TTFN

[CShaveRR]

I thought about titling this post "goodbye and farewell", but just couldn't do that.

However, I'm now shutting down the computer while we take our vacation. We'll be gone for approximately nine days, out west. I'm hoping for rain only during the nights, plenty of trains on UP and BNSF, and people who can tolerate us as well in real life as they do over the Internet. The diet's off, for the most part, until we get back home and break out the bicycle. Just my wife and I are going...the kids will look after things around here.

We're also visiting relatives, including a cousin who couldn't make it to our last family event, and an adopted sister who's just as excited at the prospect as I am.

I'm not going to promise a trip report...the things that excite me will probably be of little interest to others here. However, I hope to have enlightening experiences that may help me with future posts.

So I'll be back next Saturday or Sunday...but you might hear something sooner from a very busy, and hopefully enlightened, forum member.

Everyone have fun, be safe, and don't rub the fur wrong!

Carl

[Anonymous]

Enjoy your trip. [:)]

Drive safely. [8D]

Take plenty of pics. [^] (Don't forget to share them [;)] )

And make sure you come back and make lots of posts for us all to read. [:p]

[Mookie]

Darn right you will hear from an enlightened forum member - she can't keep her mouf shut!

[mudchicken]

Mookie & Carl in cahoots?

Just for that (and 'cuz the job says to), I'm headed for the central California metropolis of Porterville with laptop in tow....No chicken dinner in Lincoln!

Carl, weatherjerk here says Denver is due for 6-10 inches of snow Thursday into Friday. Be careful out there!

Fe Feathers[:D][:D][:D]

[Mookie]

Cahoots - isn't that a jail?

Just remember you are Denver - we are Lincoln - Mars and Venus.

And.....the Mookie is ever so patient [#dots]

[C=:-)]

[locomutt]

Carl,

You and family have a 'SAFE' trip!

p.s. shoot some great pictures!

Walt

[Modelcar]

...Some years ago traveling west on I believe it was I-80 and starting out from Detroit with an engineering group on a test run...we headed west. Out into the wide open spaces an what looked like the landscape was pretty much flat. As we racked up the miles I noticed [mostly on RR Depot's in small towns we stopped at], the elevation readings...and each one would be a few feet higher in elevation....all the way until we attained the Rocky Mountains and then of course it really goes up. I just enjoyed seeing those ele. readings as we progressed west. Elevation max we gained was up on Burthhood [sp..?], Pass at about 13,000 ft. So....the auto trip west was enjoyable...even though we were "working"....and there sure is a lot of open spaces out through the middle part of our country to enjoy....*Jen, I believe that means we passed through or near Lincoln....Don't remember any specifics of that...Time frame was back in 1964. So Carl, enjoy the western trip....I did under the above circumstances. Did other trips later further south and heading west.

[tree68]

Boy, when I first saw the subject of the thread, I thought we were losing another valued member of the group.[V] Instead he's headed for a vacation! [8D] Nothing wrong with that!

Have a great trip!

[cherokee woman]

Carl,

What's a vacation?! Hope you and Mrs. Shaver have a very enjoyable vacation.

As Walt said in his post, have a safe trip, and come home safely. And while you
see your adopted sister, maybe you can convince her to get a home computer so
we can hear her good sense on weekends!

[Anonymous]

I hope you have a great trip!!!!!! We'll be waiting for you to come back and tell us about it.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

...Some years ago traveling west on I believe it was I-80 and starting out from Detroit with an engineering group on a test run...we headed west. Out into the wide open spaces an what looked like the landscape was pretty much flat. As we racked up the miles I noticed [mostly on RR Depot's in small towns we stopped at], the elevation readings...and each one would be a few feet higher in elevation....all the way until we attained the Rocky Mountains and then of course it really goes up. I just enjoyed seeing those ele. readings as we progressed west. Elevation max we gained was up on Burthhold [sp..?], Pass at about 13,000 ft. So....the auto trip west was enjoyable...even though we were "working"....and there sure is a lot of open spaces out through the middle part of our country to enjoy....*Jen, I believe that means we passed through or near Lincoln....Don't remember any specifics of that...Time frame was back in 1964. So Carl, enjoy the western trip....I did under the above circumstances. Did other trips later further south and heading west.

Q - elevation of Lincoln is 1100 feet. - That's why Mudchicken should run downhill to see me - don't want to exhaust myself! [8D]

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cherokee woman

Carl,

What's a vacation?! Hope you and Mrs. Shaver have a very enjoyable vacation.

As Walt said in his post, have a safe trip, and come home safely. And while you
see your adopted sister, maybe you can convince her to get a home computer so
we can hear her good sense on weekends!

Mrs Mutt - that ain't a gonna happen!

Besides - remember that I don't exist......[}:)]

[cherokee woman]

Of course you exist Mookie!! How could we be talking here on the forum if you didn't?

[#oops] I FORGOT IT WAS A SECRET GOVERNMENT PROJECT[}:)][:0]

Mrs. Mutt

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

QUOTE: Originally posted by cherokee woman

Carl,

What's a vacation?! Hope you and Mrs. Shaver have a very enjoyable vacation.

As Walt said in his post, have a safe trip, and come home safely. And while you
see your adopted sister, maybe you can convince her to get a home computer so
we can hear her good sense on weekends!

Mrs Mutt - that ain't a gonna happen!

Besides - remember that I don't exist......[}:)]

[:0] Oh, No! First Santa, then the Easter Bunny, now MOOKIE! [:0]

I am reminded of the commercial for a well known candy that shows around Christmas time, where two well known icons (a piece of candy and Santa) both pass out after uttering "They do exist..."

Chocolate cake anyone?

[Modelcar]

....Jen, here in Muncie we're at 937' elevation so there really is a bunch of flat open country from here to your Lincoln home site....So that really is just a gentle slight upgrade from here to there. No wonder between here and there it looks flat. I'd say it is about roughly 550 miles distant.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

....Jen, here in Muncie we're at 937' elevation so there really is a bunch of flat open country from here to your Lincoln home site....So that really is just a gentle slight upgrade from here to there. No wonder between here and there it looks flat. I'd say it is about roughly 550 miles distant.

Didn't realize we were so flat east of us. Interesting.....

[Modelcar]

...Yes, it's rather flat in most of our territory and on east....and most of Ohio but with rolling hills and then West Virginia the hills continue and get bigger and then on into our home area of Pennsylvania we find the hills turn into the Allegheny mountains and in western Pennsylvania, our home land and our little home town is pretty high on the plateau in Somerset County at 2000' elevation. And that is 400 miles east of us here. And there is where I grew up watching the B&O and Pennsylvania R R's....Somewhat mountain railroading.

[JoeKoh]

Carl
have a safe trip.watch out for that wild cat in Lincoln.
stay safe
Joe

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JoeKoh

Carl
have a safe trip.watch out for that wild cat in Lincoln.
stay safe
Joe

Fowl !!!!!!!! Fowl !!!!!!!!!!!

[2c]

[JoeKoh]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

QUOTE: Originally posted by JoeKoh

Carl
have a safe trip.watch out for that wild cat in Lincoln.
stay safe
Joe

Fowl !!!!!!!! Fowl !!!!!!!!!!!

[2c]

My that desk got cleared in a hurry[:D]
stay safe
Joe

[Mookie]

Well, someone was besmirching the good name of Mookie -

and.....

got big drawers!

[zardoz]

FYI-

did you know.......
while ignoring variables such as local geographic and other microclimate effects,
that for every gain of 1000' in elevation, the climate changes roughly similar to travelling 100 miles further north.

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz

FYI-

did you know.......
while ignoring variables such as local geographic and other microclimate effects,
that for every gain of 1000' in elevation, the climate changes roughly similar to travelling 100 miles further north.

you are causing a furrow in the brow of the Mookie.....stop it!

[CShaveRR]

I have returned, to a sensible elevation of 600 feet or thereabouts.

The trip was extremely enjoyable. While we were in Lincoln, Ed and Jen took us out to dinner. Anyone who had doubts about Mook and me being sibs should have seen us order...Jen and I had identical meals, nothing like Driver and Rider. Yes, folks, she's for real!

Photographs: wish I could, but I'm not a picture-taker at all, and Mrs. Me managed to expose only one roll or so in eight days. We'll see what develops...

Had some good experiences on the trip...Jen hangs out at what has to be the hottest spot in Lincoln. Sometimes things don't make it all the way up to the reviewing stand (A.K.A. Millie), but those trains that go by on the other leg of the wye are only a short, legal walk away.

Traffic out west seems heavily prejudiced toward coal movement. You C&O fans, who have suffered through severe business declines, would feel right at home everywhere out there. Besides Lincoln, we watched UP action between Grand Island and Kearney, BNSF at Springfield (the only place I didn't see coal), and UP again at Kirkwood, Missouri (west of St. Louis). It didn't take long to see that UP really needs those three tracks west of Gibbon Junction!

Springfield, Missouri, has a public foot bridge over a BNSF yard just off Commercial Street. Of course, the horns were blowing along other lines while we were there; I haven't quite figured out that town yet (as was the case in Lincoln, a local guide--my cousin this time--was chauffeuring us, so cutting to the chase wasn't prudent).

While in the vicinity of Kirkwood, we paid a visit to the National Museum of Transportation, where Mrs. Me got to see why Jen likes Big Boys. The trip there would have lasted much longer if we'd brought umbrellas. Kirkwood, in the block by the station, has to be about the most amenable place around to watch trains...parks, restaurants, treats, a hobby shop--you've even got Amtrak service there. It's the summit of a grade in both directions, so you can hear the trains really working to get to you.

UP isn't the only one having problems keeping trains moving: we saw trains stacked up on CSX between Danville and Watseka (including an engineless cut of coal gons blocking a grade crossing in single-track territory!), and on CN (IC) in and just north of Gilman.

Ames, Iowa, and Kearney, Nebraska, both have horns at the grade crossings so the trains themselves don't have to whistle through town. They seem to perform as advertised...plenty loud along the street for which they're intended, and you can't hear the next one a block or so away. But they need higher fidelity in the speakers, and a variable-length circuit...hearing that static repeat the crossing whistle up to four times before the train makes it to the crossing grates on one after a while.

On a short turn through downtown Omaha, we got to see the new building in the direction of which we all bow before beginning our work-days, starting in May. And if you need a dose of UP propaganda, the new UP museum at Council Bluffs is just the place. A railroader's eyes tend to roll through much of the presentation, but the cab rides--in spite of the film being speeded up somewhat--are neat.

We covered well over 2,000 miles in eight days, and it wasn't all railroad-related...there were two of us along for the ride. Both of us have a lot to do as a result of the things we saw (and bought) on this trip, and I can't begin to express my thanks to my little sister for showing us the basics of navigating around Lincoln.

Hey, Sis...what do you think of the idea of stuffing a Runza with chicken instead of beef?

[Mookie]

BC - what a neat idea - just can't seem to find the chicken! He seems to be molting somewhere and in hiding!

Had a phone call from someone in Georgia that said they wish I would send Runzas to them! If you are German or Cech - you know what they are - cabbage and hamburger baked inside an enclosed elongated bun. Delicious!

Moo

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

BC - what a neat idea - just can't seem to find the chicken! He seems to be molting somewhere and in hiding!

Had a phone call from someone in Georgia that said they wish I would send Runzas to them! If you are German or Cech - you know what they are - cabbage and hamburger baked inside an enclosed elongated bun. Delicious!

Moo

I'd prefer a full sized "A" instead of the runts.

Sounds like a Czech eggroll or a meat and cabbage collache