Chinese Version12-30-2023, Saturday
Our family trip at the end of 2023 was planned by my daughter a few days in advance: taking a train ride on Saturday, December 30, at Felton’s Roaring Camp. After she made the online reservation, it started to rain for several days in a row. As she was worried the rain would spoil the fun of the train ride, she talked about the forecasted weather for December 30 at home daily. It sounded to me the weather forecast was unreliable as the forecasted weather for the 30th changed day by day. She also quizzed Alex and I about the speed of the train to increase our participation, awareness, and interest. After hearing the speed of train is only three miles per hour, I felt the ride would only be fun for kids, but I didn’t say so as I didn’t want to spoil the fun.
This morning, my daughter packed extra clothes, diapers, and snacks, also bottled different milks for her children; Alex took the driver seat and we hit the road right after nine o’clock. On this rainy Saturday morning, the southbound Highway 17 had very light traffic and the distant mountains were shrouded in white mist, a very pleasant morning view! While seeing the white fog and the dark mountains, Alex commented: “When I was little, I thought spirits are living in those places.” I agreed: “That scenery is the fairyland of imagination.”
After Alex parked the car in the gravel parking lot of Roaring Camp, it started to drizzle. As I didn’t bring an umbrella, I put my head down and quickly pushed my granddaughter’s stroller forward and enjoyed the tender green grass and the moist fresh air, thanks to the rain! Walking on the gravel road and crossing a white-roofed short bridge, I arrived at a spacious area with small buildings on both sides: schools, blacksmith shops, a small garden, small shops, etc. which reminded me of the TV series “Little House on the Prairie”. The sight brought a fresh yet familiar feeling.
The railway and the train station are on the right. While waiting for my daughter to get the ticket from the train station, I pushed my granddaughter’s stroller towards the train to see. This train had six carriages, four carriages has plastic transparent roofs in the front, the seats were filled with passengers of all ages; there were two carriages with wooden roofs at the back, most of the seats were empty. As I started to worry about the seats on the train filling up very soon, I was suddenly eager to take the train ride. After she got the train tickets, an attendant on the platform asked us to leave our strollers on the platform. Alex carried his daughter’s carseat, my daughter carried Ben, and I held a bag of clothes and scarves, we got on a carriage with a wooden roof and two rows of back-to-back seats. Five of us took almost half the row of seats because my granddaughter’s carseat was wide.
In the rain, sitting on the steam engine small train that was slowly moving up the hillside, my daughter and Alex took care of Ben who kept on walking on the narrow pathway between the carriage wall and our seated legs, they held him up to look at the lush green and damp ground of the forest from time to time; I sat next to my granddaughter, who was quiet in her carseat. I was immersed in the changing green colors of the forest and the flowing white mist while breathing in the fresh and damp air with a high concentration of negative ions in my imagination. Though the train conductor plus tour guide was enthusiastically talking about the forest, the redwood trees and the steam trains, his voice was vaguely heard and his words went past my ears like the wind. However, when I heard the tour guide saying: “This steam engine can climb about 20% of the slope under a low speed of three miles per hour, modern trains with high-speed cannot climb a similar slope.” I quickly made a calculation in my mind as I love geometry: “Geometry common sense, 90° is vertical, guess 18° is 20% in slope.” Doing geometric conversions let me entertain myself silently. It suddenly occurred to me that 50 years ago, my parents’ generation had a slow paced life and few opportunities: bearing hardships and standing hard work with resilience was a common thing; modern people have a fast paced life with many opportunities, carving instant success and benefit with anxiety is noticeable. The differences between generations may have similarity to the differences between old steam engines and modern train engines, as the difference of environment alters the functions and purposes which humans fit into.
Because of the rain, the train only stopped once at Bear Mountain (it usually stops three or four places in a ride) to let passengers take a walk and to enjoy the scenery. Many people got off the train and walked along the railroad to see the thousand-year old redwood trees in the rain. Alex and Ben and I did too. I asked my daughter to go along, but she wanted to stay with her daughter on the train. So I got off the train, followed the crowd to see the ancient redwood trees, and walked back, then I saw Ben leading his father while still strolling along the railroad. This scene reminded me of when Ben who had just learned to walk was leading his father on the beach, in Carmel-by-the-Sea on July 1 2023. At that time his sister was not yet born. Now his sister is over 5 months old and is coming along to ride the train with us. Time flies so fast! I accompanied them back to the ancient redwoods and took pictures of them. In the rain, we walked back in no hurry, as Ben wanted to cross one railroad track at a time, which was very slow. When the rain became heavy, Alex had to carry Ben on his shoulder to speedup the walk. After I sat on my seat in the train, I saw two ladies standing beside their bicycles and the wooden sculpture of a giant bear in the heavy rain, waiting for our train to leave so they can cross the railroad downhill. I quickly took a photo of this vibrant landscape in the rain out of admiration for those ladies.
After the train returned to the platform and we got off the train, the rain stopped. While walking back to the parking lot, my daughter pushed her daughter’s stroller, and Ben pushed his own stroller. Ben wanted to walk sideways again, so he tried to push his stroller up a ridge but failed, then he stepped up to the ridge and tried to pull the stroller up still failed. Alex pretended to fail at helping to pull the stroller so he could convince Ben to sit on his stroller. Finally we started on the way home.
While following the “two under two” family of four, I enjoyed watching them and also saw a beautiful spring scenery in California’s winter: a clear blue sky with white thin clouds, dark tall green trees with tender green grass.
Right after Alex drove out of the parking lot, we saw a very low rainbow that was mostly blocked by buildings. We enjoyed our year-end family trip and wanted to come back here in the future.
Roaring Camp’s narrow-gauge steam engine dates back to 1890 and was first used in the 1880s to haul giant redwood logs out of the mountains. Here is a more standard description of Roaring Camp.
Back home, I learned that the train slope is correlated to the value of tangent, not angle, such as: 10% slope = 5°, 18% = 10°, 21% = 12°, 58% = 30°, 100% = 45°, etc. Because both the wheels and railroads of the train are made by metal, the friction coefficient between metal is relatively small, so the slope that the train can climb is much smaller than that of the car. Thinking about the road in life, if you are used to a smooth road with small coefficient of friction, you probably need a much longer time to adjust yourself for going uphill or downhill with high slopes. However, if you are used to a bumpy road with high coefficient of friction, you probably can quickly adjust yourself going uphill or downhill with high slopes.
Little Episodes
1. We were sitting in one of the wooden-roof cars with two rows of back-to-back seats facing outside：
2. In the rain, sitting on the steam engine train that was slowly going uphill, I was immersed in the changing green colors and the flowing white mist between the trees：
3. Ben and his father together：
（Ben leads his father on the narrow railroad at the top of the Bear Mountain，2023-12-30。）
（On the narrow railroad at the top of the Bear Mountain, Ben walked on one railroad tie at a time carefully.）
（At Carmel-by-the-Sea Beach, Ben held a computer mouse in one hand and led his father forward with another hand, 2023-07-01.）
4. At the top of the Bear Mountain in the rain，two ladies with their bicycles
5. The spring scenery in California’s winter is beautiful: blue sky, white thin clouds, dare green tall trees and tender green grass：
