Germany, China, Siberia and Train Derailment, Thursday, 8/28/14

Thursday, August 28, 2014

The weather was nice again today, and we have a lot to report.  Cindy worked at the Nevada City museum and it was really slow, but she met some interesting people.  There was a couple with a teenage son and daughter from the Black Forest area of Germany.  They were fascinated with the music machines and played several of them.  Cindy watched the parents dance around the floor and they were having a really good time.  Music is definitely the international language! 

Later in the day a young couple came in and Cindy struck up a conversation with them.  The boy, Chanyu, is from China and the girl, Mary, is from Siberia, Russia.  They met at the City College in San Francisco, California about two years ago in an English class.  On July 22^nd of this year they started a lengthy bicycle trip from San Francisco.  So far they have been through California, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.  They will be going through Yellowstone National Park on their way to Yorktown, Virginia.  They will then ride down the east coast to Florida and then plan to go back west through Texas and then even further south through Central and South America.  They have no firm plans as to how long this trip will take them, and they don’t know if they will continue their schooling or not.  They have budgeted about $10.00 per day for food, and they eat mostly rice, oatmeal, beans, and vegetables.  (They sometimes buy ice cream as a treat.)  They carry everything they need on their bikes, and today they were soaking some dried beans in a water bottle attached to one of the bikes.  Chunyu showed off the two pots that they use for cooking.  This was a really interesting couple and if you so desire you can follow their blog at www.chuchaandmasha.wordpress.com.   

At 5:00 p.m. Chuck showed up at the museum to report that the train had derailed right in front of the Virginia City depot while he was driving.  Uh-oh!  While he was waiting for Cindy to finish up, our old inn mates Jaimi and Connor showed up with Elise in tow.  They are going to pick up Libby tomorrow in Bozeman and then head to Seattle, Washington for a concert and will take in some of the sights including the Space Needle.  Jaimi and Connor reported that they both like their classes and have seen each other every day. 

At about 5:45 p.m. Chuck got a phone call to head to the train depot as there were a group of people there who were going to attempt to put the train engine back on the tracks.  After inspecting the engine, it was determined that the bearings on the front axle are broken.  The train repairman has been called and will hopefully be able to fix the problem tomorrow.  We certainly hope so as there is sure to be an onslaught of people here for the Labor Day weekend, and they will be very disappointed if the train is not running. 

Chanyu and Mary

Cindy, Elise, Jaimi, Connor