Wednesday, December 26, 2007


For Christmas this year we had an open house/games night on Dec 22nd. We made this Gingerbread Train as the first 'game'. Melissa and Kris helped us out. It was a lot of fun, but the train kept wanting to fall over.

For Christmas Day we had Julia and Brad (her boyfriend) over, then we all went to Jon's grandparents place for the big family visit and dinner.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and may 2008 be the best year yet!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Chasing 2816






On October 20th Jon and I chased 2816. What is 2816, you ask? It's a beautiful Steam engine. Jon took the majority of the photos while I drove. We managed to catch the train in about 16 spots. More than anyone else. We had friends riding the train as well. We made friends along the way as well. The railroad community is great! The train went from Calgary to just past Okotoks and back. We had a lot of fun, we just wished there was time to pee and eat lunch.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Trip to Oregon



We headed out from Calgary Thurday (September 13, 2007) morning to Cranbrook, BC stopping in Invermere, BC for lunch at the Station Restaurant. In Cranbrook we toured the Railway Museum, went for dinner, then walked around the Museum site and checked out the train yard. At the train yard there was a train getting ready to leave. It arrived when we were looking through the rail cars at the Museum.




Friday morning took us down through the border to Spokane, Washington where we had lunch at Carl's Jr and then went to Sunset Junction, Murray's favorite Hobby shop. They even remembered him there. After spending only $75.00 we then headed out to LaGrand, Oregon where we filled the car up with fuel for the first time on the trip at 1152.3 KM on the trip meter. I love our VW Gold TDI. We checked into our hotel and then drove to Elgin to see exactly where it was and to talk to a couple of the locals about the RDC (Rail Diesel Car) that we were going to be riding on the next day. On our way back to our hotel and to grab something to eat there was a wonderful sunset. We ate at Quizno's and stopped at Safeway for snacks for the trip the next day.


Saturday morning, up early to get ready. Breakfast didn't start until 7am, so we got packed up so that all we had to do was eat, brush our teeth and check out. We headed to Elgin, Oregon which was about a half hour drive from LaGrand to board our train. When we arrived an alarm on the train was going off. It sounded like the horn was stuck in the on position. It took almost an hour to turn it off. They couldn't get the engines on the one car to start, so instead of being self-propeled rail cars, they were pulled by a GP-7 Engine instead. It took some of the romanticism away from the trip.





We boarded the train and there were only about 43 people on board the two cars, which meant almost everyone got to sit on the side they wanted with a view of the river. We stopped several times for photo run-by's and static shots. The train was moving at approximately 10 miles per hour. The views were beautiful, but somewhat obstructed by the forest fire smoke that had blown in from Montana. They provided us a box lunch as well as a continential breakfast of sorts and various other goodies along the way. If you were hungry you ate, if you were thirsty you drank. With the issuses of the cars not running on their own power you couldn't use the washrooms on the car we were on, so you had to go into the other car to use the facilities.





We got into Joseph, Oregon arouund 4:15pm and took a quick bus tour of the town. They are know for their bronze statues. Then off on the highway back to Elgin. We arrived in Elgin around 6pm and then promptly headed out on a scenic route towards Spokane. We stayed on the scenic route until the sun set, which doesn't take long around there, and then got onto the freeway North to Spokane. We passed this one area that had a pulp and paper mill, or at least that's what it smelled like, then immediately after that there was a sour milk smell followed by a poopy smell. Needless to say we plugged our noses for that section of the trip. It sure woke us up in a hurry. We got into Spokane around 10:30pm and checked into our hotel and went to sleep.



Sunday morning we got up later than usual, around 8am and headed down to breakfast. They had a continental breakfast which included Waffles! We were on the road by 9am heading for Cranbrook through CourD'Lane. After stopping in Cranbrook for a bite to eat and some rail-fanning we headed out towards the Crowsnest Pass. As we were going through the town of Crowsnest Pass our friend Doug S. passed us, so we kept up with him until Blaremore where he pulled over to get gas. We followed him into the parking lot and his wife was suprised to see us. He was heading to Waterton for a couple of days. We headed out with out them and stopped a couple of more times for railfanning then at Lundbrek falls to enjoy the views and hope a train would come by. Just as the sun was setting we headed back out on the road again up 2A to Black Diamond, Okotoks and then into Calgary. We arrived home around 10:30pm. I unpacked the car and when to bed. That's a long day on the road.




Now it's back to work until Thursday. Friday we head out on our next adventure to Edmonton for the Greater Edmonton Train Show.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Last Morning at Cottage

A few last images the morning before we left on our trip to Sudbury.




Last night of Fishing

Again we didn't catch much except for all of these wonderful photos. Jon joined us this time and caught a rock bass himself.





Warm enough to Swim... Finally

There weren't too many days where it was warm enough to swim. I did get in the water more than Jon did, but this day we were both in at the same time!




Fishing Again

We tried a different area this time to see if there were any bigger fish at the other end of the lake, but there was only these two loons.




Accomodations & Ride

Here is a photo of our luxury accomodations and our rental car.

Rail Fanning

On Saturday we managed to sneak out in the early afternoon to Kinmount,ON to see their Model Railway Club and their setup. There was only two guys on duty. They were friendly as most in the hobby are. They Modeled the line from Kinmount to Haliburton.


Girls Day Out!

We stopped in Buckhorn on the way back to the Cottage and took a walk along the canal.



We enjoyed a Chinese Buffet at the Panda Restaurant and then headed to the Brew Kettle to bottle the Beer!




On Friday the 13th of July, The three of us Girls headed into Peterborough to run some errands. We saw this along the way.
Jesus is Alive!...

... So is Elvis!

Aparently these neighbours lived somewhere else and when one decided to move so did the other.