For those of you who may not be aware, I am the facilities manager for the Seventh-day Adventist Conference Grounds in Santa Cruz County. The nearly 100 acres that I live and work on becomes its own little city for two weeks each year in July. Here is a picture from an advertisement showing an overhead shot taken from an airplane.
We have 500+ RV sites, 400 tents that we pitch each year (14X14), 70 guest cabins that sleep up to 280 persons, and an 18 room guest dormitory. Yep its big alright!
After camp finished and we got most of it packed away and picked up alot of the trash, it was time to head south and play choo choo at Karl Hovanitz' Bitter Creek & Western Railroad in Arroyo Grande. Each year Karl hosts a large meet for live steam locomotives of the narrow gauge persuasion.
This year I had the chance to double head with one of my old locomotives that is now owned by Roger Frimeyer of Bakersfield. We dubbed this event "Hackfest 2008" as both locomotives have Hackworth Valve Gear.
More pictures from the Narrow Gauge Meet can be seen here...
Saturday Night was spent over at the Pacific Coast Railroad running the #1 Caroline and a small freight for the attendees.
Here is yours truly oiling around.
Phil Reader, the CMO has really gone the extra mile to make this engine steam and operate better, and it was evident each time I pulled the throttle. She is quite a performer.
I will post some video of the runs we took as soon as I can get them off the camera. So stay tuned...
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