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There is an amazing amount of goods being
transported by rail. The train system is
alive and well out in Arizona…especially near us. They aren’t just daytime travelers either…many
nights I fall asleep to the sound of a train rolling on through. And the trains are long and frequent with
lots of intermodals as cargo. In
Picacho, there are three tracks and the other day we watched as two trains got
to a point in their journey where they had to stop to wait until a third train
passed through. So somewhere down the
line the three tracks must merge down to two. And as I sit here thinking about
it, I don’t even know for sure if they blow the whistle coming by us. The sound of the train doesn’t bother me…just
one of many background noises that I hear once in a while.
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Yesterday,
Kim pointed out a curious sight: a semi UPS trailer riding the rails…up on a
railcar right along with other intermodals.
Two UPS trailers in fact. I found
several forums that address the subject of transporting freight trailers by
rail instead of by over the road trucks.
Didn’t find a definite answer but it could be due to fuel costs…shipping
a UPS freight trailer by rail could be a fuel savings when shipping cross
country.
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We reached a high attendance in my limited
experience in attending Picacho Baptist Church…41 people, including children. It was a good sermon…I’m still processing the
sermon and figuring how to apply what I heard to my life…but I do know it was
what I needed to hear. Funny how that
happens.
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Kim was able to do some imaging last night, so
I suggested after church that we have lunch and then he go to the clubhouse to
process his pictures instead of taking the ride we talked about yesterday. We
could do that tomorrow. I was good with
going to the clubhouse with him to do some research on moving a saguaro. I reserved the option to take a short ride
later if the processing took longer than expected. The day sort of evolved before that plan ever
got put into play…
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Instead of eating lunch and then going to
the clubhouse, we drove into Eloy with me as the chauffeur and Kim as the
passenger. Not exactly my first time driving
it but definitely the longest. After church and before lunch, I told Kim that I
was going to make a quick trip into Eloy to get pop and cookies but that I was
taking the truck because I wanted to check out a road on the other side of the
railroad tracks. Since I didn’t know if
I’d encounter gravel I didn’t want to take Zeus. He was game to come along so off we went. The truck is bigger than anything I’ve driven
before so Kim was able to give me some pointers along the way…for example how
to maneuver ‘the Michigan left turn’ that is so popular on downstate Michigan
highways. The ‘piggy cookie’ grocery
store doesn’t carry Diet Pepsi in bottles (only cans) so finding pop took some
doing and along the way, Kim suggested eating at a little Eloy restaurant we
saw the other day. Up to that point, we didn’t know that Eloy had any
restaurants.
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After
lunch, we decided to do one more thing before heading back to camp. It was the one totally touristy thing I had
no intention of ever doing...the word ‘disdainful’ might not be very
complimentary but it accurately describes my attitude toward ‘Rooster Cogburn’s
Ostrich Ranch’ which is right down the road.
Come on…Rooster Cogburn? Don’t they know that name was immortalized by
John Wayne in the movie True Grit? What does
Rooster Cogburn have to do with ostriches? Come on, they’re just trading on the
name!! Well, it started yesterday with
me just wanting to drive in to see what it was about…then today, at my urging,
we found ourselves going in to experience it. The one who thought it was a
ridiculous premise was suddenly the driving force behind the visit…and yes, the
irony gave us a good chuckle.
So we
paid the entrance fee which netted us a big cup of pellets for feeding the
goats, deer, donkeys, ostriches and ducks; a couple of tokens for bunny food; and
nectar to feed the lorikeets. The
donkeys were very comical to watch and the ostriches were a bit intimidating
but that might have been because they could stretch up and over the fence
toward the feed cups. Plus they just looked
scary with their unruly eyebrows and slightly off kilter beaks.
We gave our bunny food tokens
away and we skipped the ducks in favor of heading right for the lorikeets. That was my favorite. Colorful birds landing on my hand/arm to take
the lid off the nectar and then drinking it up.
Interesting to watch their tongues slurp up the nectar. Obviously all animals/birds are used to being
fed and having people around. So today we found out what Rooster Cogburn’s
Ostrich Ranch is all about…and our trailer has a 8” gray ostrich feather up on
the wall and a sticker on the ceiling. 😊
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We
took our computers up to the clubhouse when we were back from the ostrich ranch
expedition. Kim did a quick job of
processing the Whirlpool Galaxy, then suggested it was a good night for a
movie. Casa Grande has the closest theater and after looking at our choices, we
decided to go to the 6:15 showing of ‘I Can Only Imagine’. It was
a good movie…there were some gaps in the plot but nothing that affected the
overall story. And it was very moving to
watch the final performance scene. That
song saw me through a rough time so I have a special fondness for it.
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I’ve
been curious as to where the town of Picacho is located, if it even still
exists. The campground, church and some houses are located on our side of the freeway. Oh, and a defunct pecan processing plant. That doesn’t really warrant town status. Today on our ride to check out the road
across the train tracks we passed a grouping of abandoned looking houses, then
rounded a curve and saw a school…the Picacho elementary school looking well
maintained. There are some other
buildings that look to be in use also. So
I believe we found Picacho. 👍
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We
took a bicycle ride early in the day…we didn’t ride the bikes today, but have a
ride planned for tomorrow.
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Bicycle miles today: 4.1
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