AAPRCO Trip - Day 6, Chattanooga, TN - Thursday, September 27

AAPRCO Trip-Day 6, Chattanooga, TN - Thursday, September 27

Bob Willetts, the door knob fairy, came to the Dearing early this morning.  Our door into the Deering from the Berlin first had no door knob and we put our fingers in the holes to open it.  Then we got a plastic electrical tie to pull on for a couple of days.  Having a knob this morning was really nice!  AAPRCO meetings started today.  Talked to Bob Owens from Omaha about his Suits Me car and his proposed facility to house cars.  Also, Mike Anderson from the Northern Sky who battled a flesh eating bacteria on his leg since February but is recovering.  Mark and Debbie and Rick and I walked over to the Urban Stack hamburger joint which served locally sourced foods-they had just started serving Lucky Bucket beer from LaVista, Nebraska.  I had a New Mexico Green Chili Burger and Rick a Hercules which was made with Lamb.  Debbie and I took the electric shuttle to the south side of the Tennessee River and then another one to the north side of the Tennessee River to go shopping.  Went to a tie dye place and couldn't find a single thing I wanted to buy.  There were a lot of little shops, used book store with funky art and jewelry, a hand crafted jewelry place with everything under lock and key with no prices, and a Go Fish store where I bought a bracelet for Lyn back at work.  Took a partial walk across the walkway across the river to take a picture, then caught the bus back.  I found my lost camera beside my bed - it had slipped down while I was taking a nap yesterday.  VERY glad to find it.  First car party was tonight starting with drinks on the Puget Sound and ending up with desserts on the City of Spokane. Talked to Dave and Judy Rohr from California.  She is a retired librarian - they just learned that they had a flood in their house but their daughter is home to deal with the damage.  They had just renovated their home this summer and they had a bathroom sink pipe break.  Came back to the Deering and they had a surprise birthday cake for Debbie's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Debbie!  She told a joke about where jewelry comes from.  Nelson reminded her of that line ---the one she always crosses!

AAPRCO Trip - Day 5, Ashville, NC to Chattanooga, TN- Sept. 26

Today the train started moving at 8:15.  They got the two sections put together and we spent a lot of time alongside the French Broad River.  At first it was so foggy you couldn't see anything - - -then that lifted.  The people sitting out on the platform first thing after breakfast were a little chilled when they came in.  The fog lifted and we went through some really pretty wet areas where all the trees and bushes were covered in kudzu, giving it a very rounded landscape look.  We went over or by water for the first half of the day.   Casey, the NS photographer got some shots of us near Knoxville. Right after lunch, when we were out on the platform, there were a few bumps.  The train had hit the front bumper of the "Caution Inc." truck that was installing a safety sign at the intersection and had parked too close to the track.  It took awhile for them to figure out what was going on - thankfully, no one was hurt - and we were able to proceed.  However, this did cause our car to have tipped glasses and wet bench seat again.  We ate supper on the car and looked around the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel grounds.  They have a lot of passenger cars outside they have divided into two rooms for rent. Rick and Mark helped get water on the car with hoses. The people who filled it this morning thought it was full but it wasn't. Barry and Kevin did dishes in the Berlin kitchenette today and Nelson and Borden were doing backed-up dishes tonight when we went to bed.

AAPRCO Trip-Day 4, Part 2- Spencer to Asheville, NC-Tuesday September 25th

Continued.....The Ashville Trolleys picked everyone up to go to Antler Village on the Biltmore Estate which had a few shops and places to blow your money.  They had a wine tasting room in the old dairy barn and a gift shop.  My favorite wine was Biltmore Pinot Noir. I bought myself a 25% off sun visor hat in the sports shop and when I showed my military ID got an additional 10% off - forgot mine at home.  We were then transported to the Biltmore house -largest private home in America with 240 rooms,  finished in 1895.  It is still owned by the family but they don't live there.  Very opulent.  You were not allowed to take pictures inside but one of the tour guides said I could take pictures out the window which I did.  We were then ushered to the courtyard where we had a cocktail 15 minutes.  Larry and Linda Milsow and their guest Sherry were dressed to fit into the 1890s. We then went into the refurbished horse barn to eat a wonderful supper.  Most of our group sat in a stock pen together.  The dessert table had hot apple cobbler and nutty balls for Nelson.  They were good!  We returned back to the Dearing lounge, where, once again, a good time was had by all.  They were talking about all the nick names the other cars had and decided with Bill's Red Oak Beer, that the Dearing should be called the Beering.  Oh, and the discussion of how big Mark's head was, how the Berlin's car had a long hose dragging on the ground, Nelson's stop at the Shimmeron,etc.  We found a few YouTube videos that had already been put up of the consist-one showing the Mayor waving on the back of the train.  We decided to go to bed when Barry fell asleep waiting for his bench seat bed to be vacated!

AAPRCO Trip-Day 4-Part 1- Spencer to Asheville, NC-Tuesday September 25th

We left the North Carolina Transportation Museum and headed through the Blue Ridge Mountains on a steep and hairpin curve route.  There were lots of trees on either side and with the train being 1/2 mile long it was hard to see too many cars ahead of where we were on the curves.  There was one section where I looked down and could see the track below us that we had just been on - and also one point where I could see the first part of the train climbing ahead of us.  Since this was pretty slow, there were lots of opportunities to be on the platform and I took a few pictures from the vestibule.  I took a video of Rick on the platform - asked him what he thought.  He said, 'Honey, it doesn't get any better than this!"  Stephen Little, the Mayor of Marion had spent the night on board, sleeping on the bench seat which bumped Barry the steward into Kevin's room with Rob, our train guy, and Kevin to the top bunk in the Chef John's quarters.  We saw Andrews Geyser down below us that he talked about last night at the Bar-B-Que.  He got the locals in his town and other towns to come down to the crossings to greet the train as it came through with signs and cheers!!  As we were getting set up in Asheville we had a few rough bumps and our bouquets went flying and we had a wet chair and wet bench seat.  We finally pulled into Asheville and they split the train into two sections. Continued......

AAPRCO Trip, Day 3 - Washington, DC to Spencer, North Carolina

I can't remember much about yesterday except for last night in the lounge of the Dearing.  We had 14-15 people there, some of Bill's Red Oak Beer, Nelson and Borden's prefondled nuts. Cathy taught Elizabeth how to loom a hat during the ride. We had our first sit-down dinner at the table of crab cakes  Debbie almost got Bill killed in her quest to get a bottle of Tangueray Gin....a car ran into the liquor store about 5 seconds after he walked out!  The evening was a racous and memorable good time that won't be forgotten any time soon.  Elizabeth said that this car is now the party car of AAPRCO- torch passed from Dean's Scottish Thistle!?!

We had a few segments of 40 mph so got to sit out on the platform.  Went through Greensboro and got some footage of that with Bill on the platform because that is his stomping ground.  Got to Spencer, NC and parked in front of the NC Transportation Museum.  The railroad shops used to be here and employed lots of people before it closed.   The big roundhouse where NS took a picture of their engines painted in the colors of the lines they acquired is located here and where they set up the banquet.  Banquet was bar-b-que with a red vinegar coleslaw and pretty garden flower bouquets which we were able to bring on board.  Author, lawyer, and mayor of Marion, NC Stephen R. Little was our speaker on the railroad tunnels built by the convicts and on Andrews Geyser.  He spent the night on board and will be riding through the tunnels with us.

AAPRCO Trip, Day 2 - Washington, DC

Started the day located on phantom stealth track 30 ( not marked in station) breakfast on the Dearing while trying to get set up on the wireless and this new blog.

Debbie and Mark Wolff arrived on Amtrak met by their son John, wife Kim and grand kids Mitchell, Lincoln and Nolan from Baltimore. It was their 12th anniversary and yesterday Mark's birthday. We all ate at the Dubliner in Washington DC near Union Station.

Rick and I walked down to the mall for day two of the National Book Festival saw Eric Weiner, John Lewis and Steve Inskeep. Walked back to our car reception with our hosts and the other guests on our car. Kevin Moore gave us the the car safety talk and we enjoyed good food, wine, and company

AAPRCO 2012 Trip - Day 1 - Washington, D.C.

Rick and I left Omaha early for a direct flight to Washington DC.  We arrived took the Metro to the Union Station, parked our baggage there and walked down to the Library of Congress National Book Festival which is this weekend.  We stopped at the Family Storytelling Stage to see The Not Ready for Naptime Players singing kids songs and R. L. Stine, author of the scary books for kids - the "Goosebumps" series.  He started publishing those in 1992-20 years!  He led the kids through a scary Halloween story.

We were able to get back to Union Station when the train arrived with our cars the Dearing and Berlin.  We were ushered by A. Thompson from Amtrak to our car.  The train then left the platform to go through the car wash, and to go through the inspection facility, which was a very, very long process.  By about midnight, they had us out of there moving about on the tracks to locate on the stealth #30 platform.  Other guests got off when we got on and were unable to get back aboard - they had to rent a room for the night.  Apparently they were moving us a lot last night but neither Rick or I realized it because we were fast asleep.

We have wonderful hosts: Borden Black, Nelson McGahee, Kevin Moore, Steward-Berry, and chef, John.