The pot of coffee is always on [even after 2 years have passed]. Come on in. Sweet ice tea too.

[wrmcclellan]

Morning all!

Well we survived the Boy Scout campout. We had a 4+ hour drive Friday night to get to Smithville OK. We got the boys set up (in the dark) and by the time we got our own tent set up (1:30 am - eek!), the front came through. Pounding rain and thunder until about 6 am. When we got up about 7am, we discovered that most of the boys tents (troop supplied tents) leaked like sieves. Four of our guys had sleeping bags with about a gallon of water in them! One bag that the zipper broke on and we couldn't get open had water dripping out of it for the entire day and into Sat evening. All their clothes got soaked from water dripping through the rain flys. Apparently, the waterproofing job done ny the older Scouts was not done properly (who was the adult supervising them anyway - no one admitted to that!?).

We dragged everything out and luckily, the front was a cool front that pleasantly dropped the temperatures and lowered the humidity, so by the time we got back from canoeing, all the sleeping bags except one (I always carry a spare) were dry and almost all the clothes were dry! Hey! - it's not a Scout campout if you don't get soaked.

The boys had a great time on the river. The older Scouts did a 6 hour day trip, while the younger ones in our group were able to paddle around in a one mile long calm area. All this occured under a couple of 30's vintage truss bridges, one highway (don't all canoe trips start or end at the "old iron bridge"?) and a RR link truss. The river was really clean and clear, with a rocky bottom. The rains increased the flow, so the younger boys learned they could pu***he canoes upsteam (along the bank) to a small "rapids" area (in their minds) to get a fast ride down.

All in all - a great weekend (although quite tiring - 4+ hours to get home yesterday afternoon.

Have a great day all!
Roy

[cnw1995]

Thanks Buckeye - got plenty of those in the lawn... I should've guessed there were different sized hooks - seems so ridiculously obvious - found only one size at the local Wal-mart.

[ChiefEagles]

Well, back at last. Almost spent the night in Charlotte. Was too tired to play. US Airways offered for 10 folks to wait until this AM to fly to RDU [can drive it in 3 hours], put them up in hotel , pay for meals and give a roundtrip ticket good for a year. Almost took it. Was too tired as I slipped into LAZland and kissed all the girls and stole all the loot and came home unscaved. [;)] As for Buckeye's menu, that is what we feed Yankees and tell them it is southern cooking. Must be good to them as they keep coming back to the south to visit [some even move here]. Don't hear of us moving nawth. [:D] Busy, grass to mow or bail, clothes to wash for next trip out [Hampton VA Thursday and hotel has computer [:p]]. Garden to get tomatoes with baskets over them. They are already too large. Have a good one and God bless all.

[laz 57]

ROY sounds like a great time. Reminds me of my honeymoon in Kings Canyon, Ca. Me and my wife did a nice 85 miler full cicle there and were dodging the thunderboomers every day. Got caught in 2 however and had to wait to get all the stuff dry. The real bad part about the hike were the bears, lots of em. There was a couple we met up with that hung their food in the trees like youre suppose to out there, well the cubs climbed up and gnawed the lines down came their food and mom and the cubs had agood meal. We gave them some of our food to get them out of the canyon they had another 22 miles to go, they were pretty hungery and told us to be safe and go from bear box to bear box. The bear boxes are placed anywhere from 12 to 16 miles apart and they are just a metal box to place your food in to keep it away from those bears. A great trip got up to 13000 feet had a snow ball battle with the wife and went sleding on the back pack. Saw about 4 bears the biggest about 500 lbs. Nice little lakes there filled with cutthroat trout lots of them and caught many biggest size about 7 inches.
Keep those boys a hikin.
laz57

[Roger Bielen]

tschmidt
Tom,
I'm about 5 mi. from Memory Station in Watkinsville, I stop in there at least once a week just to say hello and see what's new. Next time your coming down this way drop me an e-mail and we can get together.

[Dr. John]

Chief, welcome back! I tried to hold off the hordes from the north the best I could!

Doug, congratulations on your daughter's graduation. It's a bitter-sweet time when your kids finish high school. Our oldest daughter graduated last year and our son graduates next year. I know what you mean about the cell phone thing - our youngest daughter (13!) is driving us nuts about having one. Sorry, it isn't gonna happen! Maybe when she starts driving.

[wrmcclellan]

Chief - Welcome back!

Laz - sounds like a great trip you had hiking. Its good the bears did not eat more than the hikers food!

Regards,
Roy

[laz 57]

CHIEF what do ya mean kiss all the girlies. Thats my job ya know Georgie Porgies kissed all the girls and made them come back for more.
laz57

[railfanespee4449]

http://www.freewebs.com/trainwatch/ check out my new GIF webpage

[wrmcclellan]

Way to go RFSP4449. Pretty cool and welcome back. We had not heard from you for a while!

Dr. John - I know about the 13 year old and the cell phone. We broke down and did it. Now it has become a powerful tool in our "adults vs the teen"****nal. She looses it and her internet access quite often and has to work hard to get it back.

One word of advice, there are some pretty good plans out there for adding family members - but they always have a catch. Make sure that text messaging is OFF and cannot be used regardless of what she does with the phone (we found out the hard $$$ way - the cellular carriers fool you making you think it is not available and then she uses it and you get hit with the MAX non-subscriber charge). Data is OFF and not available. Make the carrier validate to you that it is OFF and validate they are going to refund you any data or text messaging charges should they let slip through (yes there are ways as our daughter has discovered). We learned ownloading of ring tones is a data service. We also found this out the hard way $$$. $1.99 for ring tone (which we approved) and a mysterious $20 charge for use of data service (couldn't get out of that)!

Do get the typical $9.99 per month family addition and make sure it is Voice only (no data, no text) and has the no per minutes of use charges after 8 or 9 pm and weekends. Weekends is where she gets use of it when allowed.

LIfe with a teenager - a whole new creativity adventure in how to "ground" your kid (read that "5-fingered sloth" glued to phone and PC for instant messaging if she could get her way). We were impressed that she was able to Instant Message (IM) on the PC, Text Message (TM) on the phone, listen/sing to internet streamed music on the PC, and talk on the house phone simultaneously.

Regards,
Roy

[tschmidt]

Roger,
Thanks for the invite. Next we're in Georgia I will call so we can meet. It might be for a UGA football game.

Buckeye,
Have you been up to Chautauqua lately? Let me know when you come again and we can get together. Maybe even take a ride to Artcraft Trains.

I know the whole teenage thing. Out of 6 kids the oldest is 28 and the youngest is 20. When they grow up they are fun to be around even more! Those 13 to 15 year old years are the hardest.

Have a great evening all.

Tom

[ChiefEagles]

Thanks for the welcome back gang. Congrats Doug. LAZ, you should have stayed home. Might have stolen one from your house too. [;)] Was a very slow show but still had a good time. The folks in that store are great. Big TBoomer came through Sat. night. Will request to go back next year. Got to go to Fudruckers that was new next door. We thought it was grand opening. Was training day. Manager fed us for free. We went through like regular customers but did not have to had cashier money. Nice folks in PA. Better than a neighboring state we will not mention. [;)] Now for some microwave popcorn. [:D] Dr. John, you did OK. After Buckeye's attempt to do damage, the Yanks retreated as usualy. God bless

[Buckeye Riveter]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tschmidt


Buckeye,
Have you been up to Chautauqua lately? Let me know when you come again and we can get together. Maybe even take a ride to Artcraft Trains.

Tom, I don't know when I will be at Chautauqua again before the forth of July, but I will keep you posted. A trip to Artcraft would be great.

[ChiefEagles]

OH Buckeye, noticed the nice add in train magazines from your Davis buddies. Got all the grass mowed and weedeating done [all the yards], went to meeting and now off to bed. Good night and God bless all.

[Kooljock1]

Good Morning All! Doesn't appear to be precipitating here today, but heck...it's still early!

I joined the TCA yesterday during a planning meeting for the TCA's 2008 convention here in Burlington, VT. The Sheraton here is a great hotel with lots of useful space. We chatted about convention cars, or maybe engines? We also talked about fan trips to Canada and rail trips along Lake Champlain. I know it's still a few years off, but I'm sure it'll be a great time, with good people working hard to make it happen.

On a sad note, Tom Parent the guy who was so passionate about bringing the TCA convention to Vermont passed away. Many of you may know him from his tables at Springfield, Albany, Essex Junction, and Winooski. He was a great guy and will be missed dearly.

Gotta go to work now...

Jon [8D]

[spankybird]

Good Morning from NE Ohio

With temp at 45 and cloudy skies.

RFSP4449 – Nice job on your GIF page.

Roy – my idea of camping out is a Holiday Inn

Tschmidt – I have also been around you lake many times in the pass, my ex-wife lives in Warren, PA.

Kooljock1 – I didn’t know Tom Parent, but sorry to hear of his passing.

Pick of the Day


tom

[FJ and G]

Got cross-eyed watching 4449's gif. train.

Found a nice new hunting area for BB with plenty of rabbits to keep a hound happy.

[ChiefEagles]

Morning gang. Kool, glad you joined the TCA. Beautiful weather here. Got lots of work to do today. OH, going this AM to pick up lumber and etc for layout. Should make things turn cooler in Ohio. [;)] Have a great day and God bless all.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Jon,
I always thought that morning radio personalities just ran into the studio, plopped down in a chair and turned on the transmitter. I see from the time stamp on your posting that you were up at approx 4:OO am. My hat is off to you, the early riser.[bow][bow][bow]

Sorry to hear about the loss of Tom Parent, whom it sounds like was one great guy that wanted to spread the joy of this hobby.

I'm off to Louisville for the SAME National Convention.

All of a sudden a cold wind has started blowing. [:D]

[Anonymous]

Just got the essential frame done for my layout. Then went to Home Cheapo to find some legs for the table. Found some(2 1/2) 2x4's in the "junk pile for 50 cents each, and they were a8foot long!

[Buckeye Riveter]

Jerry, we're betting on you to have your benchwork built before the Chief. Go, go, go.

[Dr. John]

Good morning from Alabama!

Just enjoying the second cup of coffee and decided to say "Howdy" to everyone. Roy, thanks for the insight on cellular plans. I know your pain. Our oldest daughter, a college student in Birmingham, did not know that text messaging costs $$$! Like you, we did not realize that it had to be turned OFF. Oh well. She now knows that she is responsible for paying for overages on her phone.

I think I will make like Chief and get some yard work done this evening. After our monsoon season in early April it has been kind of dry for the last few weeks. Still, the weeds need whacking and the grass is a little shaggy. Yard work is good therapy - almost as good as trains!

[laz 57]

MORNING GIZ,
45 and nice again starting to get dry here need some rain.
You SOUTHANERS see how friendly us giz from PA are we bring you up here a give ya free roadkill , oops mean food. GLAD your stay was a good one CHIEF. Whens the next trip to Harrrisburg?
Have a good one.
laz57

[sanman0516]

I bougth some 2 by 3 for my lay out. I am starting it tommarow.
Lay out consist of 6 by 16. i am going with the new lionel fast track system because
i have a lot of it. Does any know if their is any good track plains for fast track.
I looked at thor web site didn't see any thing i like. can you guy suggest anything.

[cnw1995]

Roy, that's great, great, timely advice on the cell phone - I was just going to look around today to see about adding one for my daughter - to help know where she is if anything. I'll have to watch out for the IM and ring-tones. We're already working our way around her reimbursing me for downloading songs from iTunes. My type of phone is apparently not cool enough. Wow, 4449, that's a lot of train GIFs. Hope to cut the grass for the 2nd time this year on Thurs. I keep it longer than my neighbors - really longer - because I have so many kids tramping on it - I prefer that sort of traffic to a putting-green-type lawn. Take some pictures, Jerry! sanman, I thought Fasttrack was essentially 031 or 'regular' O when looking at Thor's layout ideas.

[ChiefEagles]

Should start snowing in Ohio any minute now. Lumber is home. [:D] Got exhaust fan for all of those smoking diesels. Get hole cut in ceiling and piped outside. Then start painting walls [paint already bought]. Then start building frame work. Got to go frame up tomatoes now with baskets.

[wrmcclellan]

Hello all!

A beautiful day here in Nawth Taxus. Mid to high 80's and sunny.

Kids school activities are finally starting to wind down. This week will culminate the extracuricular activities. Next week will be finals for my daughter. Ahh peace!

But wait! Just as I think I can relax, my daughter goes immediately into high school band camp, then my daughter goes to horse riding camp (she is a counselor), then both kids go to vacation bible school, then my son and I go to Scout summer camp for a week (hey - he got his first rank advancement to Scout last night), then we go on vacation to Tennessee (relaxin' on the Tenn River outside of Chattanoga), argh! were is the summer going! Gotta mow the lawn too! Son is in soccer and B-Ball camps! Daughter ends summer with 2 more weeks of band camp! Trains, what trains? Oh well - looks like it will be very busy and fun!

Chief - you still coming this way in June?

Have a great day all!
Roy

[Anonymous]

Oh Boy! Better get on a move on- Cheifie got his lumber too!!!!

[Dr. John]

Chief? Bought lumber?

You don't suppose the layout's coming off of the floor do you?

Nah! Must be for the tomatoes or pole beans!

[railfanespee4449]

thanks for the compliments. I plan to build a nwe JavaScript page