go up to the Gold Run rest area, but I had a better idea that turned out much better as it happens that Gold Run (not the same as Gold Ranch in Verdi NV) is closed for repairs.
East of Colfax is an exit for Secret Town Road. Those of you who have followed me for a long time may remember that I've stopped here a few times on my travels between the Bay Area and Fernley in the Rolling Stone for a rest. At the end of the paved road is this location that overlooks the UP main line through the Sierra Nevada.
We sat and ate our lunch, then walked down to have a closer look at this line-side equipment. This appears to be a railroad flange lubricator. It looks like the box on the near rail contains both the grease and solar-powered equipment, which must be pumped under the railroad to the far track.
No trains came by while we were there, although we did see several other trains along the line both going to Sacramento and coming home.
We stopped at the Donner Summit rest area eastbound. The contrast between the pre-dawn darkness and under bright afternoon sun is striking.
There was still plenty of snow here. Also lots of people (not pictured here) playing in the snow despite the many signs saying "No Sno-Play." There was a California Highway Patrol vehicle in the rest area, and at first I though he was going to try to shoo people back into their cars and out of the snow, but he did nothing.
It was a really nice day to be out for a drive in the winter. The weather was clear, the roads were mostly dry, and only the knowledge that there was an incoming storm kept us moving along.
We made one more stop, this time at Gold Ranch where I cashed my $7 of winning lottery tickets, but then bought $20 more because the PowerBall is up to more than half a billion dollars.
By now, Lisa, who did not get as much sleep as I did and was very fatigued, let Kuma Bear move up to the front seat of the Astro and set herself up to nap in the rear seat as I drove the remaining fifty miles home. We got home while it was still light.
Most of the snow on the East Lot has melted with the above-freezing days we had in the latter part of the week, just in time for tonight's projected 5 cm new accumulation. We'll see what this looks like tomorrow.
The local birds were happy to see us - or rather, to see the pile of birdseed I set out for them.
I'd put a lot of wood in the fireplace before we left this morning, and there was still plenty of heat in the fireplace when I got home. I brought in more wood from the main box so that if I wish, I need go no farther than the front porch tomorrow.
All in all, it was a plenty good day, although driving 300 miles is more tiring than it used to be. I'm glad we got to see the museum, and got out for a good day away from home, which is good for our mental health.