Deshler and Fostoria, Ohio (Saturday, 9/30/17)

[tcwright973]

There is an upside to your tale Kevin, and it's your not alone. Seems like most of my seemingly well planned adventures go like that. The solution for me is to just get in the car and drive. No plans, just drive & hope for the best...

[chatanuga]

This past Saturday, I went up to Deshler and Fostoria to do some railfanning.  I'd originally planned going up for the Fostoria Rail Festival, but when I'd planned my vacation time from work, I'd planned it around the wrong weekend.  That actually worked out in my favor since there were no crowds to deal with, especially when trying to shoot video and pictures of the trains.  However, this trip turned into a series of incidents that showed how not to have a relaxing road trip.

After getting a later start than I wanted from home, I was on US 23 heading north past Marion and was almost in two accidents due to other drivers' inattention and impatience.  I had planned on stopping at the rest area just south of Carey to eat lunch and use the restroom, but the rest area was closed for construction.  I then decided to get off at the Carey exit to use the restroom at the McDonald's there, but there was construction at that interchange, and the only exit closed was the one I needed to use.  I circled back to the southbound Carey exit (which took longer than I'd anticipated), and when I got to the McDonald's, they were closed for remodeling.  I went to the Shell station next door, and their restroom was out of order.  I continued on to Deshler, and on the way, my scanner started beeping that the batteries were low, forcing me to listen to the beep all the way to Deshler.

Once at Deshler, with no trains coming, I ate my lunch out of the back of my Jeep, and that's when about a dozen bees started flying around me and my food.  After a while, they took off, and after eating, I went for a walk around the junction to take pictures.

While on the walk and getting some pictures of the junction from angles that I hadn't seen on my previous trips, and that's when I had an accident.  I'd already put my video camera on my tripod and had been carrying it around as I walked.  When I wanted to take pictures, I'd set it down, taken my Nikon camera out, and took the pics I wanted.  At one point, I was taking a couple pictures when I bumped the tripod with my elbow.  Thinking it was going over, I quickly grabbed for it with my right hand to stop it from going over.  However, in the panic, I forgot that the wrist strap for my Nikon was around my right wrist.  It pulled the camera out of my left hand and whacked it on the leg of the tripod, wrecking the lens assembly.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy.  Fortunately, my phone takes really good pictures, and I was able to use it as a backup.  Shortly afterwards, the trains started coming through.

Later in the afternoon, I headed to Fostoria, arriving at the park just as an autorack train was turning north, and then I caught a couple more trains.

I then made a quick trip east to Tiffin, calling ahead to AJ's Heavenly Pizza to order dinner, which I took back to the park to enjoy.  On the way back in Tiffin, however, I almost thought the trip was going to turn even worse than the mishaps earlier.  After turning at a light, a cop two vehicles back from me hit his lights.  I pulled over, almost expecting at that poing that I'd done something without realizing it.  But he instead pulled over the vehicle behind me.

Back at the park, I watched several more trains come through while eating dinner.

Despite all the frustrations, the trip went pretty well.  I was originally going to be going down to Thurmond, West Virginia today, but with the camera getting broken and everything else that happened on Saturday, I've decided to stay home and play it safe.

On the plus side, I did get a new camera on Monday at the tech store where I'd purchased my new PC back in March.  I figured that at 6 1/2 years old, it'd be better to put my money towards a new camera rather than fixing the old one.  Plus, with the lens assembly damaged, I was concerned that picture quality would be an issue if it was fixed.  So, I got a new and better Nikon (Coolpix B500), and when I was there, I saw that one of the laptops that I'd been looking at on the store's site was marked down from $699 to $379.  So, even though I didn't make it down to West Virginia today, the new camera and laptop are keeping me busy.  :-)

Kevin