Monday, November 12, 2007

San Francisco day 3 of 3

Kim hanging onto the side of a cable car.
Here is a cable car and in the distance is a turnabout. A turnabout is a short section of tracks on a big turntable. Two guys push the car onto the turnabout and turn it around manually by hand. It isn't very hard to do.
Here's the guy who gave us the bike taxi ride to China Town.
This is the inside of a street car.
Here's the outside of a streetcar. It has two large antenna like arms that make contact with the electric wires above.
Fri 11.9.07

Today we went to the Cable Car Museum and Power House. This is the operations center for the cable cars. It is a must see while in San Francisco. There were old cable cars and lots of artifacts such as good displays of how the car grips the cable and how long the equipment lasts. A cable last 75 to 250 days and the pine wood brakes that rub the track for stopping only 2 to 3 days. In 1947 the city decided to do away with the cable cars and replace them with buses. There was such uproar from the people that they finally put it to vote and the city overwhelmingly voted to keep the cable cars. As I said in an earlier post, they identify the city and now the cable car system in San Francisco is a national monument so they are here to stay.

It was good to get back home. I realize our home is mobile and I have seen signs that say, “Home is where you park it”, but last night I came up with how I feel about it – “Home sweet home – wherever it is”. We met our new neighbors last night and helped some people who pulled in after dark. They are a crew of painters from North Dakota that paint grain elevators and such. They’ll be here for a month. The owner was really nice and we talked quite a while. I think today will be reading and writing my book. I haven’t made as much progress as I would like. I would like to have my library with me and we probably need to stay in one place long enough for me to concentrate. I’m getting chapters organized though.

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