AMTRAK to Miami

In order to get to my final destination of Key West, FL for Christmas Break, I decided to take the train. The general route was from Lincoln, NE to Chicago, IL, to Washington D.C. to Miami, FL. These are the pictures.

Eagles in Lincoln

Bald Eagle flying low in Lincoln, NE.

Building Grain Bins

I have been building Grain Bins this Summer.  Here are a few rough pictures of the process.

This is one we added a few rings too.

Here are pictures as it goes up...

Walks in Arthur

Here are a few old pictures I found on my camera of taking walks in Arthur, NE.

Lake Mac

Moonie and I stopped at the lake to take a walk when we went 'into town' to get a few thing.  The first picture is after she went to close to the edge of a floating piece of ice and went for a winter swim.  The next are of her rabbit.  I have only seen two rabbits in this part of the state, one of them is in the pictures.

Hawaii

The first day I felt guilty waking up to this.  By the second I had accepted it.  On the third, I thought I deserved it.

The actual 'Pineapple Express'

The Missouri (Big MO)

'Travels with Charley'

Before he died, Novelist John Steinbeck bought a Chevy Pickup and a truck camper and took 5 months to drive across America (in 1960).  Aside from a lot of great thoughts and observations, one stood out.  Steinbeck points out that traveling on the interstate gave him no knowledge of the country.  Just like the truck drivers, he knew little else except about the truck stops.  Driving on the interstate gave his mind overwhelming time to wander.  He instead chose to stay on secondary roads and avoid the 'great wide traffic slashes which promote the self by fostering daydreams'.  Have a day to kill over Thanksgiving break, Mooney and I took a 3 hour detour across Nebraska.  We kept to the highways and back roads.  I wouldn't have sold you on this so much if it were not true, Steinbeck has it right.  If you have the time, stop at the parks, Mom and Pop Restaurants, and shady looking bars.

That is a 'Hay Buster'.  If you know what it does, let me know.

My Great Grandpa has a flag pole dedicated to him on the Custer County Fair Grounds

ALL of the highways I took paralleled railroad tracks...I LOVE trains.

A rough estimate, 95% of the towns have a grain elevator/silo.

I won't touch the stuff, but Mooney loves McDonalds.

That is a big pile of corn.  Almost all elevators store some of the grain outside so they can manipulate the moisture by combining it with the dry stuff in the elevators/silos.

More corn.