October 12

Today we left the campground for Ironstone Vineyards Tour & Wine Tasting.

This is a big plantation, here there is over 7,000 acres here at this location.  They do a lot more than grow grapes here, they have a big Museum, Amphitheater, Weddings in the large gardens, and a beautiful music room, and yes a big gift shop and wine tasting room.

 We started our tour in the gift shop and wine tasting bar, no sampling yet.

 We got everyone together out side to start tour.

The flowers in these gardens are beautiful.

 This has to be one of the high lights of this tour, inside we got to see a small amount of the quartz that was mined in this area.

A little bit of history about this next few pictures. On December 26, 1992, owners of the Sonora Mining Corporation mine near Jamestown, Tuolumne County, received an unexpected Christmas present.  Excavations in the company's Crystalline mine uncovered a "pocket" of Crystalline leaf gold.
Approximately 1,568 ounces of specimen gold were found.  The largest piece, the Kautx specimen, weighs in at 44 pounds of gold.  This is the largest specimen of crystalline gold in the world.  The specimen consists of many layers of leaf gold separated by rock consisting mostly of clay, quartz, maraposite, decomposed shale and pyrite.

I should say it is in a vault and be hind a very thick peace of glass.

We were looking for a way to get it out but no luck.  They say that this small peace of gold is priceless!!!!

 After the tour of the museum we took a short walk to the wine celler where all of the wine barrels are stored.

 All of these are waiting to go into the cavern for storage.

 These caverns were carved out of the rock here and covers over with a covering to keep it from deteriorate, this help keep it a constant temperature of about 55 degrees if I recall correctly.  They have over a million gallons of wine being cured.

This small water fall helps keep the humidity at about 78%.  They also have weddings down here also.

This is were they process all of the grapes, they are just finishing up with this years crop.

 This is some of the gardens were they have weddings, if you notice the coyote cuts out in the field.  They are there to keep the  Canada Geese out of the grass, and it is working just fine.  They move them every day so they don't see them in the same place.

This is looking out into the area from the Amphitheater, they say that over 7000 people is a full house and they have big name groups here.  They average over 20 different groups through out the summer.
Our next stop is the Music room with a pipe organ that is as big as the one in the Slat Lake City for sound.

If you are ever in this area make this a stop to see for a Vineyard, it has so much to offer.  It is located just outside of Murphy's, CA., also stop and take a look at this neat little town.  There are a lot of small shops to look into and a great Marisolio Olive Oil Tasting Bar.  Tomorrow we head to Yosemite, CA.

Day 27

Today we went back in time to a place in the heart land of the Sierra foothills, Railtown 1897 State Historic Park.  Invites visitors to experience the thrill of traveling back in time to the era of steam railroading.  Located about 135 miles east of San Francisco, the park is a unique treasure trove of preserved railroad building, equipment, locomotives and railroad cars.  Many of these date back to Railtown's 1897 origins.  The Railtown roundhouse - a semi-circular building for housing and maintaining locomotives - stands as one of only two continuously operating steam locomotives roundhouses in the United States.

 Here we are entering the good old gift shop and the starting point of our tour.

 The gentleman that looks like a railroad worker was our guide and he has been volunteering here for over 30 years to help keep this place running and did a great job.

 As its freight-hauling days were ending, the Sierra Railroad #3 was still being used by Hollywood movie productions.  It had everything--a ruggedly perfect "Old West" landscape, miles of tracks and a wealth of very old trains.  Film producers the world over clamored to use this special location.  Between 1919 and the present, the Sierra Railroad would "star" in more than 200 motion pictures, television programs and commercials -- including High Noon, Back to the Future III, Rawhide, and Death Valley to name a few.

 Serra No. 3 was the star in the motion picture.  It is still a working Locomotive.  Here are a few more that you may remember seeing in motion pictures.

 This Locomotive was a work horse in its time,

 All of these tools are hand made just for working on these locomotives, some of these weigh over 25 to 30 lb's.

 This locomotive is being used as a display only until they can get funding for repairs.  You can see a lot of labels to show visitors what they are.

 I can't remember the number on this one, but they are completely rebuilding the boiler in this one.  The tour guide said that this one is the work horse around this yard and will be done this winter and put back out on line after the first of the year and used in special events to pull the cars for tours.

 This passenger car was used behind #3 in a lot of motion pictures.

 This was a car modified for running on the rails.  Now why do you need a steering wheel, when you can not turn this car?  It was set up as a brake, so when they want to slow down they turned the wheel to the right. It was used to move workers to different areas on the track.

 Turn table in the middle of the buildings.

 This engine is being used for parts on #2.

 This wall was full of all the different movies that the three engines have been in, but with the glare from the sun those pictures did not turn out.

 You may be old if you remember what show this was in!!!!

 Pictures of the black smith shop

If you are ever in this area make this a stop, it is right out side of Jamestown, CA and after your visit stop for a lunch at the hotel.

 This is a 1/2 lb hamburger hand made and fry's, it was all I could do to eat it.

OK, now comes a problem  how do I eat this big thing.

 Taking one for the team and going in for it!!!!

 This was a potato wedge with the works on them, that is a dinner snake tonight.  Cyndy had wings and she said they were good.  What a great day we had and tomorrow off to a winery to learn how they make wine.