RAINS, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES AND BARGES - Day 2

October 15, 2016:  Rained a lot during the night and Saturday morning, we had one very reluctant Model A.  Just would not go. Had spark, had gas, had compression, swapped parts, just not happy. Puzzled looks all around.

  We finally decided that it just needed to rest, left it and went on to Travis AFB.  This is where we finally crossed off the planes part of the tour.  Even though we have been talking to the folks at the Travis Heritage Center since August, and confirmed two days ago, they never heard of us at the Visitor Center where they were supposed to have visitor badges ready for us.  They informed us that we could still go to the Center but we would have to fill out a form and they would do a background check on the spot.  45 minutes later, 4 folks had been partially checked in.  The handwriting on the wall was clear, this was not feasible.  We took a show of hands and abandoned the effort and proceeded on to our next destination, the Western Railway Museum.  We will investigate this SNAFU later.

At the Railway Museum, they were running these cars that used to run on the Oakland Bay Bridge.

The train took us to a pumpkin patch, with pumpkin pie, bluegrass music and pumpkin chuckin.

 
 

So now that our itinerary has gone to hell and we are winging it,  where we going for lunch?   I phones were consulted, and we decided on the Point Restaurant in Rio Vista, and this turned out to be a great choice.  Long table by the window, river view, and more food than we could eat. 

 

 

So, despite our lack of planes to look at, I think everybody had fun, the weather wasn't too bad, only one car went home on the big yellow truck, the reluctant A finally started when they went back for it, and drove on home just fine.  And I may take a job as a rainmaker.

 

RAINS, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES AND BARGES - Day 1

Had the idea for this Model A tour when I read a little news item about the last two ferries in CA that are operated up in the Sacramento Delta by Caltrans.  So laid out a route, added a couple more attractions and generated this flyer,,,,,,

Lots of folks responded and we left the starting blocks with 18 cars, 14 A's and 4 moderns.  I might mention that the weather forecast was dire, rains heavy at times, for the whole area.  But we got a little bit lucky and kind of dodged the heavy stuff.  The ferries were fun, we split the group in two and one group took the ferries from E to W, and the other group took them from W to E and we passed in the middle.

 

 

And as you know, this Model A Club travels on its stomach, so on to the Bighorn Restaurant in Rio Vista for lunch. 

 

While we were in the Bighorn, the rain was playing havoc with the power grid, the lights in the Bighorn went off and on at least 10 times and finally the whole town went off for good. We finished up lunch, not by candlelight but by cell phone flashlight.  It became a real safari adventure to find the restrooms down a long ramp into the darkness.  And, take away the power and you cannot pay with credit cards. Just like old times, a bill scribbled on a scrap of paper, and pay with greenbacks.  After lunch, it was a rainy drive to the Jelly Belly factory.

 

The factory was operating and it was fascinating to watch all the moving lines and robots.  Loaded up in the gift shop and headed for our hotel in Cordelia.  Here the group ferreted out the liveliest place to have dinner, the Slanted Tree Taproom.  The people in the next picture shall remain nameless, but suffice to say, those appetizers look a whole lot like draft beer samplers to me.

 

 

End of Day 1