Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

The UP "Big Boy" locomotive traveled from Portola to Roseville via Oroville and the former Western Pacific line last Thursday, much to the dismay of people who assumed it would travel between Marysville and Roseville over the former Southern Pacific route and thus missed out on action shots. At Roseville, a two-day celebration was held on Friday and Saturday, and Lisa and I did a 300-mile day trip to Roseville on Saturday to see the circus.

( The Railroad Circus Takes Over Roseville )

After leaving Roseville, we drove to Auburn, where we stopped at the Raley's grocery store where we have stopped before. I bought a 12-inch salami sandwich and a jug of lemonade. Lisa also got stuff including cold drinks. (We'd brought lots with us in the 12V refrigerator but drank most of them on the way down. It was still very hot and very dry, even though not as bad as the previous week.) As Lisa drove back toward home, I inhaled half of the sandwich and all of the lemonade and felt much better, as the sun was really getting to me.

We passed through Colfax, where we had considered laying up should we find ourselves too worn out to make it home. We'd packed a minimal kit for an overnight stay should we have needed to do so, but we decided that we should be able to make it home today.

At Blue Canyon, Lisa and I swapped and I drove us the rest of the way home. We stopped at Donner Summit Rest Area, which in our opinion has been ruined by fences that keep people from accessing the picnic areas and trails that used to be available here. We also made another stop in Reno for a rest break and more cold drinks, but our eyes were firmly set on getting home, which we did before about 6 PM.

That was a very tiring day, especially as we're still not fully recovered from the Westercon trip, but I'm glad we made it. We fell into bed without having to worry about alarms, because the next step of the Big Boy's journey wasn't scheduled to be in the Reno area until around 5 PM.