We had dear friends in Denver who were celebrating a wedding – We absolutely wanted to be there! We decided to go a few days early, and see several other friends while we were there. And it would be a fun road trip in our new Tesla. Would we love it or hate it after driving well over 1,000 miles, and having to charge it at superchargers?
So here we are charging at our first stop. Typically, you drive two or three hours, then charge up for 15-20 minutes. Some superchargers are faster than others, and you can see them all on the screen and plan ahead for whatever would work best for you.
We didn’t want to drive all the way to Denver non-stop, so we spent the first night in North Platte, Nebraska. We’ve always considered this the half way spot of that trip.
The hotel had little bars in the bathroom, called Cleansing Bars. I told Cherryl that they must be some sort of cleansing diet granola bars, since it says right on the front they are made from brown sugar and figs! She didn’t buy it… but later I thought I’d be really funny and take a bite out of one… I was very careful to use my teeth, without touching the bar to lips or tongue. I neglected to consider how the sticky soap would adhere to my teeth, requiring a lot of effort to get rid of the soapy taste! I wonder what the cleaning crew thought of the bitten off soap!
We’ve driven past North Platte dozens of times, even stayed there a few times. Our buddy and train enthusiast Mike has told us about a huge train yard, with an observation tower, but we’ve never stopped by. Until now. Wow! It is huge! The world’s largest train yard! Eight miles long, with over 400 miles of track.
So here are a few pictures of the Golden Spike Tower, whose tag line is : more trains than you can keep track of!
A nice museum/gift store is in the base of the tower.
It’s almost impossible to capture the view from the observation decks. If the whole yard is in the picture, the trains are so far away you can barely see them!
There are two “humps” in the yard; one for eastbound and another for westbound trains. A long stretch of train cars is pushed up one side of the hump, and when a car reaches the top, it is evaluated as to its destination. It is then disconnected and sent down an amazing set of switches to end up in a different string of cars, to be picked up by the proper locomotive. The fun part is not only the elaborate switching systems, but the whole thing is done with gravity sending the car down the track. There are brakes along the way, to make sure the cars arrive at the bottom (the “bowl”) with just the right energy to couple to previous cars on that track. Fun to watch!
A long time ago all this switching was done by a switchboard. Since this yard is considered vital to the whole country, the whole setup is now controlled with computers, by operators in an underground bunker in Omaha!
Below is a remote switching device to be worn by a worker.
The short video below shows cars leaving the hump and moving onto many different tracks. No sound, and run at 4x speed.
Apparently the Union Pacific set a pretty nice table in the dining cars!
The locomotive service center is off to one side of the yard. They service something like 800 locomotives per month!
Later that day we stopped to top off our electron collection in Sterling, Colorado. A nice supercharger, with a nice little lake to walk to.
We met up with super friend Bill, who bought his Tesla the exact same day as we did! So here we lean on each other’s cars. Awesome! (and we had a great dinner too!)
The next morning we decided to walk around the lake at Clement Park. We had just started on the walk, when I noticed a familiar face… Steve and Laura, a retired dental buddy of mine! We haven’t seen them since we moved from Denver almost 8 years ago! We walked the lake together and had a great time catching up.
One portion of the walk is bordered by Prairie Dog condos. They weren’t the least bit afraid of us, and one let me get within 10 feet or so.
Later that morning we headed to Evergreen Memorial Park, where both Cherryl’s parents are buried. We had to arrange for a marker for her mother.
The cemetery is somewhat unusual, set in a beautiful mountain meadow surrounded by taller peaks. Rustic buildings and a lake add further to the interest.
The Memorial Marker office was not particularly entertaining, with the exception of this poster:
We had great weather while in Denver, and I loved these amazing clouds!
One evening we had dinner with Debbie and Mike (who told me for years about the Golden Spike Tower.) We met up the following morning to check out his new truck (awesome!) and their new 5th wheel trailer (super awesome!)
It’s good that they got a toy-hauler type 5th wheel, because they have a garage full of motorcycles!
A high point of our trip was lunch with Dick and Eleanor! Always fun to see them, and soak up the gorgeous view from their mountain home!
We met up Friday evening at the home where the wedding would take place… and had a great time with lots of family members and tasty food. But the wedding was to take place into the next week, so you will have to wait to see pictures of that beautiful event. In the meantime, enjoy the beautiful sunset…
