TGIF

Today started as usual coffee with Donna and then she was off to work, she will have another double today with going straight to the restaurant. Andy left about 06:00am and I was left to do some blogging and after that I decided to take a trip to the National Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood MO, Or THE TRAIN MUSEUM, as everyone calls it, I wanted to take some pictures on my new Canon and what better subjects for a train nut, than, are you still with me?, TRAINS...When I left home it was sunny and 80 in Dardenne Prairie, it is about a 20 minute drive south to Kirkwood MO. and as I pulled into the parking lot the sun went behind a cloud and that was it for sunny & 80, it became cloudy and muggy. OH well, just have to see how it shoots on a cloudy day. After 65 shots the rain started so that ended today's great adventure, The Train Museum is one of those great secrets of stuff close to home that you never tire of, If anyone else out there likes trains and cars and yes they even have a C-47 Transport plane in the entrance drive. This Museum has really a lot to offer and it probably has one of the larger collections of trains in one place. It was hard to decide what pictures to choose, but the first one I picked was for Donna up in Sandwich IL. it shows one of the original Burlington Zephyr Streamliners like the front of that Train Car Restaurant was trying to copy.

Maybe This went by your house years ago Donna.

This one has family ties, as my Grandfather was an E-L employee and may have run this in the 60's.

How about a Big Boy, Worlds Largest Steam Engine.
  U.P.R.R. also had the Worlds Largest Diesel.

                 First successful Freight Diesel.

B&O one of the first Passenger Diesels, before Streamlining.

Camera did good on this detail shot of a roller bearing.

A train trip anywhere beats a plane trip anytime.

Until recently the 1522 was used to pull excursions out of the St Louis Area.

                  N&W Articulated Steam Engine.
How about some cars, the theme for this display this year is Route 66, from the 50's.

                        57 Desoto, Fins anybody.


Nash ,no wonder nobody would let their daughters go out with you if you drove one of these.





                A Couple of Early RV's.

                Immaculate Int'l Harvester Pickup.

                          55 Chevy Nomad Wagon.

                   57 Chevy Bel Air Convertible.

Chrysler Gas Turbine. I Saw this as a kid at the Dodge Dealer. In the early 60's

Chrysler, Had a big flathead Spitfire Six to pull that trailer with, all of about 90 horsepower, must have been a real dog.

50's Chevy City Tractor with round front trailer, donated by local St Louis Trucking Company.
This is just a small sample of what they have on display, it is really worth a stop for an afternoon when you are in the St Louis area.
Now I think I will sit around and think about taking the trailer up to Fort Madison IA. to watch some real trains, maybe a couple days next week if I get the grass cut by Tuesday again.
Everyone have a great weekend. and be safe out there,Sam & Donna...

Thursday Thoughts.

Today is another hot one I got up to a nice sunny day so I decided to tackle a project that has been on my to do list for awhile , The main one was putting a storage box on the back of our rig. Since you can never have too much storage room and a 30 foot 5th wheel lacks a lot of space, I decided this would give us a place to store stuff that wasn't needed immediately inside the trailer. I had a nice heavy plastic pickup box and after taking some measurements and I decided since we never put four bikes on the bike rack, usually Adam's is the only one, I could mount the box on it, and still carry one bike. If the need arises to carry and more I can hang two from the ladder with a rack I had on my old trailer. So this morning I cleaned up the box and started looking at ways to mount it, I first thought of brackets under the rack and then drilling through the box and putting a plate at each hole to strengthen the plastic, I really didn't like the idea of holes since it is water tight and I wanted to keep it that way, then I saw some ratchet straps in my truck, and I though with these they will hold it securely and it will remain water tight, with no holes and then it also will be easily removable if I decide to take it off, It also is lockable. So that is the way it went. I will probably put two stick on reflectors on it later.

Ratchet Straps, like those used to tie down loads on trucks,they will hold quite a bit of weight.

After I was done with that I tackled a job I wanted to get done before the next time I put the Satellite dish up. I had bought a weather proof outside connector with a flap over it to mount to the out side of the trailer, I then put a connector on the wall inside the Entertainment Center inside the rig and ran a dedicated coax line to the new outside connector. This bypasses all the factory wiring and switches and amplifiers that hinder good Satellite reception. Since I had the box working in Indiana on the  just by running a cable through the window this will be a lot more permanent just hitch the dish to the outside of the trailer and turn the box on inside. Now for a trips to try everything out.

Oh I said I might make a homemade, last night and I did so I decided I would share a picture of it, This is for Nellie The Talian girl who is feeling ill. If a pizza and a couple of cold beers won't make you feel better nothing will.

Sam's Homemade Pizza,baked in a cookie sheet. Can't tell but it's a thick crust like out East..

Hey Rigg's wanted to show you what he get's when he's been good boy, Dad will give him a couple of fingers full of foam off the first can of Miller High Life.

      Boy is this good, no wonder Dad likes it.

Well that's about it if Adam was here I would suggest a swim, but I hate to go alone and Donna has the restaurant the next two nights so I will wait, Don't know if Adam will come over this weekend yet. If he does we will hit the Lake for some swimming. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Wednesday Doing's

Donna was up at 04:30am as usual I stayed in bed till 05:15am, Donna was off to the truck company and then after that to the Restaurant, back to the double shifts. I went to the store about 08:00am and then filled the can with gas for the tractor on the way home . After the groceries were put away I went out with John Deere to finish the back half acre that I left due to the heat yesterday. When I was done with that I went back over the  acre on the left side to try to mulch up some of the clippings, that were clumped up from yesterday, it looked better but still needs another pass, looks like I will have another day of cutting, once it gets ahead of you you never catch up. I was hoping my son would have taken the tractor out once while we were gone, but I forgot to say anything and it was about 8 inches tall when we got back, another couple of inches and I could have used a baler. I called it quits when the temp rose to 95, Donna said they were predicting a heat index of 105 so I said that's enough for me.

Hey here's a couple of vacation shot's of Adam petting the sharks at the Newport Aquarium. What a great thing for a kid, he said they feel a lot better than a slimy catfish.

Grandpa told him when we go to Disney World he is going to go to Shark Reef where you get right in the tank with the sharks and rays and swim with them, Grandpa & his Dad did it the last time we went, but Donna chickened out when she saw the sign that said the water temp was 50 degrees. you wear a wetsuit top and fins but your legs get a little cold.

Now the big question for the day is what will I make for a supper for one. So many choices, Maybe a homemade pizza, then you can always have the leftovers for lunch or a TV snack. Pizza & beer, Now that is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

I was glad to see all the favorable comments on our vacation, Thank you all for taking the time to comment, especially when we were limited the last few days to just a short time of wi-fi connection.

We really hope to meet all of you good folks who make this blog such an RV family thing. anyone crossing MO. on I-70 is welcome to contact us and Sam will arrange for a spot at the Lake campground as our guest, we can meet and have a few minutes of social time when Donna gets home from work. There is really a lot to see in the Metro St Louis area, you could spend several days and not see half of the sights.

That's about it for now,Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Tuesday Thoughts

We are back in the routine of things, up at 04:30am coffee, then Donna is out the door at 05:30am, Andy gets out of here at 06:00am and now it’s just Sam as Adam is gone too. This morning I took Donna’s car over to Auto Zone as her check engine light came on when she was on her way to work yesterday. She took my good truck to work this morning. My old boss Terry put the code reader on it and it came up as a number 5 cylinder misfire, I had him clear the code and put a bottle of injector cleaner in, I also bought one spark plug in case it came back on, then if it persist after the spark plug change I will have to change the wire and coil pack. I drove it home and it ran smooth and no light, so we will see, it was running fine before it sat a week, Plus the plugs were changed about 6 months ago, so time will tell.

I came back and about 10am I fired up John Deere and went out to cut grass, It had been two weeks since I cut it last and even with the extreme 90 degree plus hot spell they have had it was over six inches tall, I did about 3/4 of the 2 acres with two passes to cut down on the clumps, and will finish the back 1/4 acre in the morning as it got to be about 1:30PM and the temperature was in the 90’s and the sun was at it’s highest. and enough was enough.

Rigg’s wanted to show off a couple more pictures of the vacation.

I put my ball in Mom’s lap in she throws it to me.

                   This is how I sit for her.

                    Mom is watching TV, Me to.

Mom yelled at me for stealing and made me lay on the kitchen floor for time out.

Today Rigg’s got in trouble for stealing and Donna made him lay down on the kitchen floor for a time out, it is sure amazing how he stayed put until she said ok. I wish it would have been that easy with the kids, they would whine the whole time.

Only home two days and I am itching to hook up and take a road trip to Fort Madison for some more train time. That’s about it for today, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna…

Monday Musings

Got home at about 04:30PM yesterday, the vacation is over but Sam is already planning a trip back to Fort Madison to watch trains, We all slept like logs last night, Rigg's was asleep at Sam's feet as soon as he sat at the kitchen table for supper. Adam was played out also, He stayed the night and then after Grandpa did the laundry from the trip and packed his bags back up he took him to Warrenton MO. about noon, and dropped him off at his Mother's. Needless to say he is looking forward another road trip before school starts.

Donna was off at 05:30AM to the truck company and we got a note from our oldest son Sam Jr. who lives in New York City, His office faces the World Trade Center Site, By The grace of God he was across the river in New Jersey on business the morning of the attack, his office was damaged by debris and they were not allowed back into there office for over a month do to the damage and contamination from the collapse. He sent some pictures of the progress at the site from his office window, I will include his E-Mail as it explains the pictures.

To: Weibel, Donna
Subject: WTC Memorial and Freedom Tower Pics

Morning – haven’t sent you any pics on progress on the WTC site lately (mostly because I haven’t been in my office and traveling)  but here you can see they have the footprints for the WTC memorial in and a nice chunk of the freedom tower done (the picture with the red steel and world financial center in the background.  And last one is what's left of the Deutsche Bank building that they have to take down piece by piece because of all the toxic contamination that happened to it from the towers going down and water.

Hope all is well and you enjoyed your vacation!!

Love, Sam

We had a restless day back in 2001 because of the disruption of communications and phones, we did not hear that Sam was alright for almost 24 hours. He told his mother he still gets melancholy some days when he looks out the window and thinks of all the lives that were lost.

As you can see the Hudson River is in the background so he gets to watch the action on the river, Awhile back when the new Navy ship USS New York visited he sent a picture of it passing the window with all the Fire & Police boats spraying water and forming a an honor guard.

Today I had to flush the fresh water tank as we got some bad water Indiana, I filled it right before we left the campground and I noticed one of those big T handles that they use to shut off water in a hole at the end of the row, they must have repaired a leak because when we got to Ohio our fresh water tank was cloudy and had an odor so aside from toilet flushing we were all on bottled water, even Rigg's, Is that the life or what.

I also stopped at the RV dealer and picked up a shut off valve to install in the fresh water drain line, and a weatherproof TV Cable Inlet so I can run a Satellite cable directly from the side of the trailer to the cable box in the entertainment center so I can bypass all the factory wiring. This will give me a good signal without any interference from the antenna amplifier.

Before I forget, I want to welcome Amanda to our list of  followers, Sorry Amanda I don't know exactly when you joined, because of us being away on vacation I had to go to the Office parking lot to get our wi-fi signal so I didn't stay on line long. I hope that explains why a lot of comments didn't get posted and I am about 3 days behind on reading blogs. I apologize to anyone I missed on answering a comment to.

Hope everyone enjoyed our vacation through the blog as much as we did, It was just great to get away and see relatives we haven't seen for awhile and then still have a couple of hours to just sit and relax and talk in the evening at the campsite, with people we met and let the dog's play. Can't wait to do it again, and get on the road again. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Saturday Happenings

We were up at 05:30am, had our coffee, while Rigg’s and Adam slept in. About 07:00AM My niece Geae called and said to come on over for a nice country breakfast. so we headed over to their place which is about a 15 minute drive from the campground.

Breakfast at Patrick & Geae’s house ( Nephew & Niece).

                 A nice breakfast spread.

We spent the morning just chatting and relaxing and looking around their lovely home.

About Noon we bid our good byes with promises on sides of visit’s to come and headed back to Alum Creek. Since it was our last full day of vacation, Adam wanted to go to the swim beach so Grandpa and him went swimming for the rest of the afternoon, Donna relaxed with a book and Rigg’s napped while they were gone. After a nice spaghetti supper, Adam went with some friend’s from the campsite next door to the Nature Center and than to a kid’s movie at the outdoor movie amphitheater here at the campground. That was it for our final day.

We will be heading back to Dardenne Prairie, Sunday morning, it will be an all day drive. Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Alum Creek Doggie Park

Friday morning about 10am we jumped in the truck and headed off to the Alum Creek State Park Doggie Park.

The doggie park is divided into three sections, a small dog area, large dog area. and an aquatic area. Rigg’s went to the large dog area which is a huge field fenced, with shade tree’s and bench’s.

Rigg’s met plenty of new friends and did a lot of smelling,and got along with all the other dog’s.

Then it was off to the aquatic area, this we knew would Rigg’s favorite so we saved the best for last.

Rigg’s met a blonde he liked, the picture almost looks like Jodie & Coco his two Florida Lab friends.

Rigg’s cries like a baby when his Daddy leaves the trailer,he watches out every window till he see’s his Dad coming back.

Then as soon as Sam sits down Rigg’s is there to get his lovin.

The afternoon was spent at the beach where Grandpa & Adam spent better than 3 hours in the water, They both came back with wrinkles.

About 5PM our nephew Patrick came by and we went for a boat ride on his pontoon boat. That pretty much killed the day.

             Patrick & Rigg’s the lapdog.

So far it is an excellent vacation, aside from a couple quick showers, the weather has stayed good, we can only hope the last two days are as good. Be Safe out there. Sam & Donna.