Ridin' on The City of New Orleans

We had a great time on our very first train trip. It all went smoothly and I'm ready to share. Bear with me because between Bob
and I we made over 1300 pictures!

My brother, Richard is a huge train person. He has always loved them from the moment he was born. Growing up,the train track was literally right in front of our house. Mom said even when he was napping he would raise up (still asleep) and wave at the train as it went by. So this was the ultimate trip for Rich.


One good thing about a train, as opposed to an airplane, there are no
 inspections and they don't seem to mind how much
luggage you bring on board.

Our train arriving Jackson from New Orleans.

Here we are in our Roomettes. 

Richard didn't stop smiling the whole time.

 

In my picture you can see that the Roomette is just the size of a reclining chair. This folds down to become a bed and another bunk flips down from above. It is made for small, agile, very friendly people. 

Once on board, we made dinner reservations. All meals are included in the price of the roomette. After making our way through the passenger cars, we were pleasantly surprised at the dining car. Table cloths, a real menu and even wine. 

Shortly after we were served our salads, the train suddenly came to a halt and all the power went off. We sat a few minutes when one of the train workers came through the car with muddy gloves on. He said we had hit a five foot alligator which caused an air hose to disconnect! This was just north of Greenwood , Ms in the Delta. You can't make this stuff up!!

Then we were back on our way and finished our dinner of steak, baked potato and steamed veggies. Also there was dessert. 

After we returned to our car our attendant came and made our beds. Then we attempted to sleep. One negative about the sleeper cars is that they are either right behind the engine or are the last cars of the train. Ours was right behind the engine. I did not realize that they blow the horn so much. I guess there are so many crossroads that this is just constant. Also, Richard said that the engineer is required to do something every few minutes to be sure he stays awake. We definitely wouldn't want him to fall asleep but this assured us of not sleeping either! I think Rich and Barbara were able to get some sleep. 

Sunrise, near Effingham, Il.

Arriving Champagne, Il. Our first leg.

 

This was our first time to visit Charlie and Meg since they moved to Illinois. It was fun to have them show us the campus and all the sites. 

This was them in front of the YMCA on the campus. This is where  Meg works as Director of Communications.

It was a beautiful old building.

The English Dept where Charlie has his office and spends most of his time teaching and taking classes. 

 

Inside the Student Union. It also had an Apple Store!

The campus had many very, very old beautiful buildings.

Just being silly.

I have lots more to show you. So please bear with me!
 Thanks for visiting. Watch for more post of our trip!

Scenes from Andalusia

As most of you know, Bob and I grew up in Andalusia, Alabama. It was a Mayberry-like town, with fond memories of the people
and places of small-town life.


This home, Springdale, was built by the family that opened a shirt manufacturing company in town. The company was very successful for many years. It provided hundreds of jobs to local people. It was by far the major employer in the area. My mother worked there for over 25 years. It is a beautiful home and recently the town purchased it to be used for weddings and other events.

For memorial day, city hall was decorated with hundreds of flags.
It was especially captivating at night.
 

This building that is now city hall, was Bob's elementary school, East Three Notch. He lived just behind it on College Street, and has fond memories of playing on the play ground.

This is the square as seen from the court house. Andalusia is the county
 seat so the courthouse is a busy place in town.
 Bob shot these long exposures using a tripod.  

 

Covington County Court House

When we were growing up, the main street went straight through the square. Several years ago it was decided to restore the square to the way it once was, and make it more of a park-like atmosphere. You now circle the square as you drive through town, and the new area is in the center. They sold engraved memorial bricks to earn money for the project. We bought bricks honoring my parents and Bob's parents. Now it's a great spot to visit.

As you can see the original movie theatre is still there. In this photo we are sitting in front of the newest addition, a frozen yogurt shop. 

Growing up, going to the movie was a really big deal. Of course, at that time there was only one picture showing. Bob says they kept the same movie for two weeks! Now they have divided the building up into three theatres.  I call it the "Mystery Movie" because sometime they don't bother to put the movie titles on the marquee.... remember it's a small town. 

 

 This building, the Timmerman building, was the tallest building in town, and still is. As a child, I went to the eye-doctor and went with my aunt Hettie to get her hair done here. It was quite and adventure because it had an elevator! Now it seems to be completely empty. They tried to make apartments at one time, but that was unsuccessful.

I guess that's all of our tour for now. I hope you enjoyed seeing our hometown.

Back to the river. So nice at night. Very quiet.
Well, I guess that's about all of our last cabin adventure.
We are painting this Wednesday and on Friday we are doing a Lamp and File Drawer class. Watch for a new post!

It was not ALL work...........

This photo of the sunrise over the river was made by Bob at 5:30 am. If you know Bob this is incredible in itself ! I am so glad he did. These are just amazing. I would never, ever see this!

 

 

 

 

I have painted this small table numerous times. But I finally decided it would squeeze in beside the bed and make a nice addition. It is painted in Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Florence.

Matching lamp. I added burlap to the shade and some flowers. The hydrangeas were from Mom's house. I just love them.

 

Another paint project. This old metal recliner was in need of paint.  

I used Krylon Dual paint that has primer and paint. It did a great job!
Barbara plans to get a new cushion 'cause she's
 claimed this for her summer reading spot!

We also had some wonderful meals on the porch. 

 

One day during our down time we took a ride to Destin, Fl. It is only an hour and 18 minutes. When you first see that beautiful "Emerald" water it just takes your breath away.

We had a delicious seafood lunch at Pompano Joe's.

 

 

It made Bob happy.

 

Then, it was back to work! I just want to say Bob was such a good helper. 

We improved this area of the kitchen immensley.

 

 We enjoyed the boats and skiiers going by. Especially the one's like this that had tunes blasting! Our favorites were the pontoon and small run-a-bouts, these made us green with envy! We want a boat!!

  I still have more pictures to share. Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for visiting. I would love some comments. Click on Comments below to add yours!