Hey everyone, I wrote the email for my friends and family and since that is how I have been treated here as well with all the recent crap I've gone through I thought I'd post it here as well.
Some times when life hits bottom things work out and a good friend who wouldn't take a dime for a very expensive train trip and a great wife can make you forget things for awhile. I am very thankful that my health held out through the weekend although I have been paying for it since (Hence the delay from not getting this out monday)
Sorry I am not in the shape to sort and resize some of this pics for the trains thread but if I get to feeling better I might petty soon
Here's the email:
This last weekend went great for once for us. Saturday saw us in Annapolis to see the Tony Stewart #20 car. Dawn had never seen a real sized race car before and was surprised at how small it was and how loud it was, after that we took a trip over to the old part of town and walked around, seeing the docks and boats and even going on base at the Naval Acadamy where we walked to the waters edge and went to the visitors center. We decided to wait until another time to take a tour or wander the campus and just rested inside for awhile. We saw amoung other thing's Alan Shepphard's space capsule and I was surprised how tiny it was.
After that I started getting goofy and we looked for a place to eat. The crowds down by the waterfront were making me feel closterphobic and I needed my meds but had to eat before I could take them. We found refuge in a quiet cool dark Irish bar up the hill, had a good lunch and I was feeling dogged out but happy. The biggest surprise was the tiny scale of everything, including the capitol of a state the size of Maryland.
Saturday afternoon saw us relaxing and napping in front of the Nationwide race.
Sunday saw me before first light in Union Station. My friend Greg called me friday night and invited me to go with him to ride a private railcar down to Newport News VA and back. We had a fun a fun relaxing ride down, spending most of the time riding on the open back deck at speeds of up to 79mph. It was refreshing and atsondingly loud. It's also amazing that something that big and heavy stays on the rails at those speeds with going over switches and other things. I know it happens every day but it was a different view and a reminder.
I have refound a respect for these large machines I have kind of forgotten the last couple of years.
Upon getting to Newport News we headed over to the Maritime Muesum which as far as we could see except for a duck pond was nowhere near water. We saw the arifacts that they raised from the USS MOnitos, a Mock up of the Virginia, the Battleflag from the CSS Alabama and a German Navy U-Boat Enigma machine. We also walked about the deck of the full scale mock up of the Monitor and we were both surprised at how big it was. We then saw the real turret itself sitting in dark water where it's being preserved and after a few seconds both got the willies, feeling like there was ghosts floating in the water, much the same as when Dawn and I saw the ghosts at Gettysburg.
They had a room full of ship models most of them 7-8 feet long that was mind blowing. Sadly by this point my hand was shaking from hunger and needing my meds (Yep, again) to get decent photos of the models.
We then found out that the cafeteria was closed on Sunday and both starving sat awaiting our taxi where we tried to come up with how many uses we could for the Baltimore version of booth. Laughing crazily we watched people walk a wide circle around us, you had to be there.
We then awaiting our train back at the station that didn't even have as much as a candy machine. As soon as out train pulled up to back into the station it got stabbed by a 150 car coal train that took it's time to get by. That is a common thing the frieght railroads do to Amtrack. The station agent was flipping out and was entertaining to watch in the meantime.
We boarded twenty minutes later and Greg and I did our best to wipe out the snacks laid out on a side table and then we made sure we were sitting at the dinner table as we headed north. We had a nice dinner and talked about a visit to China with the people sharing our table. Greg and I then retired to the back platform again to ride the rest of the way back watching the day turn into night.
It was a relaxing day that I really needed and I can't remember the last time a weekend went this well. After the train wreck that 2008 has been and even more the events in the last month, it was nice to not think about them for a few hours and just escape with the sound of crashing rails and wind and just watching the scenery go by as the day turned into night.
Dawn also enjoyed having a day to herself for a change.
Up until today has been spent resting and recovering from the two good days and working on uploading the photos and video to my photobucket account. You can see them at:
cota1992/Perfect weekend - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Now it's time to start looking forward and dealing with life again.
I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well.
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