Eden, ID to Brigham City, UT 9/15 - 9/16/08

Trails, trains, and dinosaurs have been the theme of the past two days. Yesterday we switched from the Oregon Trail to the California Trail. We saw rocks with names of people headed to California recorded in axle grease over 150 years ago. We ate pioneer pudding (a lot like Indian pudding) at a western restaurant near the rocks.
One of the biggest excitements of the whole trip for Bill was seeing the spot where the Golden Spike completed the transcontinental railroad. We walked a mile of the original railbed. This was followed by a visit to the Ogden Depot today where Bill took the throttle of one of the fastest steam engines ever built. There were five tracks of trains at the depot, from a steam engine to a turbine propelled engine capable of pulling 753 cars at a time.

Continuing our pursuit of peaches - we have eaten freshly picked peaches in Michigan, Montana, and Washington, we were delighted to discover fresh peaches in Utah. We celebrated with peach pie and a peach milkshake.
The Adventures of Super Grandpa: Grandpa took a walk in the Wasatch Mountains today and found a mother and baby dinosaur. They followed him back to the campsite. Since they were in need of a home, Grandpa wanted to bring them to one of his daughters as a unique family pet. Grandma (Manga) was very proud that Grandpa had found the first living dinosaurs, but she gently explained that dinosaurs make poor pets because they are difficult to house train. She took them to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden, Utah where they are living very happily.