TriMet MAX

Any city worth its salt has a good transportation system, and Portland's
TriMet provides that to the city. TriMet provides Bus, Commuter Rail, Light Rail
and Streetcar service. I tried out the MAX Light Rail service and was pretty
impressed. I'm a transit geek (yes, among other geeky hobbies) so I like to
try out the different rail systems in cities we visit. I only rode MAX from
the Convention Center to Downtown, but it did a great job of doing what it's
supposed to do. Moving someone from Point A to Point B.


The several times I rode, the cars were never over-full. I don't know if that's
a good thing or not, since it might be a reflection of popularity. However, I
never rode during the rush hours so it probably wasn't a fair evaluation.
Regardless, the trains were always clean and people pretty much minded
their own business and weren't annoying. That can't be said of some rail
systems I've ridden on.


Inside the downtown zone, there's no cost to ride. Great for tourists like
me who don't want to make a long term investment in the city's transportation
system. However, there is a reasonably fair charge if you want to go outside
this zone, such as to the airport.


My route took me over the Willamette River on the Steel Bridge. Portland is
known for its bridges and they did a good job of utilizing the Steel Bridge
for multipurpose functions. While I was crossing, I also saw people walking,
driving and riding their bikes across the bridge. Why build a bridge for just
one purpose when you can utilize an existing bridge for all purposes!


I was impressed by MAX, but Portland is not a perfect city for transportation.
Several times while driving we either saw or were involved in huge backups
on the Freeway. Usually it turned out to be something that could have easily
been avoided, if we discovered the reason at all. However, the side artery
streets seemed to move really well and people seem to like the Light Rail.
A good solution to keep a pretty city looking nice and moving people
quickly and efficiently.

Caboose Hobbies

While in Denver, we stopped by Caboose Hobbies, which bills itself as
"THE WORLD'S LARGEST MODEL TRAIN STORE". We're not
model train people, but we enjoy going there to see all of the pretty cool
train set ups. Our favorite is "Jonstown" which is hugely detailed.
"Downtown", a truck carrying 17 chimpanzees has had an accident and
we're challenged to find all of them throughout town. We've found them
all in the past, but this time, we failed to find them all after lots and
lots of intense looking! This store has to be Valhalla for the model train
fan as there are aisle after aisle of parts, train sets, accessories, etc.
If you're ever on Broadway in Denver, it's a fun spot to visit whether
you build model trains or not.

National Train Day

Today was proclaimed National Train Day by the federal
government and in conjunction with this, the Friends of the
Grand Junction Union Depot held an open house at the old
train station. They're in the process of trying to restore the
station, which was built in 1906. They have a lot of work to
do, but I hope they're successful. It certainly has a lot of
history, as it opened the same day as the San Francisco
Earthquake. It's first customers weren't travelers, but
instead refugees from the quake. It also hosted Harry
Truman's whistle stop Presidential campaign in 1948.


The building was judged as sound and able to be restored. As we
looked at the exterior, there are definitely a lot of positive
attributes.


As you can see, the interior is not quite a well kept as the exterior.


There is serious potential though.


My favorite part of the station is this stained glass window that looks
as good as the day it was installed.


There are a lot of features on the exterior that are unique and
interesting


The original brick is all in place, as well as the original trim and
artwork.


The station is located right next door to the current Amtrak station and
the area has a huge amount of freight car traffic as well. We can hear
the train whistles from our house, about a mile away and there is a
Amtrak passenger train that stops twice a day. One headed west to
Salt Lake City and San Francisco and another headed east to Denver
and Chicago.


All of this is located only a few short blocks from downtown and
is in a visually interesting area. There are drawings and plans that
would connect the station to the downtown area and revitalize this
area of town as well. I hope they succeed.

Carrie's Here

We picked up our friend Carrie at the train station north
of Chesterton and have had a nice visit. She's been living
in Chicago and is helping her sister and her family get
ready to move to a new house, but who couldn't pass up
a chance to visit with the Hamann's!!! Today we made the
drive across northern Indiana to go to a craft show at
Amish Acres in Nappanee. It was interesting and we bought
a few things but found the food to be very expensive so we
actually shared a $5 Lemonade! The evening before we
barbecued chicken on the grill and had veggie kabobs with
corn on the cob.

The Sacred Valley of Peru

Dominguez Canyon

One of my favorite reasons for living in Western Colorado
is that you can take a short drive away from home and
be in the middle of a desert wilderness. We took a short
half hour drive today south of Grand Junction and found
ourselves in Dominguez Canyon. In 1776, Spanish Franciscan
missionary Silvestre Velez de Escalante traveled through
this area in search of an easy route between Santa Fe
and California. Much earlier, dinosaurs roamed the area
and several large remains have been found. The Gunnison
River (pictured) also flows through the area and provides
a steady flow of water through an otherwise very dry area.


On our way back to the highway, we encountered this very
long and powerful Union Pacific coal train. The conductor
matched our honk with his own horn and a friendly wave.
It's next stop...not sure, but it was definitely traveling
through Grand Junction...only about 20 miles north.