FALL COLOR & TRAINS

Having awakened a little before 7 AM last Thursday, I opened the front door to bring in the newspaper and was greeted with a stunning, golden glow. The Sacramento sunrise was gorgeous – what a beautiful way to start our mini trip!

The sunrise outside our front door

Lou had made reservations to take the excursion train from Carson City to Virginia City (both in nearby Nevada) on Saturday. There had been a story in our newspaper about fall colors in Northern California’s Plumas County so we combined two overnight jaunts into one getaway.

Highway 70 between the small towns of Oroville and Quincy had numerous scenic bridges and train trestles to explore along Feather River Canyon, the lowest pass through the Sierra Nevada mountains. One photo of two particularly dramatic bridges crossing over the Feather River required a bit of quick thinking since there was nowhere to pull over. Lou said it was clear behind us and stopped in the middle of the two lane road. I jumped out and snapped three photos before he started hollering, “Here comes a truck! Quick! Get in!” Of course, the best picture was several feet from the car. I ran for the open door and yelled, “Go, go!” with only one foot in the car – BUT we got a great shot!

One of my quickie shots of the Pulga Twin Bridges from the road

The Storrie Bridge built in 1936

A hint of fall color in the foreground with the Tobin Twin Bridges

The Tobin Twin Bridges from the other side

Ya gotta love small town America - everyone was so friendly and outgoing! We were walking around Quincy taking photos of the fall color when a woman stopped her SUV and asked, “Would you like to take a picture of a 600 pound pumpkin? Just go back in that guy’s yard. He’s there loading it on the truck.” I think it would have disappointed her terribly if we said “No” so we headed back and were happily greeted by the grower and a friend. It was a really big pumpkin! In fact there were two, the second one was over 800 pounds!

This 800 pound pumpkin was about three feet tall - one of us should have stood next to it

Some of the bright yellow color

A Sugar Maple tree that is one of Quincy's main attractions every autumn

Some beautiful leaves on the Sugar Maple

Main Street in downtown Quincy

From there we headed to our hotel near Portola, California. The Chalet View Lodge was a great place to stay in the middle of nowhere. After our continental breakfast on Friday morning, we took a two mile hike through the forest where we discovered a pond just begging to be photographed and another railroad trestle.

The Chalet View Lodge between Portola and Graeagle, California

A dock and canoe with reflections of trees in the pond - a perfect photo op

A train trestle way back in the forest

A fun photo of a telephone pole

Portola is a really small town famous for its Western Pacific Railroad Museum. I had been there over 20 years ago with Darrin. It is unique in that they allow anyone to literally drive an engine – provided you have enough money – and Darrin had driven it years ago. Lou decided to pass on driving the engine but wanted to see the museum. Who would have thought I’d be at this museum TWICE in my lifetime – certainly not me!

The entrance to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum

One of the many historic engines on display

A Santa Fe caboose in the Western Pacific "boneyard"

We checked into our room at John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks, Nevada, about an hour early and were able to enjoy the indoor pool and hot tub before dinner. Lou napped and I read my book. I really enjoyed the Nugget – it was easy to find your way around, the food was good and it had a really nice indoor pool area. Literally across a parking lot was a large cinema complex. Not being big gamblers, Lou suggested we take in the remake of “Footloose” after dinner. I agreed!

I loved the first “Footloose” 27 years ago (OMG, really???) and this one was as good or better! They kept the song, Footloose, the same but changed most of the others – that was my only complaint. The actor who played Willard, Ren’s friend (the hick who couldn’t dance) stole the show – he was way better than Chris Penn. Julianne Hough (of Dancing With The Stars fame) did a great job, too.

Footloose 2011 publicity photo

That song is totally infectious – I’ve always loved it and time has done nothing to diminish that. How can you not want to move when you hear it? We were walking back through the casino where the disco was going strong so we had to “kick off our Sunday shoes” and dance for awhile before heading up to our room – the only thing that would have been better was if they were actually playing “Footloose” instead of “Play that Funky Music, White Boy”.

Saturday morning I awoke to Lou looking out the hotel window saying, “Wow!” There was another gorgeous sunrise greeting us.

The early morning view from our window at the Nugget

The Virginia & Truckee Railroad train ride was a great outing. It was sold out and full of rail fans as you would expect. Lou had paid extra to take the steam engine rather than the diesel and it was lots of fun.

We saw some wild horses on the way and walked ourselves silly all over Virginia City during our three hour stopover before returning to Carson City.

The steam engine that pulled our historic V & T train cars

Us - riding the rails

Some of the interesting scenery along the way

The stage in the Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City where Janis Joplin among others performed

An alley with lots of shops in Virginia City

Some of the wild horses that roam all over Nevada

It seemed like we had been gone a lot longer than three days and two nights but yet it was a fun, relaxing mini trip that really hit the spot. Fittingly, on the drive back home, we were treated to a pretty cool sunset as well.

The sunset near Auburn, California taken out of the car window