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 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 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.