Newport

Our final New England stop is Newport Rhode Island. We went into the harbor-front on Tuesday and drove by the "Mansions" on Wednesday. This photo is of the inner harbor and shows the new cruise ship docking area to the rear on the main Providence channel. Tomorrow we're off to Princeton NJ for the Mideast Regional Model Railroad conference. So much fun, so little time:)

Martha's Vineyard

Next we're off to Cape Cod. A windy Saturday found us on the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. The island is much bigger than I thought. Six or seven small villages dot the landscape. The ferry dropped us at Oak Bluff, what appers to be the larger of the villages. This is the harbor front and shows some of the gingerbread houses the island is noted for. Sunday was a rest day. We found a sports bar and watched some the Pats game. For the first time I joined a fantasy football league this year. What a hoot. I'm hooked:) So far I lost the first game to an aptly named "Sharks" squad then won the next two in spite if losing Grant from GB and Bush from NO to injuries.

Newberryport

This is a quaint old town just over the bridge from Salisbury. A wonderful harbor and a pretty park that runs along it awaits the visitor that need respite from the busy main street area to the right of the harbor. This is a modern fishing boat. There are many in this area.

Boston

The next day we took the train from Newberryport to Boston. Then we took a sightseeing "trolley" of the city that included everything from the old ball park to Harvard U to the historic areas. The new bridge over the Cambridge river is spectacular.

Gloucester

Our next stop was Salisbury Beach. A nice spot nort of Boston that allowed us to travel to many tourist locations including this one. This is an old cargo ship converted to day sails for tourits.

Whale Tale

This is a "Right" whale. The distinguishing characteristic is that the right fluke is lower than the left while with the "Left" whale the opposite is true:)

Thar she blows!

This is the most endangered species of whale, only 350 exist. We saw about 13 of them. They seem to be making a recovery as the population has grown by 50 over the last five years. As the Right Whale they were hunted almost to extinction. They are large, slow, somewhat dim witted, contain a large supply of oil, and they float when killed. All of which contributed to their demise. Now, when spotted, boats must not approach closer than 500 yards and when they dive, boats must not move until they resurface to prevent injury from propellers. These surfaced right next to us, so we stopped until they departed. The light is Boon Island Lighthouse. the tallest in New England. The island is home to about 500 seals.

Kennebunkport harbor

We took a trip out to the ocean today. These shots are of the harbor at high tide. What a quaint little place. With 12' tides the already very narrow harbor almost disappears at low tide.
Bush's Navy
Bush owns the white boat with the triple 300 hp outboards. I'm told the secret service has trouble keeping up in the gray boats docked right behind Bush's. No wonder, they only have twin 275's on theirs.

The Map is BACK!!!!!

Cape Porpoise is beautiful. That's Goat Island Light. We met the lady who lives there in the summer. She kayaks to work every day. Obviously we did not kayak out to meet her. She served us breakfast at a wonderful little cafe near the point. Boy talk about low tide. Many boats go aground when the tide is out.
This is a new map that can be seen from both inside and out. Its also non stick so.... No more losing the map when the rig is sold:) As you can see, this one needs a lot more traveling before completion. The question is will I get this one done before my friends a Treasury get a clean opinion on the government wide report:) They'd better get moving as our plans are for Texas and Tahiti (by train from DC to San Diego and by boat via Hawaii ) in 2011 and another "great circle" trip in 2012. So the map just might fill up quick:)

Kennebunkport

Here is shot of the older George's modest digs here in Kennebunkport. This is just the tip of "Walker's Point". There is at least two to three times this overall distance on the point to the left of the house. But hey, you have to be able to put the tennis courts and secret service agents somewhere don't you? Downtown is a quaint little waterfront space loaded with restaurants. More on that later, we'll be here for a week. BTW the map is back!

Watkins Glenn

We went back for the 2010 version of the annual classic car race. Here is the start of one of the featured races and a shot of some of the cars trying to squeeze through turn one together.
The brewery is a model I built this summer for a friend in my operating group. He has roots in the Wisconsin area so a brewery theme on his railroad is a natural for him. This model is over five feet long and gives a major industrial flavor to this corner of the layout. I kitbashed it out of flour mill and icing platform kits together with quite a few feet of PVC tubing:) Schmidt is his last name so the signage was a no brainer. I built it to go on one wall but Ron decided to make an "L" out of it by moving one set of storage tanks to the end wall, a change that really improved the model.

Kewaunee, Wisconsin

A nice little town on Lake Micigan that used to have a lot of lake shipping but is now purely recreational. We were there for their annual Trout Festival where the highlight is a trout boil at the end of the day. (I assume trout boil is an acquired taste).

Milwaukee Railfanning

Some shots of the downtown Milwaukee freight yard, former Milwaukee Road, I think. Now shared by the local operator and the CN.

NMRA Layout visits

A wonderful club layout's 10' long station shed. Just part of a 4000 sq. ft. layout. The last three are from David Propp's N scale layout. A great job soon to be doubled in size!

National RR Musuem

Some great equipment. Eisenhower's command train, the aero bus train, and a really great old wooden tank car. The museum is in Green Bay. We stopped on our Milwaukee trip to the model RR conference. Just left in time to avoid all the bad weather in WI.

Williamsburg

As a shakedown for the new rig we stopped for a few days in the Williamsburg Pottery campground. We just returned from the historic area after a wonderful lunch at Berret's. Its right on the northwestern edge of the park near the trolley stop and the shopping district. We also went to the pottery factory and would up with a couple of Japanese pots for the yard.
The new rig is wonderful and we feel so spoiled Patti has dubbed it "The Mansion". (Not the one from the Addams family either:).

Bristol

We thought we might try to go to next spring's NASCAR race so we stopped here to check out the racetrack campgrounds. Its a fine line, close enough to the the track but FAR AWAY from the yahoos that drive through the campgounds blowing their horns at 1:00 AM. Bristol has thousands of campsites in what seems like dozens to campgrounds. We foud one we like just off to the far left of this photo of the rear of the track. Another beautiful day, lots of trees in bloom. Ain't spring grand!

Chickamagua

A beautiful spring day. Lots of blooms on the trees. We toured the battlefield of what was the last significant Confederate victory. And what a rout it was. The Union forces were surprised by Bragg who was thought to be retreating in disarray toward Atlanta when in fact he was ready to fight and just on the other side of a thick wood from the Union lines. He hit the left and then the center and then the right. He broke through at the center and rolled up Rosecrans toward the north. With Rosecrans disparately trying to retreat north toward Chattanooga, Longstreet, recently detached from Lee in Virginia, destroyed his right and center. A last ditch stand by Thomas at Snodgrass Hill saved the utter destruction of the Union army and permitted a hasty retreat. This shot of Longstreet's cannon is located where they were at the end of the fighting. The monument was erected by the people of Kentucky and commemorates their sons who fought and died in the two day battle. One side shows Kentucy's Union units and the other side their Confederate ones.

Fairwell to Little Rock and Birthday Boy

We finally got the new rig and we departed just in time to attend Patti's Grandson's second birthday party. The vegitarian is a beaver, or maybe a groundhog, or whatever. So now we start our second RV era. Bessy is gone but now there is Miss Scarlett. This one is just 3 feet longer that Bessy, but what a difference. A rear diesel and an air suspension makes Miss Scarlett float over the road and the quiet in the cab is deafaning. Miss Scarlett scratches all those little itches we had with Bessy and gets 30% better gas millage well... er... fuel mileage:)

Arkansas River

Downtown Little Rock boasts streetcars and turtles - probably of the snapping variety. The riverboat and railroad bridge add charm and a sense of history to the scene. The bridge ends just over the campground, the tracks on this side have been removed leaving just a stump where the right of way once was. Up river a mile or so is a working UP lift bridge so this one belonged to some long past fallen flag.

Huntsville space park

Beautiful downtown Huntsville complete with rockets and space shuttle. This facility is right next to the interstate and offers a wonderful view of the rockets as you enter town.