We escaped the doom and gloom of the RV park and headed to Portland! It will be good to do an urban hike and find a nice hip place for lunch…
We passed by the Bridge of the Gods, a National Historical Monument, crossing the Columbia River.
We enjoyed marvelous views of the Columbia River in the morning; we drove along a scenic parkway as we headed into Portland.
However, when the Oregon Trail emigrants came through here 170 years ago this was not the case. The Columbia has many dams on it and it looks like a placid lake. Railroads and highways have been built on levies and cut into the shear rock walls. When the emigrants were here it was a wild raging river. The wagon trail stopped at The Dalles, and only a single cow path continued on in to the Willamette Valley. More on this saga tomorrow…
Today was urban hiking day. We walked and walked all over the district or neighborhood called the Pearl… We enjoyed lunch at a sidewalk café and pretended that we were hipster urbanites…
Thirty years ago this area consisted of derelict railyards and warehouses. When the rails were removed the warehouses were remodeled into stores, office, and apartments. Then new apartments and condos were built. Today it is all built up into a marvelous mixed use neighborhood…
We headed back towards the Cascade Locks, driving over some great old bridges…
We stopped of briefly to see Multnomah Falls…
And then we stopped at the Bonneville Dam…
One of the first thing we saw was this turbine. It is a giant propeller that is driven by the flow of the water, and the turbine in turn rotates the generator, producing electricity… It is about 15′ tall. Family note here: My father used to build full size “models” of things like this, but out of wood. The wood model is used to make the die, or mold, into which molten metal is poured to produce the turbine…)
A fascinating thing is the fish ladder. The Columbia River is a huge spawning ground for salmon returning from the sea. Dams block their path. When the dam was built in 1936 the fish ladder was very primitive and experimental. However, when the dam was expanded by adding a second power house they installed a state of the art fish ladder. It is directly adjacent to the Visitors Center… The are underwater windows so you can watch the fish swim by…
The even count all the fish…
This is what the fish ladder looks like from the top…
On our way out we stopped in to see the navigation locks. These locks allow giant barges to pass through the dam…
Our final adventure of the day is a dinner cruise on this historic sternwheeler river boat. Except, it was broken…
But we met up at the cafe and waited for all the Airstreamers to arrive…
And here are the pickup trucks in which the Airstreamers arrived…
No, this is not our substitute boat…
But, hiding behind the broken sternwheeler is our substitute boat…
Inside was quite comfortable and we all gathered for dinner…
We enjoyed the sunset, as well as views of the surrounding shore, both on the Oregon side and on the Washington side…
Short stories today. I woke up Monday with a sore throat; Lynda has had a cold since Saturday. We stayed in all day…
We did manage to get outside and walk a bit around the RV park, but it is constantly hot and dusty and windy…
We were feeling well enough to get out about 4:00 and join the club at a very good steak house nearby. After a few Old Fashioneds at the bar, and an appetizer of steak tartare, we joined the others for prime rib and cheesecake…
We returned to the Villa and turned in early…
Tuesday we felt a bit better (or at least Lynda did…) We headed out at 10:00 am to see the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper…
It is located on a bluff adjacent to the Overland Trails – the trails used by the emigrants to Oregon, the 49ers going to California, and the Mormons going to the Great Salt Lake valley…
Before we had left the campground this morning our leaders asked that the ladies wear their Oregon Trail bonnets and dresses… As you might guess, we are non-participants in activities such as this…
We walked toward the museum building…
The building itself reflects a lot of imagery…
The blue wall segments represent the continuous westward trek by the pioneers and the emigrants, always up hill. Missouri is at about 2,000′ elevation, and the continental Divide is at roughly 7,000′ where the trails crossed it…
The stone wall is all native sandstone, and the green wall represents the sagebrush that was the emigrants constant companion on the prairie.
The arch portal, of course, represents the hoops and canvas of the covered wagons…
Inside we watch a short film about the emigrants. The lifesize displays added to the realism of the film…
Some of the Mormon emigrants could not afford oxen or mules, so they carried their possessions for 1,500 miles using handcarts. Lynda gave it a try!
One of the more interesting tidbits of the radical changes the emigrants brought to this region is in addition to all the other self-inflicted damage that I have reported on – loss of food and habitat for Indians, Pony Express ended by the transcontinental telegraph, wagon trains ended by the railroad, small towns ended by the Interstate Highways…
As the 350,000 emigrants passed through here on the trails small settlements sprang up to service the needs of the emigrants. When the trains ended the wagon travel, the rails took a different route again, this time to be more convenient to the coal deposits of southern Wyoming. These settlements slowly vanished…
Outside the Museum is a reproduction of a typical Pony Express station. There is a small stable and a small office for the station master. The station master lived here alone; and he was alone – he was visited by only four Pony Express riders per week. Otherwise he was free to fend for himself. When the Pony Express ended, most of these stations were retrofitted to be relay stations for the telegraph… Adaptive Reuse!
We returned to the Villa. I took a nap… Then we had a modest Happy Hours. We walked around the RV park in the evening…
Another travel day. We went only about 150 miles, but there were many interesting stops along the way…
But first, we enjoyed the Nebraska scenery…
We were told by our caravan manual to stop off and see The Golden Spike. Well, the only golden spike that I knew of was at Promontory Point, Utah, where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads completed the transcontinental railroad. So we had no idea what to expect here. Our GPS took us on a wild goose chase around and through several residential neighborhoods until we finally arrived near the railroad tracks. We figured we were getting close. Then we saw the tower:
We figured this was probably worth a stop. We had no idea!
This is The Bailey Classification Yard! We learned a little history:
During the construction of the transcontinental railroad, North Platte was platted as a railroad town by Union Pacific’s Chief Engineer Grenville Dodge. It was chosen because of its close proximity to good water and its distance from Grand Island, Nebraska. In 1866 the first train rolled through what was known at the time as “Hell on Wheels” town. General Dodge quickly moved to construct major shop facilities and winter quarters and by 1867, main line operations began. Just two years later on May 10th, East met West at Promontory Summit in Utah, 690 miles east Sacramento and 1,087 miles west of Omaha. The railroad crossed two-thirds of the continent over some of the most difficult terrain on earth. It was called, “The Work of Giants” and it was the end of the frontier, as we knew it.
Today Bailey Yard, named for former Union Pacific president Edd H. Bailey, is the world’s largest train classification yard in the world. Over 3,000 cars are classified (or sorted) to make sure the cargo reaches its final destination. The yard is eight miles long, 1 1/2 miles wide, and at its widest point contains 320 sets or railroad tracks. The yard is located in the midst of key east-west and north-south corridors, on the busiest freight rail line in America, making it a critical component of Union Pacific’s rail network.
Bailey Yard has 17 receiving and 16 departure tracks handling 14,000 rail cars every 24 hours. The railroad cars are sorted daily in the yard’s eastward and westward yards, nicknamed “hump” yards. Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20 feet for those heading west, the hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 “bowl” tracks. Here they become part of trains headed for destinations in the East, West and Gulf Coasts of America, as well as the Canadian and Mexican borders. An average of 139 trains per day are comprised of raw and finished goods, such as automobiles, coal, grain, corn, sugar, chemicals, and steel along with consumer goods, including electronics, apparel and other retail products.
To keep America moving forward, the train operations and repair shops at Bailey Yard are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The fueling and service center processes more than 8,500 locomotives each month, using technology like overhead cranes and elevated work bays to maintain fluid operations.
All train movement throughout Bailey Yard is handled through the on-site command center with the latest computerized control systems. The Bailey Yard command center is tied to the Harriman Dispatching Center in Omaha, which controls hundreds of intercity trains daily throughout the company’s 23-state rail system. The Bailey Yard has over 2,500 employees, working 24 hours per day…
So we stopped to take a look… More trains than you can keep track of!
At the observation deck atop the tower we could see the operations, including the hump yards, as the incoming trains are broken up and re-combined into the various outgoing trains.
It was a fascinating opportunity to see how trains really work! We loved it!
We could even see some of our friends parked next to us down below…
So after this exhilarating tour we headed off to the Lincoln County Historical Museum. It was similar to other small county museums…
This one had a rare two story log cabin…
This barbershop was built in 1900…
Typical mercantile building you would see on Main Street in the 1890s…
Then we walked the 1/2 mile to see Scout’s Rest Ranch…
Scout’s Rest Ranch was Buffalo Bill’s retreat and retirement home. He lived here when not traveling with his Wild West shows, and then again after the shows were over…
William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody (February 26, 1846 – January 10, 1917) was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in his father’s hometown in modern-day Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, before the family returned to the Midwest and settled in the Kansas Territory (now the state of Nebraska).
Buffalo Bill started working at the age of eleven, after his father’s death, and became a rider for the Pony Express at age 15. During the American Civil War, he served the Union from 1863 to the end of the war in 1865. Later he served as a civilian scout for the US Army during the Indian Wars, receiving the Medal of Honor in 1872.
One of the most famous and well-known figures of the American Old West, Buffalo Bill’s legend began to spread when he was only 23. Shortly thereafter he started performing in shows that displayed cowboy themes and episodes from the frontier and Indian Wars. He founded Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in 1883, taking his large company on tours in the United States and, beginning in 1887, in Great Britain and continental Europe.
This is his house at the Scout’s Rest Ranch. It was built in the late 1880s. It is considered to be in the “Second Empire” style, with elements of Italianate and Eastlake detailing. In my opinion, it is a big mess… Look at the shutters. Why were shutters added to the windows? Either to keep the Indians out (not applicable here) or to keep the sun off and to insulate against the cold in winter. Look at these shutters: The cannot do either: they don’t even cover the entire window if they were to be closed… I hate phony stuff like this!
Inside the decoration is “authentic Victorian”… I hate Victorian interiors! It hurts my eyes! That wallpaper is abominable!
The outbuildings were interesting…
The Ice House:
The Spring House: (It would also make a good wine cellar…)
The Cob House: Corn cobs were stored here to burn in the stoves in the house…
Lakes are always nice:
So we set off again, heading west to Ogallala…
We arrived at the RV Park and we were soon set up…
We had our last GAM.
This afternoon as we crossed over to the western-most counties of Nebraska we moved from Central time to Mountain time. But our phones, watches, and the truck GPS have a hard time handling the change. So our clocks have been flipping back and forth between the two zones; we never know what time it is…
Today was very interesting. In an interesting way…
We drove for about an hour to the west to a small town of Canon, CO. We are to ride a vintage train into the Royal Gorge, one of the most beautiful canyons in Colorado.
Built in 1913, the Santa Fe Depot was designed in the Mediterranean Revival style. Even while the rail line through the Royal Gorge lay fallow from the mid-60s through the late 90s, the Depot was used until the early 80s for freight, like cement, oil, coal, produce, and ore. The Santa Fe Depot finally closed in 1983. In 1997 it became part of Canon City’s River Station Project as a family-style restaurant.
In August. 1998, the new Royal Gorge Route made it’s first journey through the Royal Gorge with tourists — and the Santa Fe Depot entered into an entirely new phase of use as ticketing and gift shop and offices for the Royal Gorge Railway.
The train is vintage Santa Fe; we are scheduled to travel in the Vista Dome car, having breakfast served along the way. This will be fun!
The scheduled boarding time is 9:30. At 9:15 the manager of the depot came out to tell us that the 9:30 train was being cancelled due to engine problems. They have another engine on its way, and they hope that the 12:30 train will run on schedule. We lit out to the ticket office to change our tickets. Sorry! There are no Vista Dome seats available on the 12:30 train.
We returned to the Airstream caravan leaders. They had negotiated with the train people so that we can board the Vista Dome car and they will serve us breakfast on the train as planned – we will just be sitting in the station.
Breakfast was pretty good. As we were finishing, the new engine passed by. We got up to leave, but we found that we could not leave the train until the engine had passed by once more. So we waited again. We spent some time in the open car, where the best views of the canyon were to be had… if we had gone into the canyon…
Finally, the replacement engine came by and we finally left the train
We walked a bit to an adjacent city park, with a nice bridge, a river, and a water playground…
We drove back to the town of Canon. We refueled the truck and headed back to Villa…
We had wanted to see the Cadets’ Chapel at the Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs. No luck! The base is closed to anyone without a military ID. And, besides, the chapel is closed for renovations and restorations…
So, instead, we walked Historic Old Colorado City, just outside the RV park. Old Colorado City was founded in 1859, when this area was still part of Kansas Territory. It became the first capital of the Territory of Colorado and the center of early settlement in the Pikes Peak region. Today it is a part of Colorado Springs, and is a fun place to walk. It is a little touristy, but it was interesting…
We returned to the Villa… And an enjoyable time was had bay all…
We said farewell to Forestville and the Riverbend RV Resort; we drove south, just past Petaluma, where we stopped in at The Land of Promise. We shared a few glasses of wine with this wonderful family, picked up our lasted wine shipment, and discussed our planned visit next year. This is a “must do” stop on the caravan.
Further south we stopped in at the Marin County Civic Center, the last major project designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLlW) before his death in 1959. The building was completed in 1961, with some additions coming later…
It is a remarkable building, and it will be our first stop on the caravan to see architecture. I was very pleased that the building is very well maintained, and that updates (signage, furnishings, computers) have been sensitively integrated. As you may have noticed, the theme here is circles!
Unfortunately, there were no docent-led tours, so we followed their “self-guided” tour handout. It was a great building to see and experience, and we were only denied access to one area, and kicked out of another…
After the fun of the morning we drove south for a grueling time in San Francisco Bay Area traffic. We ignored the GPS telling us to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge (we had already done that in 2011…). We drove over the Richmond Bridge and headed south through Oakland to Hayward, then across the San Mateo Bridge and on to Redwood City. The Redwood City Trailer Villa was spartan, but well-located. We will stay here if we can confirm a tour of the Hanna house (FLlW) in Palo Alto. As soon as we were set up we drove to Menlo Park and caught the CalTrain into San Francisco, another option for our caravaners. I needed to see how it worked. Once in San Francisco, there was only one place to go:
Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District, Tadich Grill is the oldest (1849), continuously run restaurant in California, and third oldest in the United States. Long ago, when I was working, I visited Tadich once per week for over a year… Yes, I know – 3,000 great restaurants in San Francisco and I went here every time…
We enjoyed a few Old Fashioneds, Clam Chowder, and Ciopinno. We made the 8:09 CalTrain back to Menlo Park; an enjoyable time was had by all…
We left Redlands at the crack of dawn. We have a long day of driving ahead of us We are driving to Lodi….
Update: We last posted in July of 2019; we had returned home from our 2019 caravans and were spending the week at San Clemente State Beach with family and friends, many of whom we had not seen in many months. But as we anticipated staying close to home we were less energized to be blogging every little local trip we were taking. We were scheduled for four caravans in 2020, and we were saving our blogging energy until then. And Covid happened…
We were camping with the Airstream Club at Pechanga in Temecula on my birthday weekend of March 8, 2020, when news of widespread Covid hit. On March 11 I did my stint as a docent at the Hollyhock House, traveling back and forth via train. I saw one person wearing a mask – about average. That night the NBA cancelled its season, and things were beginning to be shutdown left and right. On Friday, March 13, we had invited new friends from the neighborhood to dinner. They were all still working as school administrators; 15 minutes before dinner was to start they called to cancel, saying that they were being required to work all night to figure out what to do about schools being closed. Luckily we had other friends nearby who had not started dinner who agreed to come by and help us eat all the food that Lynda had already prepared… Tuesday, March17, I did my last session volunteering at a homeless shelter; it, too, was closing. And the rest is history…
All four of our 2020 caravans were cancelled. We didn’t take out the Airstream for over three months – a record! We hunkered down, spending our stimulus checks on ordering food for take out and delivery to keep our local restaurants afloat. Finally, in June, with all the state parks still closed, we spent 4 days in Temecula, at the Pechanga RV Resort. (Indians don’t have to listen to Governor Newsom…) The park was nearly empty and we had a lovely time just relaxing and walking on different streets for a change. We did this two more times before the state parks re-opened. We spent a week at San Clemente in August. And so the year dragged on. The Airstream Club had a few camp-outs as usual, but different because lack of potlucks and group dinners.
With the surge in Covid in December we forwent our annual New Years trip to Palm Desert. The winter progressed much the same.
So today we start a one week “scouting” trip in preparation of the caravan we will be leading next year. More on that later…
We left at about 5:15, as the sun was breaking in the east. Luckily, we drove west, towards Los Angeles and north over “The Grapevine”. After a brief breakfast stop outside Arvin, we continued north up the 5. Long boring drive; but it was fun to be on the road again after so long. We refueled in Lodi and easily found out campsite for the night – Van Ruiten Family Wines, vineyards, an outdoor tasting area, and “free” overnight parking…
We found a table in the tasting area and enjoyed sample of 10 wines, plus cheese and crackers.
After a lovely time here, much of it spent talking to a couple from Ventura who were also camping overnight, we retired to the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…
This morning we pulled out of the RV park in Liberal, KS, and pointed the Villa southwest. In about three minutes we were in the far western part of the Oklahoma panhandle; about 90 minutes later we were in the far western part of the Texas panhandle; by noon we were in New Mexico…
These parts of Oklahoma and Texas look remarkably like Kansas…
At one rest stop there were these nice little picnic shelters… Mid Century Modern!… Nice, but a little beat up…
All day yesterday and all day today, until we entered New Mexico, we followed the railroad tracks. About every ten miles we came to a small town dominated by these giant grain elevators or silos…
The further we drove west the smaller and more distressed the towns were… Not being farming folk, we could not tell exactly what these facilities do, but we assume it is related to grain storage, food processing, feed production, or something like that…
By mid day we were at our campground in Tucumcari, NM.
And, for the record, New Mexico does not look anything like Texas, Oklahoma, or Kansas:
Happy Hours and a light supper ensued in the Villa; tomorrow we head towards Gallup, NM.
Friday morning dawned nice and cool, but the heat will be arriving soon. We pointed the Villa west, towards Albuquerque and beyond…
The drive was uneventful, as expected…
New Mexico looks like this…
At one rest stop we found this Scenic Historic Marker:
We weren’t sure what it meant… east and west looked pretty much the same to us. Yes, western New Mexico does has more hills. We rose to almost 7,000′ elevation before dropping down to 5280′ elevation in Albuquerque…
Then we went uphill again to 7,275′ elevation at the Continental Divide…
We eventually arrived in Gallup, NM, at about 6,500′ elevation…
The sky was beautiful, the sun was hot, but the winds made the 89 degree temperature bearable. By early evening we were able to turn off the AC, and by sunrise tomorrow it is supposed to be 48 degrees…
Happy Hours and a light supper ensued in the Villa; tomorrow we head towards Kingman, AZ.
Saturday morning dawned nice and cool, but the heat will be arriving soon. We pointed the Villa west, towards Winslow, Flagstaff, Williams, and Kingman…
The drive was uneventful, as expected…
Arizona looks like this…
We drove for about six hours, taking time for rest stops, fuel, and lunch… We finally pulled into Kingman, AZ by mid-afternoon…
Interesting note is that we stayed here almost exactly two years ago as our first stop after leaving Irvine on our 4 1/2 month trip, the day after Lynda retired…
Happy Hours and a light supper ensued in the Villa; tomorrow we head towards Palm Desert, CA.
Sunday morning dawned nice and cool, but the heat will be arriving soon. We pointed the Villa west, towards the California border…
The drive was uneventful, as expected…
We crossed over the Colorado River…
And we entered California!
We were met by some attentive uniformed people who asked us where we’d been, and if we were bringing in any firewood…
The California Desert looks like this…
For those of you who insist on calling places like eastern Oregon a “desert”, please stop! Rivers, grass with cattle grazing, and green leafy trees do not make a desert! See photo above for what a desert looks like!
We moved on to Palm Desert, where they have succeeded in making the desert green:
We spent the afternoon and evening with like-minded friends, sharing happy hours and dinner. Early Monday morning we drove the final hour…
We arrived home in Redlands; an enjoyable time was had by all…
Tally:
Miles driven: 8,379
Days traveling and camping on our own: 40 days
Days on the Cajun Country Caravan: 16 days
Days on the Springtime in Kentucky Caravan: 22 days
Total days living in the Villa: 78 days
Total number of Airstreams seen along the road: 211
Number of nights in the Villa over the past 24 months: 375 days (51%)
Our first excursion in the London area was to the Big South Fork Scenic Railway, about one hour south of here, in Stearns, KY, near the Tennessee border. This is also adjacent to the Daniel Boone National Forest…
Stearns, KY, is another one of the many small, thriving, towns which died in the 1950s. At one time Stearns was a bustling industrial town of 10,000 – 15,000 people. Today there are fewer than 1,600 people here. The only remnants of the town, besides the few houses, are the Big South Fork Scenic Railway, along with the few remaining buildings that were once operated by the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company.
Stores adjacent to the train depot:
This building now houses the museum; it once was the headquarters office building of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company; it also housed the telephone exchange and the local bank…
The train was awaiting our arrival…
We had a lovely drive again, through miles and miles of tree-covered hills as far as the eye can see… After we arrived and procured our train tickets, we toured the museum. There was the usual assortment of memorabilia plus photos showing the once-thriving town…
We enjoyed our box lunch, then waited for the train…
And here it is!
The cars may be vintage, but they are nicely finished inside… Soon we were underway. The train’s planned destination was the Blue Heron Mining Community – a National Park Interpretive Center.
Blue Heron, or Mine 18, is an abandoned coal mining town. It was a part of the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company’s past operation in what today is the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service. Most of what we know about life at Blue Heron, and the other Stearns coal towns, has been handed down through oral history. Blue Heron mine operated from 1937 until it closed in December
1962. During that time hundreds of people lived and worked in the isolated community on the banks of the Big South Fork River. Their story is the focus of this interpretive tour of the Blue Heron Community.
When the Stearns Coal and Lumber Company abandoned Blue Heron in 1962, the buildings were either removed or they lapsed into decay. There were no original buildings standing when the town was “re-created” as an interpretive center in the 1980s. Consequently, the town was restored in an “open-air” museum format, and new structures were constructed on the approximate site of several of the original buildings. These new structures are open, metal shells of buildings, and are referred to as “ghost structures.” Each ghost structure has an audio-tape station with recorded recollections of some of the people of Mine 18.
Unfortunately, recent winter storms damaged the train tracks, so Blue Heron is no longer reached by the railroad. Big South Fork Scenic Railway is now the railroad to nowhere. We rode about 1/2 hour, enjoying the scenery…
Some passengers took a nap…
Plenty of green…
And wet… The train announcer told us that yesterday the creek was running slow and crystal clear… Remember the rain we had last night?
And then the train stopped, and we backed up for 1/2 hour until we returned to the depot. Some caravanners drove on to Blue Heron, but we, and others, returned to the campground…
There were many happy hours groups at several of the Airstreams this evening. Some Airstreamers were happier than others…
After raining all night we awoke to a lovely morning. We carpooled to the National Corvette Museum. Not only were we Airstreamers doing this tour today, but it was the 25th anniversary of the museum and hundreds of Corvette owners were coming to gather as well…
Even our campground was not immune to this invasion of Corvettes…
The museum is located only a quarter mile from the Bowling Green Assembly Plant, where Corvettes have been made since 1981. Unfortunately, the plant is closed for re-tooling; rumor has it that the newest model Corvette will be revealed at this event this weekend…
(Spoiler Alert: Yes, the new C-8 Corvette, with a mid-engine configuration, was revealed at the Museum on 4/27/19!)
This yellow structure is called the “Skydome”. It contains a large exhibit hall inside, as an addition to the main museum. More about the Skydome later…
We gathered in front of the museum for a group photo, then went inside for a tour.
The exhibits started with a display of a 1953 Corvette, showing its innovative framework and chassis design. Note how light the structural framework is. These cars were clearly designed for performance, not for safety…
We proceeded through the exhibits, seeing the Corvette design evolve. The first years were difficult, and very few cars sold in 1953-1955, but the 1956 model caught on and sales sky-rocketed. However, they have never reached the 1,000,000 cars per year that were originally envisioned…
The 1956 – 1962 years (Model C-2, as the aficionados call it) are my favorite Corvettes…
This is the interior of the Skydome:
A particularly interesting exhibit centers around an event that happened a few years ago…
On February 12, 2014, a sinkhole (40-foot-wide and 25-foot-deep) opened under the floor of the Skydome area of the museum. Video from the museum’s security camera shows the collapse occurring at 5:38 AM local time. Since this did not occur during visiting hours no one was injured although much of the Skydome area concrete floor collapsed. Eight rare and one-of-a-kind Corvettes, portions of the display stands and rails, large concrete floor slabs, boulders, and dirt fell into the sinkhole, causing serious damage to all eight of the Corvettes. The Corvettes involved had an estimated value of a million dollars. The remaining 20 cars in the Skydome were immediately removed from that area. All eight of the Corvettes were recovered from the sinkhole.
Exploration in the sinkhole discovered a cave passage 80 feet below the Skydome floor and that this previously unknown cave had an unstable area in its roof that collapsed. Apparently, when the museum was built, a large storm water retention basin was dug adjacent to the Skydome, which altered the flow of ground water under the museum. This change in geologic activity contributed to the cave collapse.
The Skydome reopened after repairs were completed on September 3, 2015. The eight Corvettes are displayed in their original location at the time of the collapse, although only three of them have been repaired/restored. The other five were deemed too damaged to be repaired, so they are displayed is their “as found” condition… It is a remarkable thing to see!
We continued to look at the displayed until lunch happened…
After lunch we visited the Historic Rail Park, located at the historic L & N train depot…
It was great fun…
There were model railroad exhibits that little kids really love…
There were historic exhibits inside the museum; but the best part was the train!
We were able to go through all the cars…
First was the engine (with the engines and generators removed…). We also could go into the cockpit and sit in the engineer’s seat. No steering wheel!
This is the Post Office car…
The dining car…
The kitchen…
We saw a 3rd class Pullman sleeping berths, the 2nd class “roomettes”, and the private bedrooms in 1st class. Finally we saw the private car of the L & N president, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room and a parlor, plus observation platform at the rear. This car was used by Herbert Hoover during his presidential campaign.
We also saw cars that are not on display; a caboose…
And a hospital car, used to transport injured troops from WWII and the Korean conflict…
We returned to the Villa in time to prepare for the first GAM – Get Acquainted Meeting. As luck would have it, we already knew these four couples…
Adventures in the Villa 