Labor Day

No. 119 coming up the track.

September 3 was Labor Day so the LDS Employment Resource Center was closed.  We used the day off as an opportunity to go on a road trip.  We went to Promontory Utah where the East meets the West; the place the transcontinental railroad was completed.  It was about a 90 minute drive, approximately 60 miles on local highways.  We arrived there around 11am and left about 1:30pm.  We had our choice of parking places when we arrived, but there weren't any spaces available when we left.  For being in the middle of nowhere, it was very popular. 

Driving the last spike.

They do a reenactment of the "Last Spike" ceremony several times during the day in the summer with some history about activities leading up to the ceremony.  The last spike ceremony was suppose to have happened on May 8, 1869, but the No. 119 was two days late due to weather and a labor dispute.  The No. 119 was the Union Pacific locomotive from Omaha and the Jupiter was the Central Pacific locomotive from Sacramento.  The trains at the Golden Spike Historic Park are replicas and actually function; however, they don't let people on board.  The Jupiter burns wood so it blows white smoke from its stack.  The No. 119 burns coal so its smoke is black.  One of the rangers gave a little history of why the trains met at Promontory Utah in the auditorium of the Visitors' Center.  There was as much political maneuvering back in the 1860s as there is now. 

The cast.

Okay, here is something you don't see very often in California.

If you can't read the sign (sorry that it is blurry), it says:  FREQUENT CATTLE CROSSING NEXT 1/2 MILE.  Luckily we didn't come across any on our trip.  Too bad!  That might have been fun too.