Trains and Planes and Automobiles

As long as I can remember I’ve had a fascination with old trains, old planes and old automobiles, not to mention old buildings, homes, antiques, you name it.

When I hear that a tall ship, even just ONE, is going to sail into the San Francisco Bay, I’ll drive up to see it. There was one berthed at Redwood City a while back that I had to see and take photos of. I drove up. The camera didn’t.

I’ve seen the Queen Elizabeth I replica at Manteo on the coast in North Carolina. The U.S.S. Constitution in Boston (camera along for the ride) has long been a favorite, as was an earlier trip to Yorktown, Virginia, to see the recreations of the three ships that brought the pilgrims to the New World.

And then there were the three Viking ships that sailed into the Newport, Rhode Island, harbor in 1990 or 1991. One, the Gaia, had sailed all the way from Norway, along the route that Leif Eriksson took in 1000 A.D. Still,

I have yet to explore the Balclutha, an old sailing ship berthed near Fisherman’s Wharf, just 50 miles from here. I WILL see that, soon. And I WILL bring my camera. I believe there are others there as well. Also a submarine a few piers down.

Old trains are another fascination. I love steam engines, and love even more traveling behind one, smoke and all. Mt. Washington in New Hampshire has a cog railway to the top, one I rode many times each summer while my parents worked at the Summit Hotel (long since gone) on a book on alpine vegetation. An old train in Connecticut running along the Connecticut River for about 10 miles is yet another excursion I took during a vacation. When I find the photos (prints) I’ll show you. Right here in California within an easy drive (2 hours to Sacramento) is the California State Rail Museum, with yet another train to ride, and many more to see. Close to there, in Woodland, yet another train, but not quite as old.

Then there are the old planes. That has got to have started from my first trip on a plane, when I was but 4 years old. That was fine, but only until it got into the air. Too noisy, I wanted OUT. I enjoy Aviation museums and have visited a few – two in North Carolina and have photos from there … somewhere. I am planning on taking a trip down to Morgan Hill one day to the museum there. It’s not as if it’s a long ride, now is it?