Punta Gorda and Marathon

We have made our way south through Punta Gorda to Marathon Key. We happenend upon a reconstructed Nina and Pinta at the Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda. We have parked Scarlett in a wonderful spot next to the sea wall at the Jolly Roger Campground in Grassy Key (just up the road from Marathon). We are on the Gulf side so we get terrific sunsets and fabulous weather high 75 low 68:) See you in February:)

Christmas In Huntsville

We had a wonderful time in Huntsville. Three solid days of feasting and gifting. The kids got a Thomas the Tank expansion set from us (a train of course:)

And there were trees!

The railroad had a NMRA Potomac Division open house in December and I built about 350 trees for the occasion. The railroad promptly swallowed them up and it looks like I will need about twice that again before its done:)

Epitome of Craftsmanship

Now this is how it really looks. This is a corner structure designed to cover a hole in the backdrop. Nice work, huh? Y'all have to wait until Strasburg is finished to see the front view - oh I see, you thought this WAS the front view:)

Moorefield rises from the plywood!

Construction at Moorefield has reached a milestone! The plywood has vanished and the town has been reborn. This major grain center is pivotal to the the agricultural traffic on the A&S Railroad and at 35' is one of the longest town on the railroad. The construction now moves to the unfinished end of Strasburg.

Citizens celebrate! Schmidt's ships first of fall batch!

Schmidt's new home has completed brewing the inaugural batch of their valley wide famous Sasparilla. The Petersburg Tribune reports the delicious root beer is so good that moonshine stills are actually closing early this year.

Dry Fork returns to normal

Dry Fork's trauma has ended with everything returned to its proper location. The sleepy burg has gone back to business as usual.

Blue Angels Buzz Lusby

The Blue Angels gave us quite a show and we didn't even have to leave the house:) The Patuxant Naval Air Station had and air show on Labor Day weekend and we live just over the river from them so some of their antics were visible in our back yard.

Splinch uproots Dry Fork, Baker inundated, local wizard sought for questioning!!!

Dry Fork seriously disrupted as a teleportation splinch transported structures across valley as far as Baker. Officials suspect a splinch occurred during a teleportation attempt resulting in the mess. Local wizards sought for information about the mistake and assistance in finding a soloution. Grand Master Wizard Robertczy is optimistic that a quick solution will be found:)

Pylwood Banishmnet Continues at Baker

Progress is made at mountain pass village of Baker. Plwood rollback project gathers steam as momentum is gained for future work at Dry Fork and Moorefield later this summer. Citizens of the region have been enduring the plywood menace for over eight years and are thankful for relief.

Citizens of Parsons Rejoice!

Dreaded plywood curse banished!
Congrats to superintendent Reid and his crew of hundreds of loyal workers. The plywood environs that has dominated Parsons' vistas has been lifted and the town has returned to normal. Good times are here again and a gala has been scheduled for tomorrow at Roy's to celebrate the glorious event!

Back to the Railroad

This is the finished version of a building I started on the trip. Charlie Kilbourne is a member of our SMOG operations group and has a large layout modeling the trip from Baltimore to Cumberland. This one's for him.

Pete and Mary Thank you and Celts galore!!!

Thanks very much to our neighbors Pete and Mary who looked after our place while we were away and we kind enough to collect the tons and tons of mail we get. The post office will only allow you to stop the mail for 30 days without changing your address. Not good.
We got back just in time to go to the Celtic Festival in Calvert County. Hundreds and hundreds of participants and many thousands of spectators. This photo of the marching band doesn't do them justice. They had five times the number of members than could fit into this photo. That's their leader in red. The solo shot of the green clad bagpiper is a member of the Devil's Tailor, a wonderful Celtic performing group.

Our Prayers Were Answered

This is the same tower we saw on our way west 2 years ago. Its still standing!!! I expected a pile of rusted metal or worse, a vacant lot:)

Trains on the high prarie

Patti caught these shots while we were zipping along Rt 40 in New Mexico and Arizona.