And In Closing...

Moving, in general, is not a fun task, mostly because of packing and prepping. Packing involves anticipating space and planning for items that must be used until the end. It's not fun and Kara definitely enjoys it more than I do.

Two weeks ago we began intensively preparing for our exit garage sale. The room quickly defended into a mess as various components of our lives were sent to bins to be discarded at reduce prices. The photograph below shows our living room around about last Wednesday:

Our living room during the height of both packing and prepping for our garage sale. Ugh.

We had the garage sale on Saturday morning at a friend's house in Live Oak and it was a stellar success, though three short bookshelves, my desk and chair, and our tall halogen lights did not sell. That was truly annoying because they collectively take up the most space. Still, we made some good money to help pay for our trip back to Arizona. From there, we will reorganize, pack our collective six bags for New Zealand (carryons are only laptops and iPads due to constraints put in place by Air New Zealand), and travel to LAX to fly out at the end of August.

Me speaking at Researchers Anonymous (Sangye Llamo)

In the meantime, I've been working vigorously to get all of my railroad research done since I am trying to avoid taking too many books with me to Arizona (none are going to New Zealand).

As a part of this research, I was given the opportunity last weekend (July 12th) to speak in front of the Researchers Anonymous group of which I am a member. My lecture, titled Santa Cruz Trains & Researching in the Digital Age was very popular with the group and I was able to show off both some of my research and some of the skills I have used to present that research in my book. The slideshow is available here if you'd like to check it out, and a video may be available soon.

The weekend was also special because the Santa Cruz Portal Cement Company standard-gauge steam engine #2 was on display at Roaring Camp Railroads as a special weekend excursion event put on by the Regional Transportation Committee (RTC). I've gone to a number of these meetings and have been excited to see railroad service returned to Santa Cruz, but nothing was as cool as seeing a real steam engine back on the standard gauged tracks in Santa Cruz County. All of our tracks were frequented by steam engines long before being used by diesel, but the last steam train rode these tracks in 1959. It was definitely cool hearing a new whistle in the hills and seeing this small engine haul a trainload of passengers to Santa Cruz. I just wish it could have become a permanent thing. Here's a photo of the engine crossing California Street in Santa Cruz on its way to Wilder Ranch State Historic Park. The photo was taken by Michael Mistor:

Santa Cruz Portland Cement Company Engine #2 crossing California Street (Michael Mistor)

The photograph below was taken at the south portal of the Summit Tunnel yesterday during a hike with Kara and Henrique. I had heard that the brush across Burns Creek was finally cleared away and I had wanted to visit the tunnel again, anyway. We found our way back to the tunnel and, after exploring its dark and admittedly scary interior (300 feet in near-total darkness), I crossed the trickle of a creek and climbed the hillside to get this beautiful view of the trestle remains and the tunnel.

Summit Tunnel south portal from across the Burns Creek trestle.

I find it quite funny that the tunnel just sits here in the middle of nowhere beside the still-standing pilings of a trestle that hasn't existed since 1941. You can even see in this photograph that the ties jutted out from the hillside a bit creating what I call a hillside trestle (or half-trestle). It was definitely a fun but tiring hike there and back.

I have one last hike planned with a guy who owns a piece of the right-of-way near Waterman Switch. Other than that, though, my days of hiking these old trails are coming to an end. My book is still on schedule, at least, but the first-hand exploration, a part that I have really enjoyed, is not going to be possible from New Zealand, I'm afraid.

Last, I finally sold my car, the "Eggplant". The car served me well and is only the second to leave my care in drivable condition and the first one that I personally have sold. I've only owned it since 2010 when my parents helped find it for me, but it's served me very well. Being a Toyota Camry, it had few technical problems the entire time I owned it, and I suspect the new owners will likewise find little wrong with it.

That's definitely it for now. I'm going to probably do one last entry on August 1st from Santa Cruz County and then I'm off to the greater world beyond. Cheers!