Hanging around Rosamond…

It’s fairly boring here, but as I used to tell my kids when they’d complain about how bored they were, “A bored person is boring, an interested person is interesting, find something to be interested in”.

Ok, so I’ll do that. Dan’s next door neighbor, and I’d like to say my friend Brennan, lets me park my RV on his property next to his house and plug into AC so I can retreat here to watch TV, play on the computer like I’m doing now, and just hang out.

The day after I arrived last month, he showed me his new toy. It’s a 2007-8 BMW Convertible. Thing has a 500 HP engine and adaptive suspension, GPS, AC, killer stereo system, all the bells and whistles. All tricked out for both performance and comfort. Now, that kind of thing perks my interest as you’d imagine so I imposed on him to take me on a ride about. And the next weekend we headed on over to Tehachapi.

Here’s one of many long stretches of highway on the route where we got up over 100 MPH. Thing is, he’d gotten up to 115 on this stretch and I’d not known until he pointed it out. It was that smooth, quiet, and comfortable. Nice.

And soon we were at the Tehachapi museum and rail stop in downtown Tehachapi. I like these old railroad setups and if you’ve been reading my blog at all you know how many times I’ve taken rail trips. Back a few years ago, I spent the summer as a ‘drive away driver’ delivering brand new ‘cube’ trucks. So I’d pick up a truck in Elkhart, IN, drive it to the customer, and take a train back. Ended up putting 10,000 miles of Amtrak train travel in my memory bank. So, yeah, I like trains… If you’re wondering, it’s pronounced: Teh hatch a pee We saw this picture and asked the curator of the museum about it and turns out it’s a curious way the RR got the trains from the valley floor up on a higher plateau. This loop sees an average of 40 trains per day. Built in 1874. Pretty interesting. Passenger trains are not allowed to use the loop so if you’re not a railroad employee, you can only watch the trains traverse the 77 foot high loop from the roadway above it.  
After enjoying the museum, we thought, hell, the loop is only a few miles away, let’s head up there. With 40 trains per day using it, we’re bound to happen to see one. So, off we went to find the loop. There it is! And there’s great parking here on the hill overlooking the Tehachapi loop.
It’s kind of fun watching the train negotiate that big ol’ loop. Would have been more fun to be closer though. Didn’t take long before a long freight train approached from the East, made the big loop, crossing it’s own tail, and headed off. Kinda neat to watch. I made a movie of that train making the loop, unfortunately, it’s too long to post directly but here’s one someone else made and posted to Youtube: Train loop. We’re not the only people here to watch the trains either. The loop is a fairly popular attraction around here. Even has a plaque. And the road engineers were nice enough to put in plenty of side-of-the-road parking.

And then it was time to head back to Tehachapi. Right in downtown across from the RR museum we spotted an old cafe so stopped in for lunch. Pretty neat place…Cafe (name escapes me). After a nice lunch, back to Rosamond. Passed more Wind Turbines along the route.

And that’s it for that day. Had some fun visiting the RR museum, the loop, Tehachapi, and driving over 100 MPH in a super comfy car. See you all next time!