Riggins with little brother Charlie and little sister Sadie.

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A Busman’s Holiday

Before I get to the subject of today’s title, I have been reading my Canadian friend’s blogs and notice that many are in sunny California enjoying the hot sun, As you all know this winter has been unusual in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast for nasty storms, since I drive a bus I am sometimes at the mercy of the weather and so far the last three trips I have taken I have run into snow which makes the going tough. Just so our Canadian friends don’t get homesick for winter weather here is a picture taken on my last trip to Iowa.

                     Bus in a snowstorm02-05-2010

Now as a lot of bloggers do, searching for subjects to carry them through the winter when they are stuck in, rather than out in the RV. I decided to share my Busman’s Holiday, last July I received a set of trip orders to Lansing Michigan for a three night trip for the American Association of Railroaders. Whoa being the railroad fanatic and model railroader that I am I immediately went to the computer to see if the group had a website, it did and I found out that the purpose of their trip was a gathering called Steamfest in Owasso Michigan, where 8 live steaming steam engines of the past where going to pull excursions and have a big train festival in the town.

I couldn’t believe my luck, talk about combining business with pleasure, it would be like a group chartering a bus and going to a big RV Show. Here are some pictures for any of you who share my love of railroads. Any for those that don’t I hope you won’t be bored silly.

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The above was the engine that pulled the excursion train I was on we were the second car back from the tender and with the windows open you should have heard the racket that engine was making, beautiful.

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The rear was from a Milwaukee Road Hiawatha Train, and this view was through the crew car at the back of the tender.

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The above is what is called a run by, where the train stops and everyone wanting to tale a picture gets off and then the train backs up and comes roaring by.

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The  above is a happy camper, yours truly having scored a free ticket for the above excursion, one of the perks of being the bus driver, you also get meals provided by the group, but I had to turn down the cocktail hour due to rules about alcohol consumption.

On the home front I got the grandson off to school, and now I have a vacuum cleaner to hopefully fix so I won’t have the expense of replacing it, Donna is at the truck company and then goes to the restaurant afterwards as it it one of her nights to work, talk about long days I know she is looking forward to retirement, although she really enjoys the people at the restaurant.

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