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.

Arkansas River

We've traveled 1000 miles east to the home of Scarlet's birth, Little Rock Arkansas. We bought our new rig on the internet from a dealer here and picked it up almost exactly 1 year ago. We have a new map for the new rig. We visited 33 states this year in 4 separate trips including our inaugural trip from here one year ago. Not bad!!! We've pretty well exhausted our treasury so it may be a while before we add any new states. Plans for later this year are not yet firmed up but some short trips to the nearby Atlantic coast and the Blue Ridge are potential candidates. One trip is certain however. Next Christmas we head to Huntsville to see the grand-babies then on to Key West in January.

Aunt Fae

We had lunch with Aunt Fae and her niece and nephew in Albuquerque. Wonderful too see her looking so well. Patti had meat loaf, you'll have to trust me on this, its under there somewhere.