fun, tiring, and scary

Day one of the trip is now history. It was fun, exciting, very tiring, educational, and scary, among other things.

One of us almost didn't make it through the day - twice. More on that later.

We left around 3:35 in the morning. We drove through fog for 90% of the first leg. I'd guess the the visibility ranged from 100 to 200 feet for extended periods of time, although the lights of oncoming vehicles lit the fog so that we were aware beyond that distance that traffic was coming. The first 100 miles was non-interstate driving.

Two points to mentioning these details: one, we lost a lot of time (but still got to the Steamtown Site in the morning); two, another thing I'll get to later.

We got to the street in Scranton that leads to the site around 10:30. Around 11:30 we pulled into the parking lot.

Why? We weren't exactly lost. The simple and hardly exaggerated explanation is that the people of Scranton were lost. The road to Steamtown, a national historic site, was closed because of construction. The construction workers sent us in search for an entrance road that did not exist. The government workers in the parking lot we eventually found ourselves in - right next to the site but blocked from it by high fences - didn't know how to get there. The first workers we spoke with at the Steamtown Mall also right next door didn't know how to get there and had never been there. We were told of an overhead walkway from the Mall to the site, but it turned out to be way too long a walk.

Finally, we found out that one of the road closed barriers actually wasn't closed to traffic going to Steamtown and we were able to park right next to the entrance to the sprawling exhibits.

I know am rambling a bit, but I'm finding it hard to shorten this. My apologies.

Steamtown was great. You can go to the link in the previous posting for tons of details.

What impressed me the most was the size and weight of almost everything. All the tools they work on locomotives with, all the parts of the engines (the piston rods alone in some cases weigh maybe 500 lbs ... whatever they weigh - I wasn't able to find out - they are staggering in their mass). That led me to think about the railroad repair workers. How did they deal with parts that it would take so many to maneuver in tight quarters to hard to get to positions?

The turntable that Mike shows you is where locomotives are driven onto and then rotated to the proper track leading to the assigned bay in the roundhouse where they were repaired. There's so much more, but I'll let the pictures and the website tell you more if you're interested.

Afterwards we went to the Trolley Museum on the same grounds as Steamtown, but not part of the National Parks system. Not worth it. And especially not worth it after seeing Steamtown, a hard act to follow.

Then we drove on towards Altoona, PA, where Horseshoe Curve is. We covered a little over 500 miles for the day, and thus are ahead of our schedule.

As to the two items I said I'd get to later:

Regarding the fog (and this is for Mr. Kelly's class) - if your visibility is only two hundred feet in a fog, how much reaction time do you have to an oncoming vehicle if you are both traveling at 40 mph ... that is, if you can't see the other car beyond 200 feet, how much time does it take between the time you do see it and when your front bumpers pass each other?

Regarding one of us almost not making it through the day - twice. Mike tried to take a short cut over a low chain link fence that is part of the parking lot at Steamtown. He caught his back foot and went down hard on the gravel. He twisted about as he fell and that helped save him from a worse result. The back of his right hand and elbow required substantial bandaging, and he's already sore in his shoulders and back, but he'll survive.

That is, he'll survive if he doesn't have another incident like he did at dinner later. We were both very tired. Perhaps he was eating too fast, wanting to get back to the motel and rest from a long day (he'd gotten up at 2:00). So, yes, he got some food stuck in his throat. He gave me the silent sign that he needed help. I got up instantly (I'd been watching him intently as he struggled initially) and got around to his back to apply the Heimlich Maneuver and was about to begin when I heard him intake some air and he was able to cough very hard and clear the obstruction. It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

I think it's very important to know how and when to do this properly. I don't want my description of this to be taken as instructional in any way. I made a judgement call not applying it. I think everyone of a certain age should know about this potentially life saving measure. I've read that even ten year olds have been able to make use of the principles involved.

Do you all know how?