Good sunny late Spring afternoon everyone! Out of the blue on the 13th. I had an email from Ulrich. G& related photos. Waiting to see if he will reply to my reply; but good to hear from him again. Didn't know he was looking to build. After all the troubles, it's a welcome development.
Restrictions in Nova scotia lifting enough for us to try for an inside restaurant meal this evening. Yeah! Waiting for a white stripe of decal to dry on my road before applying the second bar of the X for a grade crossing. I decided to use clear decal paper painted white having run out of white decal. Same for the yellow lines, yellow paint on clear decal paper. Trouble is the paper is quite old and so the decals are very fragile. Photos when it's done. I'd better bring the freight which has been roaming the rails for the last 20 minutes to a stop. I swapped out all my wheelsets to meta so that I could keep the track cleaner; thus far just runnning trains seems to be doing the trick. Kevin thanks for all those travel photos - quite the trip and an education for us! TTFN
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
BATMANThat's like saying don't play in traffic while your mother is watching. BP, Cholesterol, and a long list of other things can often be managed by lifestyle. I am really fit with my BP being 100/60HR42 most of the time. Coffee and booze will shoot my BP up easily 10 to 20 pts. If I had BP issues I would not consume the things that contribute towards it. If people read up on the meds they take and what their long-term effects are they would likely find it very easy to change their habits.
Eeeeee-yep!!!
My change in lifestyle over the past 3 or so years has made all my bloodwork come back in the "normal" range. I just do what the doc says to do as far as bloodwork, that is "fasting" before breakfast blood draw. I eat as I normally do now prior to that. Doc actually asked me if I was ever actually diagosed with Diabettes? I told him yep. He said, but 5.1 is non-diabettic. My answer was uh-huh, but that is while I'm on the meds. My former Doc started treating me when my A-1c came back as 7.4 (I think). He just stared at me, then laughed. Kept my meds the same. he did.
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
Good evening all. A busy day today. Another one tomorrow.
Kevin. Enjoying the pictures. Thank you.
Lion Loving the pictures.
Those Missing from the Diner. I hope all is well
Not getting in the train room with other things going on.
Keema Style Beef with Spinach and Rice
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good morning from a sunny Westside.
MisterBeasleyTomorrow, skip the coffee until after you're done with the doctor, particularly if you have blood pressure issues. A cup or two earlier in the day will kick my BP up 10 or 15 points. It's temporary, but if the doctor sees higher numbers, you may end up on pills you don't want or really even need.
That's like saying don't play in traffic while your mother is watching.
BP, Cholesterol, and a long list of other things can often be managed by lifestyle. I am really fit with my BP being 100/60HR42 most of the time. Coffee and booze will shoot my BP up easily 10 to 20 pts. If I had BP issues I would not consume the things that contribute towards it. If people read up on the meds they take and what their long-term effects are they would likely find it very easy to change their habits.
Mike, have you ever looked into food allergies as a cause of your headaches? My wife and daughter get blinding next day headaches from consuming dairy either whole or as ingredients of other foods. Remove dairy from your diet for 10 days and if you don't feel better you can try something else. Eye strain could be another cause. I started getting headaches at 43 and could not figure it out until someone suggested I needed glasses, which fixed it.
I was nine when we visited Yellowstone and I remember what a great place it was. The photos of that trip are viewed often as we have thousands of family photos on the big screen constantly going when not watching TV. My Mom went out to the car late one night and a bear came up right behind her, she screamed and ran back into the cabin. There were not the crowds in 1966 and the pics show that.
I have been to Disneyland in California three times in February. No crowds, no lines, and perfect weather, it was great.
Not long ago we went to Yosemite to go hiking, what a gong show, we just left without even getting out of the car.
Lumber prices and labour shortages are well covered in the business publications Not the business reports of the local news that always seem to have political bias, but good publications with links to solid academic research. All I know is I am leaving with Elon Musk. Only those that work with known facts, proven science and have the ability to say I just don't know can go with him when he leaves. I'm in.
I have had no reaction to my second vaccine at all, but I don't remember ever reacting badly to anything, I am very lucky I guess.
Well, it is Deere time and then a bunch of other things in the job jar.
All the best to all.
Elon, Wait for me!
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Good afternoon all.
LION!!!!! Welcome Back!!!!!!!
Flo - A great big Coke Float, and whatever LION wants, to go with his drumstick. (Throw my drumstick on the BBQ a wee bit longer though please.) Thanks.
Kevin - Thanks for all the neat pictures.
Garry - The I-40 Bridge "Incident" even made the news cycle in my neck of the woods. (Must have been a slow news day...)
Dave - Thanks for the update on Ulrich.
Ulrich - Hopefully the lumber prices go "back to normal" in time for your house. Glad to hear it is at least progressing. (If you can still get in the side entrance to see this...)
Trains - Working on small projects here and there, still no actual layout progress yet theough. One part of the remodel has hit a snag....
Hope all are well, and all enjoy the day!
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
CNCharlie Tomorrow I have to go for a CT scan of my kidneys. My doc is of the "when in doubt, check it out" school . Lugging all that soil around has had a benificial result on my BP so hopefully I won't have to go on meds. I think a rhird cup of coffee is in order. CN Charlie
Tomorrow I have to go for a CT scan of my kidneys. My doc is of the "when in doubt, check it out" school . Lugging all that soil around has had a benificial result on my BP so hopefully I won't have to go on meds.
I think a rhird cup of coffee is in order.
CN Charlie
Tomorrow, skip the coffee until after you're done with the doctor, particularly if you have blood pressure issues. A cup or two earlier in the day will kick my BP up 10 or 15 points. It's temporary, but if the doctor sees higher numbers, you may end up on pills you don't want or really even need.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
up831 Afternoon Everyone, While we've all been fascinated by the scenery pics from and Fiddler, and not all trying to take away from their value, this is the time of year that the harvest starts. So, hopefully this video will paste correctly. The grain in the video is corn, but it can be applied to wheat or any other grain. Well, apparently it doesn't work. Sorry!
Afternoon Everyone,
While we've all been fascinated by the scenery pics from and Fiddler, and not all trying to take away from their value, this is the time of year that the harvest starts. So, hopefully this video will paste correctly. The grain in the video is corn, but it can be applied to wheat or any other grain.
Well, apparently it doesn't work. Sorry!
Interesting to see the guy closing the hatches atop the hopper is wearing a safety bungee cord. I assume bad things have happened previously to workers in his position over the years.
- Douglas
Share a drumstick with me?
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Yesterday I read that it will be August or later before repairs can be finished on the bridge. Scary to think this crack was there for months and nobody saw it. I read that the engineer who was supposed to do the inspection was fired.
York1 John
Good morning everybody .... Coffee and a pecan roll please.
Kevin..... Your pictures of Yellowstone remind of when I was there. It certainly is beautiful. ......
Regarding driving through Memphis, you should consider another route. In Memphis I-40 traffic is diverted to the I-55 bridge which is very congested.
This is an article in Land Line, a trucking publication on-line.
https://landline.media/ramp-lane-closures-coming-on-i-55-detour-around-i-40-bridge-closure/
Quoting from the article ....
"As crews and transportation officials scramble to repair the I-40 bridge near Memphis, traffic on the Interstate 55 bridge is delaying motorists up to two hours with reports of miles-long backups."
"Motorists are finding themselves waiting in long lines on Interstates 40 and 55 near Memphis. The I-40 bridge shutdown has forced motorists to use the I-55 bridge instead, causing major headaches for drivers mostly on the Arkansas side."
"According to the Arkansas Trucking Association, the previous 8-minute drive is now averaging 84 minutes, costing the industry $2.4 million each day the bridge is closed. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the once 15-minute travel times on Interstate 55 have turned into commutes as long as 75 minutes as of Monday, May 17."
You can study maps to figurte our what you are doing. If you cross the Mississippi on I-20 into Vicksburg, MS, you can see the interesting railroad bridge there. .... Enjoy the rest of yourtrip.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Good Morning,
I was up at 5:30 to put out the bird feeders. If we don't take them in at night the racoons take them down and often break them. They usually get them open as they are smart and have opposable thumbs. We once had a racoon unscrew the lid of a fish food container. Anyway I couldn't get back to sleep thinking about those 96 pots. Looking at the yard you might think there were 20 but she has cleverly arranged them so you can only see a few at a time. No wonder we go through 15 bags of soil every year and she is popular at the nursery. Have to admit it looks nice. She has a real way with colours. The guy who designed and did the construction 25 years ago did a fabulous job. It took a week to do it with 3 or 4 guys working. The yard isn't large but it has 2 levels with retaining walls built out of railway ties set in concrete. There is also a pond and waterfall built out of carefully arranged boulders so it looks completly natural.
I'm now looking at auctions for a Hornby Flying Scotsman.
Grocery pick up today. Tomorrow I have to go for a CT scan of my kidneys. My doc is of the "when in doubt, check it out" school . Lugging all that soil around has had a benificial result on my BP so hopefully I won't have to go on meds.
Good morning, diners. Black coffee, please.
I have an appointment this morning, then cut the grass, and then isolate in the dark cool house. We hit 100° yesterday, and the prediction is 104° today. The humidity is bad.
Kevin, very neat pictures. Yellowstone is a beautiful place. You and your wife sure know how to take a great vacation.
Charlie, you have 96 pots! I have one, and it is empty this year.
TF, I hope you are getting along OK.
Everyone else we haven't heard from in a while, let us know how things are going.
More layout work today will include trying to find something to do with a small irregularly-shaped area in my little town of Altair. I think I will build some old run-down railroad shacks.
I hope everyone, including the diners with health issues, can have a good peaceful fulfilling day.
Good morning diners! Woke up with a bad headache today. I'm hoping between a couple excedrine and a cup of coffee it goes away. I slept well, so that isn't the problem. Must be weather related. Over the last handful of years I've become really susceptible to weather related headaches, usually tied to changes in barometric pressure. Not fun.
Kevin, wonderful pictures. I've been to Jackson Hole, WY on a vacation once, and we skirted the south end of Yellowstone as we were exploring the area. Would love to make it back there. Someday I will.
Track Fiddler, hope you are okay.
CNCharlie - 96 pots?! Holy smokes!!
Hope everyone has a good day!
Mike
SeeYou190Today we travelled through Yellowstone National Park. I will let the pictures do the description...
Wow Kevin, Yellowstone Park is a beautiful place! Too bad about the crowds and the traffic congestion but I guess that's the price you have to pay to visit places like that.
The bison must be pretty used to having people around. I'd be both thrilled and scared to death to have one wander up that close!
Thanks for documenting your vacation! Seeing and hearing all the neat stuff is almost as good as being there.
Cheers!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Good evening diners.
Today we travelled through Yellowstone National Park.
I will let the pictures do the description...
Believe it or not, we only saw a small part of the park today. The first place we visited was Old Faithful.
We were very lucky that Old Faithful erupted at the same time the smaller geyser bihind it did. We were told that this happens rarely.
It took over four hours to see Old Faithful. We had to sit in traffic to get there. The access bridge was down to one lane due to construction. Crowd level was unbelievable. We could not find a parking space. Then we had to wait for the Geyser to blow. Back to the car, fight our way out of the parking lot, then back to the main road over the one lane bridge.
This ate up half of our time in the park on just one attraction.
There are more geysers around the park that are easy to access, and have beautiful hot springs and pools around them.
This buffalo walked right next to us to get to the pool of water for a drink. He scared the living daylights out of my wife and me.
He was almost completely silent. We did not hear him until he stepped on the boardwalk to reach the pool. We turned to look and had the fright of our lives.
He had no attention or care about us at all.
We will be back in Yellowstone to see more on Friday.
The World Is A Beautiful Place.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
York1 I also like that you stop at local places to eat. That's something we usually don't do unless my wife is not along.
Same here.
Unfortunately, this trip my wife is having trouble eating, so I can go anywhere I want.
I feel terrible for her, but I am enjoying the local dives.
Heartland Division CB&QKevin ..... As you drive toward home, are you planning to pass through Memphis on I-40 ?
That was the plan. We are going from Northern Arkansas to Southern Alabama that day. There are a couple of different routes available.
How bad is I-40? Did they close 1/2 the bridge?
Me again, not sure what is going on but we have 96 pots including 11 hanging baskets. Turns out the record is 115. Have I been misled in past years? My wife just ordered 2 more pots claiming she doesn't like 2 she has now, the flowers don't look good in that shade of pot, too brown.
Having some smoked salmon later with cream cheese, capers , red onion and toast. A little proseco to wash it down. I was shocked at the price of the stuff this year. We won't be doing that again for a long time.
Good to hear from you, Charlie. I also did not have any side effects of the second shot.
Good Afternoon,
I'm around but don't have much to say right now.
I got my second shot of vaccine last night. A very well run operation at the conventuo centre here. A dentist gave me my shot. She was good, didn't feel a thing and only have a slightly sore arm today.
We, or I should say, my wife, has finished aĺl the planting. Only 65 pots this year. She once did 88. I guess that is progress.
This past week I was bidding on a brass CN U1d Mountain. It was used on the last run for steam on CN, April 1960, right here in Winnipeg. Anyway I had the winning bid 3 minutes before closing but lost out as someone came in $140 higher in the last minute. I wouldn't have paid that much . Seems strange to me.
Hot here today, about 88F.
Good afternoon.
Dave ..... That is an intersting video about the I-40 bridge at Memphis. I have heard about that.
Kevin ..... As you drive toward home, are you planning to pass through Memphis on I-40 ???? If so, I suggest you change plans. I think you should cross the Mississippi River at another location. See Dave's video about the I-40 bridge in Memphis.
Everybody .... Have a nice day !
Jim - Working okay for me. Very interesting.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
Good morning from the beautiful sunny Westside. Weather guessers show sun for ten days a least.
We try and eat at non-chain restaurants as much as we can when traveling. The wife has an app on her phone that lists the top highly rated one-of-a-kind eateries in the area you are in or will be. We have never been disappointed.
We had gone to a Hockey tournament in Tacoma and the team was having breakfast at a joint across from the arena. I could see in the kitchen where the cook was dumping what looked like 50lb bags of pre-shredded hashbrowns into a plastic garbage can. He then used a small garden trowel to throw a few pounds at a time onto the grill. The bacon was dumped 20lbs at a time onto the grill and shovelled into a warming pan until needed. I bet the chemical content to preserve all this pre-prepared so-called food was quite something. The hashbrowns were like dried out cardboard.
Best Western Hotels use to all have independent restaurants attached to them so we would try and stay there if we rolled into town and just wanted to eat and get to bed. Wineries and higher-end golf courses tend to have good places to stop for a leisurely meal.
Heartland Division CB&QBrent .... Apparently, your dogs own the furniture. LOL
The dogs only have access to the family room/kitchen area. The secret is leather furniture as the hair just blows right off. Here is an eighty pounder sound asleep in the lazy boy.
Bear, those sidecar races are quite something. I have tried to set some speed records on a motorcycle a time or two but all that is for the younger folk that can react quickly, I have to think about what I am doing these days and then remind myself to start doing it.
Now, this I think I could still handle. Looks like fun.
Kevin this pic looks like it could be a scene on a layout.
Well, it is guitar time for a couple of hours of Gordon Lightfoot tunes. It takes me about 3:40 to play every Gordon Lightfoot song I know and then it is Neal Young, John Denver, Peter, Paul and Mary and the slew of kids tunes. I rotate through them all as playing ability goes downhill at an alarming rate even after a couple of days. I can not work out for two or three weeks and pick up right where I left off most of the time, not so with music. Of course, I may have a train or two running silently while I play.
Hello to Ken, Jan and Ulrich, don't forget about us.
Was Track Fiddler going on vacation? It's unusual not to hear something from him for several days. The same for Charlie.
Hope everything is OK with all the diners we haven't heard from in a while.
Edit: Top of the Page!
Since it's midmorning, it's time for Jazz Brunch at Commander's Palace, New Orleans. (Bring you credit card with a high limit.)
Good morning, diners. Bacon, eggs, and coffee, please.
We'll be right at 100° today, and tomorrow over that.
Kevin, you are really seeing a lot of great things. I also like that you stop at local places to eat. That's something we usually don't do unless my wife is not along.
UP's Big Boy will be traveling through my area again in August. That will be great.
Not much else to report from the Great Plains. It's hot, it's humid, the corn is about three feet tall, restaurants are open -- I like normalcy.
The layout room is dark and cool. I think I will spend the day there.
Good morning Diners. A large coffee please, Janie.
Lion. Good to see the pictures of the 'pussycats'.
Kevin. Great pictures. Loving the scenery. Great ideas for anyone modeling the areas.
My car has had its annual service. The Manager said I was looking after the car well.
I need more coffee. (I was down on my intake yesterday.)
A few jobs around the house then run some trains.
Good evening diners. Today we trekked across the State of Idaho on US20/US26.
There are some wonderful landscapes along this highway.
This area is called the High Desert Region. There is only scrubby desert flora in most places, and the ground is sand beneath the surface.
There are lots of abandoned farm communities along this road. I usually do not photograph dilapidated buildings, but these were too good to pass by.
This old UNION PACIFIC caboose was being used as a tourist information center at the base of a road that leads to a ski camp.
The road we were on took us by the Craters Of The Moon National Monument. This site was created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. I have never seen terrain anything like this. It looks like a post-apocolyptic-dystopian-wasteland. I was amazed and entranced by the look and atmoshpere of this place.
I will let a lot of pictures describe it better.
The pictures do not do the park justice. This is one of those things that really needs to be seen in person in order for it to be appreciated.
For dinner, we stopped at this diner in Arco. It was called Pickle's Place so I had to have the fried pickles with my "Idaho" burger. Their Idaho style burger has an egg on it.
Arco has the distinction of being the first city in the world powered by a nuclear power plant.
That is all for our travels today.
hon30critterI believe that post would be located at one end of a long line of fencing and it is used to keep tension on the fence wires.
Thanks, that makes sense. I have never seen one before. Maybe this is something they do in Oregon? I did not see any like this in Idaho today.
Here's one for the bridge guys. While this isn't a railroad bridge, the occurance is still interesting, and sobering!