Part Fourteen

“You’ve reached the end of the string”

That’s a phrase we use in Ham Radio, particularly when you use a repeater. A repeater is a receiver and a transmitter mounted back-to-back on a high hill. The receiver hears you and the transmitter sends out your voice over a large area. When you reach the edge of the receiver’s ears, someone will tell you you’ve reach the end of the coverage area; the end of the string.

Well, that was a long and informative way of saying that my good string of weather, no pun intended, has come to an end…for now. Overcast skies greet me when I get up in Centennial, Colorado, a southern suburb of Denver. And about 30 miles north of Denver as I enter Greeley:

The raindrops start to fall.

There are 2 stops to make in Greeley this Friday morning. The first is at KUNC-FM 91.5:

Located on 7^th Street in the Chase Bank building. Their studios and offices are scattered about the 5^th floor.

Some background on them from their website:

“KUNC is a community-licensed public radio station, operated by Community Radio for Northern Colorado, Inc., a 501 (c) 3, Colorado non-profit organization. CRNC came into existence in the winter of 2001 when a group of community volunteers raised $2 million in 20 days to purchase KUNC's license from the University of Northern Colorado and preserve the station's independent voice.

“Instrumental in the fundraising campaign were many members of the KUNC listening community, including the KUNC Advisory Board. The Board had existed for many years providing community reaction and guidance to the station staff.

“Following the sale of the station to the community group, a Board of Directors was elected which oversees the operation of the station. The KUNC Community Advisory Board continues to provide community insights to the staff in matters of programming, community service and fundraising.”

The morning I showed up, they were in the middle of their second day of a fall pledge drive as many NPR stations do to raise funds for their non-commercial operations. The person I was suppose to meet today for my tour, Dave Dennis who use to live in Old Lyme, was busy with a morning commitment so I met up with Robert Leja, who takes care of corporate support and marketing for KUNC-FM. And as he was giving me the station tour, I met Ryan Thompson who is their Operations Administrator. Ryan was the one who processed my pledge when he heard that I was from Niantic, Connecticut. He too is a former resident of Niantic and has family in Waterford. As Mr. Disney coined so long ago, “It’s a small, small world”.

As you can see from the picture, their on-air studio is no bigger than an 8-by-10-foot room. 

And there was just enough room in there for morning Diverse Music hostess Wendy Wham and 2 other associates of KUNC-FM as the pledge drive rolled on. Robert Leja mentioned that the walls of the studio were stripped of their racks of CDs, which provide the on-air music content. KUNC-FM is in the process of moving to a new location in Greeley. Robert also said that they are one of a few stations that still uses CDs since many have converted over to audio servers. Still, KUNC-FM is quite the station and is a very different slice-of-the-pie. Please give them a listen at http://www.kunc.com/ and enjoy.

Soon after that, we wind up at Martin Produce, Inc. on 6^th Street in Greeley:

And meet up with Dorothy Martin Zebka, former mayor of Greeley and a fellow railran from way back. 

I found out about Dorothy through an article published in TRAINS Magazine last spring. I had flagged it in Outlook and made sure I would visit her while in Greeley.

Some background on Dorothy, courtesy of the Greeley Tribune:

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“I hear 'em coming from the north or from the south,” Zabka says. “My office is back there, so I have to run around here (into the hallway) and grab my lantern, flick the switch on and go outside and wave it like this.”

It helps that her office is on the southwest side of the Martin Produce building, close to the railroad tracks.

She's plenty busy enough, working from 7 a.m.-5 p.m., and often longer, each day at the 70-year-old family business at 617 6th St. in Greeley. Zabka, besides being a lover of trains, just likes to give a friendly wave to the train engineers as they pass. No matter how busy she is, she'll sprint out to the front porch with a Union Pacific lantern, given to her by grateful UP crew members, in hand.

This daily ritual has been going on for decades. Zabka, who holds the distinction of being Greeley's only female mayor (1967-71), took over Martin Produce as a high school student after the death of her father, H.G. Martin. All of Martin Produce's potatoes and onions now go out by truck, but back in the day the produce got shipped hither and yon by rail. Besides produce and trains, Zabka's passions include collecting pens, teddy bears and antique cars. The 4,000 pens on display inside Martin Produce are just a fraction of the 36,000 pens she's collected over the years.

Joining Zabka on her impromptu train dashes is the fleet-footed Sparky, her pet poodle, and he spends his days roaming around Martin Produce.

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It was an honor to meet Dorothy and Sparky and I wish them both well and to keep being railfans.

Heading north out of Greeley and the rain continues to fall. The skies are quite overcast and you cannot see the Rockies towards the west. Just over the Wyoming border, I head west on Wyoming State Route 223 to get to I-25 and I come across the transmitter site for local Cheyenne radio station KGAB, 650 on your AM dial. And as you can tell, it was one ugly gray day.

KGAB is a class 1B station, meaning it has to protect the class 1A in Nashville, Tenneesee, which is legendary Opryland station WSM. So at local sunset time in Cheyenne, KGAB does a pattern change and swings its signal to the northwest.

To see what it looks like, take a look at these graphics, courtesy of Radio-Locator.Com/. First the daytime pattern:

And the nighttime pattern:

So, anyone who was in the southeast part of the daytime pattern will not hear KGAB until the daytime pattern change at sunrise.

Ans as I turn onto I-25 North, check this out:

My neighbor Mike Rogers would have a field day at this place. Remember the muppet from the old syndicated Muppet Show wandering around the stage saying, "Did somebody say BANG???!!!"

Must be quite the fun place on the Fourth.

And before I leave Cheyenne, it a quick stop at Holliday Park to see:

The world’s largest steam locomotive, known on the UP as “Big Boy”.

Some facts from the display sign next to the locomotive. Please click on the picture to read:

There was a rumor some years ago from Hollywood about reactivating the Big Boy on display in Dallas, Texas but the costs proved to be too expensive. Pentrex, the railroad video seller, had a couple of DVDs with some vintage films on the Big Boy as it ran on the UP between Cheyenne and Ogden, Utah. I have them and the footage is great.

A few more shots of the beast:

And before we leave Holliday park, the colors are still beautiful despite the rainy weather.

As I head over to pick up I-80, I am surprised to see this scene:

This was the Hitching Post Inn and restaurant lounge. It was owned by Best Western and then Ramada Inn and was one of the finest inns/hotels that I ever stayed at. It had a large check-in desk with the adjoining reception room just respendent in western décor. It is just a damn shame to see such a unique place in ruins. And from what I can tell, about 2/3 of the property is a total loss.

Soon I am out on I-80 east and the clouds are looking quite ominous.

Kansas and a dog named Toto keep coming to mind.

  

I head east on I-80 and soon turn onto U.S. Route 30 and begin my journey back to Omaha. 

And before we leave Pine Bluffs, Wyoming:

Seems junkyards are quite popular out here. And these are old gas pumps; some so old that they don't go above 99.9 cents a gallon. Ah, the good ol' days.

And along the way, the UP still provides some fine entertainment:

After about a half hour, I arrive at the spot on the map known as Brownson. It has a historic mark about Nebraska but also a fine drive-in, drive-out driveway and it affords a good angle of the Sidney Sub:

While I was on my cell phone to check some info about KUNC, I thought I saw a flash of light. I look to the south and what I thought may have been the flash of a tower light was a flash of lightning. And the cloud didn't look too happy to me:

So once I am done on the phone, and see one more bit of entertainment:

It is time to take cover as the streaks of rain head to Sidney. And I just make it into my hotel as the heavens open up. And the rains stay through the evening.

Dinner is a great cheeseburger at a place called It’s Our Place Resturant. Good food. Good service.

Saturday, we'll continue our journey towards Omaha with the next stop being North Platte. A few more installments and it will be a wrap. I hope you all have been enjoying the journey. Almost time to head home.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On the Road. In Sidney, Nebraska.