life in the old lane

Since I am not going on a plane – I put a pocket knife, can opener, fork and spoon in the kit. I have come to accept that train travel in North American (outside the DC-NY-Boston and Toronto-Montreal routes) is not really “transportation”. It is “entertainment”. The train that I’ll be taking to Glacier Park and Seattle is running 28 hours and 35 minutes late today. It is actually yesterday’s train. Today train is only 11 hours late. The train I am taking to Chicago ran almost 4 hours late today. Every empty corner in my backpack is filled with granola bars and almonds.

The hits just keep coming. This from the NPS Glacier Park web page.

Weather – Flash Flood Watch
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for Glacier National Park on Friday, July 20 from noon to midnight. Heavy rain, lightning, hail, and winds up to 60 miles per hour may occur. Rainfall up to 2 inches per hour is forecasted.

This is about as good as the iPod camera can do. I think I could knock some of the pinkness out with some post processing. And, I tried the movie feature. I don’t really like or do movies. But, the movies are no better or worse than the stills.

I am so not ready to go. Maybe there isn’t that much to do to get ready. How hard is it to ride a train (and one MegaBus) for 3 weeks?

Trying the camera out in ideal conditions. Now can I get another image in?

More testing.

Last one.

So, what did I learned from this? The iPod has a very lame camera. Post processing doesn’t help. It seems to hurt. Bright days help. Close up is a bad idea. I have a couple more days to experiment.

The camera is pretty shabby. As promised. But everything else is pretty cool. I traded in the old one. They “gave” me $40. Told Carlton it was like a buying a new car, nevermind that the old car stills runs OK… Spending all afternoon getting it setup.

OK, got all the tunes together. My GNATT play list. I selected what I had or what I liked best not necessarily the “definitive version” of the various songs.

Name	Artist	Album
Big Railroad Blues	Grateful Dead	Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) [Remastered]
Blue Train (Re-Recorded)	Johnny Cash	20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: Best of Johnny Cash
Casey Jones	Grateful Dead	Workingman’s Dead
Choo Choo Ch’Boogie	B.B. King	Let the Good Times Roll: the Music of Louis Jordan
City of New Orleans	Willie Nelson	The Essential Willie Nelson
Downbound Train	Bruce Springsteen	Born In The U.S.A.
Downbound Train	Chuck Berry	Chuck Berry: The Anthology
Engine One-Forty-Three	Johnny Cash	The Unbroken Circle
Farmer-Labor Train	Woody Guthrie	Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944-1949
Folsom Prison Blues (Live)	Johnny Cash	At Folsom Prison (Live)
Freight Train	Elizabeth Cotten	Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes
Freight Train Blues	Bob Dylan	Bob Dylan
Glorybound Train	Porter Wagoner	Gospel 2006
Hard Traveling	Woody Guthrie	Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944-1949
Hey Porter	Johnny Cash	Now Here’s Johnny Cash
Homeward Bound	Simon & Garfunkel	The Best of Simon & Garfunkel
How Long Blues	Eric Clapton	From The Cradle
I Heard That Lonesome Whistle	Johnny Cash	With His Hot and Blue Guitar
I Know You Rider (Live In Paris)	Grateful Dead	Europe ’72 (Live) [Remastered]
I’m Movin On (Rerecording)	Ike & Tina Turner	Movin’ On
Jukebox Cannonball	Bill Haley & The Comets	111 Rock ‘n’ Roll Superhits (The Ultimate Compilation)
Kaaahi Kahului (Vocal)	Garrett Probst, George Kahumoku, Jr., Keoki Kahumoku & Peter deAquino	Legends of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar (Live from Maui)
The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore	June Carter Cash	Press On
Let It Rock	Chuck Berry	The Definitive Collection
Long Train Runnin’	The Doobie Brothers	The Very Best of The Doobie Brothers
Long Ways to Travel	Woody Guthrie	Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944-1949
Louisiana 1927 (Album)	Aaron Neville	The Very Best of Aaron Neville
Midnight Train to Georgia	Gladys Knight & The Pips	Platinum & Gold Collection
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (Live)	Joan Baez	Joan Baez: The Complete A&M Recordings
Railroad Blues	Woody Guthrie	The Asch Recordings, Vol. 1-4
Railroad Lady	Jimmy Buffett	A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean
Seattle to Chicago	Woody Guthrie	Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944-1949
This train don’t stop here anymore	Elton John	Songs from the West Coast
Train Ride Medley (part 1): I Ride an Old Paint / Ride Around, Little Dogies / Bed on the Floor / Chicago, Chicago	Woody Guthrie	Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944-1949
Train Ride Medley (part 2): New York City / Baltimore to Washington / Delaware Gap / Lynchburg Town / Blue Eyes / The Girl I Left in Sunny T	Woody Guthrie	Long Ways to Travel: The Unreleased Folkways Masters, 1944-1949
500 Miles	Peter, Paul & Mary	The Very Best of Peter, Paul and Mary

Everyone in the entire country has heard of Washington DC’s former mayor, Marion Barry. He will be forever remembered by the famous line “The bitch set me up”. (Aside: Carlton has played tennis with Mayor Barry. Not recently – but about 10 years ago.) He was mayor for about 16 years. You name it – he had it – as far as scandal and controversy went. He is still on the city council and regularly has little – shall we say “issues”. Nevertheless he remains a man of enormous popularity and no little influence. Especially among the voters in DC Ward 8

Few outside of the beltway will have heard of the current DC mayor, Vincent Gray. He is perhaps a far sleazier mayor than crack toking Marion ever was. And, Mayor Gray is totally without charm, charisma, or good cheer. And did I mention, he looks like a silent film era vampire?

Lionel Batiste died the other day. I took this picture of him leaning on a wall outside a saloon in Lowell Mass. Treme was playing in all the bars for brews.

Booked my backup train tickets to Chicago. The route I was going to take is still not in service. I can cancel them for $15. I am thinking of this as “trip insurance”.

Also, booked another bus tour in Glacier and checked out my Harley tour in Jasper.

 

This is all the evidence we need to prove that Sam and Carlton don’t have much DNA in common! IF I had a night stand… it would look more like Sam’s.

92° right now. And it isn’t 10AM yet. “They” say thunderstorms are going to happen this afternoon and it will not be hotter than 96°. We’ll see.

Chicken, tomatoes, zucchini, miniature corn in crockpot. Power better stay on until it gets cooked. But wait, I forget we have a gas stove. If we have matches – I could finish it on the stove. Still have a bathtub full of water. Will keep it full as long as the temps get over 95°.

It might have been hotter – but I was napping. Napping inside. In the A/C.

Did I mention that the train (The Cardinal) that I am supposed to take to Chicago hasn’t run since last Friday – and that train got stuck for 20 hours in the wilds of West Virginia. And, that on at least 2 days last week the train (The Empire Builder) that I am taking to Glacier Park and on to Seattle go stuck somewhere along the way and either failed to run or arrived 10 or 12 hours late???

I can not think of anything to do about the train to Glacier Park from Chicago or onward to Seattle. But, I can buy a ticket on another train to Chicago. And cancel it if The Cardinal gets going again. Also, I will research a couple of Plan B alternatives for The Empire Builder. There is no alternative train.

Nuked a couple of chicken breasts at noon. Made them into chicken sandwiches. With big slices of fresh tomato (finally) and a nice salad with Gorgonzola cheese and spicy pecans.  Don’t want to heat things up anymore.

 

 

By dawn’s early light those of us who live along the Metro line in Arlington discovered that our necessities were without power.

We are very lucky. We lost phone service and DSL internet. Cell phone has been iffy. Our building has (so far) maintained power. But, our neighbor buildings are still without power. We have Carlton’s bathtub filled up with water – just in case. My DSL came back at about 3PM but we still have no phone.