Spring Road Trip

Hi again! We're back from two weeks visiting our children and sharing in our son-in-law's graduation from law school. It was wonderful to see them and a fun trip! I have pictures, and I will share some of them in future posts. But today you only get one. It's not that great photographically, but it is very clear regarding subject matter: the weather was quite an adventure! Stay tuned for more...

Steam Train

I had an appointment today, so I drove into town. My route crosses a long bridge over a lake. As I came to the end of the crossing, I noticed a group of people with cameras standing together looking east toward the railroad bridge which is some distance away. I thought that they might be part of a photography class...

On the way home, I saw more people with cameras. They were scattered along the pedestrian bridge and again all looking toward the railroad bridge. I wondered some more about why, but it just was not a good place to stop.

I turned off the highway down a scenic road thinking I'd stop and take some pictures. This is one.

Where this road crosses the railroad tracks there were cars parked along both sides and more people with cameras. I decided to ask a question or two, so I pulled over and rolled down my window. "Excuse me, what's going on?" I asked.
"There's a steam train coming along, and everyone wants to take a picture of it." I was told.
"Oh, thanks!" I said, and I drove off.
After crossing the tracks, I turned down the road which parallels the railroad for a couple of miles; it was my regular way home. But I had my camera, and a steam train doesn't go by every day...I started looking for likely places to pull off, places that might give a good view of a passing train. I didn't want to go too far, because I knew that this road crossed another near a railroad crossing, and I expected I would find lots of people there. I didn't want a lot of people in my pictures.
I found a nice spot, pulled over a little, got out and waited. I actually could hear the steam whistle in the distance. My view was through a few yellowing birch trees looking down to the tracks. I thought it would do.
As I was waiting, some other people, but not too many, stopped nearby and found themselves vantage points. Two cars stopped and the drivers asked me what was going on. Waiting was kind of fun!
Then I heard the train in earnest, whistle blowing and the rumble of wheels. I aimed. It got louder and louder.

Then suddenly, there it was! I took a shot, hesitated a moment, then took several more as an Amtrak passenger train, complete with observation car at the end, sped by. Here is what I saw, straight from the camera. I hope you enjoy the sight!

 

 

 

 

 

To see more red things visit Work of the Poet, and for more water, click Watery Wednesday.

D is for Dirt!

Here, for ABC Wednesday, is Dirt! A species of dirt usually called sand...

In northern Idaho where I live, sand must be stockpiled for spreading on icy winter roads. That is what you see here. The machine operator starts at the bottom of the pile and pushes it higher, adding dump-truck loads each day until there is enough. I'm sorry there are no people or autos in this picture to give a sense of size, but the machine doing the pushing is about 12 feet tall. (I'm not up on metric measurements, but I believe 12 feet would be a little less than 4 meters.) This pile is not complete, but should be sometime soon.

Click here for more ABC Wednesday.