First of all for all you RVers out there (and you know who you are!), we wanted to let you know that not only did we choose a good campground last night, it is truly an official campground. Shortly after setting up (within sound of Interstate-15 and a short distance from Walmart), we saw a plane fly over just as we heard the lonesome whistle of a nearby train!! Life doesn't get any better!

After getting up and getting moving this morning (moving in the sense of brushing teeth and having a cup of coffee and breakfast only!), we read some of the literature that the campground gave us and decided to stay over here one more night and get out and about and do the touristy thing . 

We unhooked and left camp at 10:00 and headed to historic Ogden Union Station and its four included museums. They are the Utah State Railroad Museum, the John M. Browning Firearms Museum, the Browning-Kimball Classic Car Museum, and the Utah State Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Our weather today was very nice, albeit a little warm. I think it got up to 94 in the afternoon, but with low humidity it felt fine.

When we got to Union Station, which is only about 3 miles from where we are camping, we went inside where we were greeted by several of the nice folks who were either working or volunteering there. After buying our tickets we first went back outside with a docent who we could tell was anxious to show us his part of the complex. Looking at his volunteer badge we found that he has already volunteered there for over 1,000 hours--pretty impressive to say the least. His name was Noel and we could tell that he loved his trains . He has a key to some of the more historic trains, and we were able to go inside a medical train that dealt with soldiers who were casualties of war as well as an old Mail Car. There were many different trains at the museum but we didn't do too much looking there because it was getting pretty warm outside and because John's main goal was to go to the Browning Firearms Museum just so he could report what he saw to the Mayor of Bastion Circle!

Before going to the firearms museum we went into the Classic Car Museum. It was a quite nice museum that we enjoyed walking through. It was by no means as large or as impressive as the Cord, Auburn, Duisenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana, but quite good for the size. I took a few pictures there but there were large windows which caused the shots to not turn out as well as I would have liked.

Now it was time for the BIG one! We went upstairs to the Browning Museum where we had anticipated spending 45 minutes or so at the most . However, when we arrived there we met the docent for that part of the museum complex, Kay Hargis, who was so filled with enthusiasm we ended up spending over an hour and a half. It turns out that Kay is not only a Docent there, he is also the Browning Firearms Museum Gun Club President and a Docent at the local Hill Aerospace Museum. He was a Sergeant Major, USA, Retired, and then a member of the Roy, Utah Police department for many years as his second job after retiring from the military. His badge showed that he has volunteered there for over 650 hours. As you can see, he was very well qualified for what he is doing, and we can assure you that he is very enthusiastic! 

Gary R. and Oldcat, wish you could have been there. John says that it appears that John M. Browning was the Thomas Edison of gun design. I tried to take some pictures, but the glare on the exhibit cases made it difficult for the limitations of my little camera. I do have some information to pass along to everyone . First of all, the museum contains original models of firearms, designed by John M. Browning. These include rifles, shotguns, pistols, machine guns, and cannons. Most familiar firearms, both sporting and military, are included in these exhibits. The basic mechanisms of many modern firearms were first invented by John M. Browning who is known as America's Gunmaker. 

In sporting rifles, the Browning Single Shot Rifle was designed and produced in Ogden. The patent was sold to Winchester in 1883, followed by 18 years of fruitful collaboration. Many original models of the rifles designed for Winchester are on display, including the Model 94, "the most famous sporting rifle ever produced". John Browning was one of the first to devise mechanisms to utilize energy generated from firing to load and cycle further rounds. These included: Gas, which is utilized in machine guns and semiautomatic shotguns; Recoil which is used in larger caliber pistols, rifles and shotguns; and Inertia which is used primarily in small caliber pistols and rifles . The museum also includes models designed for semi-automatic pistols, many of which were licensed to Colt starting in 1900. The first successful repeating shotgun was a Lever Action manufactured by Winchester.

Browning only manufactured himself around 560 rifles which were the aforementioned Browning Single Shot Rifle before the patent was sold to Winchester for $8,000. However, millions have been built using his patented designs. He was considered a gun genius. After that he either sold his patents outright or later, with Colt, licensed them. He had more patents than all of the major gun makers in the world combined. In the late 1880's Winchester was paying Browning major bucks for his patents and inventions. According to Kay Hargis, today the Browning Company owns Winchester. 

Browning designs have been the basis for many of the models manufactured by Winchester, Colt, Remington, Stevens, and Fabrique National of Belgium . Four generations of Brownings are represented in this museum. The vast collection was donated to the museum by Val A. Browning, the son of John M. Browning. This probably is more gun information than most of you feel in need of...me included...but we know that some of you have much interest in the history of firearms and we thought you would get a kick out of our stop today. One footnote to our visit at this particular museum: I saw a Bill Mauldin cartoon on the wall of one of the rooms. It is family lore (my maiden name was Maulding) that the North Carolina branch of the Mauldin family was related to the Mauldings in Georgia. The "G" was added to the end of the Mauldin name by by Daddy and his brothers for some unknown (to me anyway) reason at a point in time. Don't know if the connection is real, but it is fun to think about. 

After leaving the firearms museum, we went back down to the lobby of the old Union Station and did a quick look through of the Cowboy Museum. It was in a small room off of the lobby and didn't take long to look at . There were plaques, clothes, boots, and chaps on display along with other items. From there we had intended to drive to the nearby Hill Aerospace Museum which houses more that 90 military aircraft, missiles, and aerospace vehicles from Kitty Hawk to Space exploration. However, since we had spent so long in the Firearms Museum (standing on concrete) we decided to just do a drive by and see what we could see outside before returning to camp and a slow afternoon, so that is what we did. From what we have read, this museum is also worth taking time to check out more thoroughly, but it was not to be for us today.

On our way to the Hill Aerospace Museum we did drive up and down a few of the streets in downtown Ogden. The downtown area that we were in was quite quaint and as is the case it seems in most Mormon towns, very clean and neat. We drove by their temple and I took a shot from the RV. There seemed to be a large wing-ding going on as some streets around the temple were blocked and many cars were in the surrounding parking lots. We assume that there was some kind of celebration going on but have no idea what it was.

After doing our drive by of the Aerospace Museum, we headed back to our campsite once again. After getting electricity hooked back up and the AC running, we decided that we deserved a nap...we NEVER take naps...and that took care of an hour and a half of our afternoon! We plan to head out of here in the morning in the general direction of Idaho. We have had a most enjoyable day.

We drove a huge 16 miles today!