My niece and April’s granddaughter Stephanie and her husband Justin have started a YouTube Channel called Life with the Stinsons! It’s all about their life with my newest great-great niece Sophia. Check it out and subscribe!!!
I have a core group of about 4 railfan friends; Ryan, Dave, Bill and Bryan, that I hit the road with. This weekend was the first time since a steam train trip to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga back in 2017, that we all five have been on a trip together and we had a great time despite the overcast, dreary and raining weather.
On Saturday March, 9th, 2019 the five of us made a trip to Nashville, Tennessee to see the movement of the NC&StL Steam locomotive at Union Station in downtown Nashville, Tennessee as part of it’s movement by CSX Transportation with it’s renumbered CSXT 576 unit.
After several hours on display the locomotive was then towed on its own wheels to the restoration facility at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum, where it will undergo and estimated two years of restoration. The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company operated in the southern United States in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville in December 11, 1845, built to 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee. By the turn of the twentieth century, the NC&StL grew into one of the most important railway systems in the southern United States.
The plan is to run 576 in excursion service out of Nashville once the repairs are complete. Below is a live video I did from Union Station.
A few weeks ago Jim and I made a quick trip to Charlotte, NC to visit my daughter Jamie, to see her brand new house, and to meet my fifteenth great-grandchild, Sophia Madeline Stinson. This beautiful little girl was born on December 31st, just in time to be claimed on her parents 2018 income taxes. I wanted to go see her immediately, but Jim and I both were fighting an upper respiratory infection and didn’t want to endanger her with our hacking coughs which took several weeks to subside.
Although this used to be a trip we made several times a year, we hadn’t been to Charlotte for quite a while. These days, any out of town trip that can’t start after 5pm on Friday and end by a reasonable bedtime Saturday night requires a shuffling of schedules and duties. We are committed to providing shuttle service for five of our “littles” for school and afternoon activities during the week.
I take one or the other of the two youngest to preschool in the morning, Jim picks them up afterwards and takes them home. We alternate picking their older brother up from first grade at one school and two of their cousins from a different school. In addition, three of them have karate classes on Monday and Friday, two of them have ballet on Thursday, and the four oldest ones have choir practice at the church on Wednesdays.
On Sunday, we take six of them to church and also have responsibilities to fulfill there. We are both deacons and Jim is the videographer while I have other intermittent duties. Saturday is the only day we have free and, even then, we need to be home by 9pm or so because two of those littles usually spend the night to make Sunday mornings a little easier. This is our current retirement schedule and it limits our ability to travel most of the time.
The karate studio that the three oldest ones attend provides an afterschool program as well as martial arts training. They have a van that shuttles to most of the schools in the area and brings the afterschool kids to the dojo.
We arranged for our three to ride the van to class on Friday and their parents to pick them up when they were finished so that we could get started in the morning. Tracy, the mother of our preschoolers, volunteered to take her daughter, Journey, to school so that we could leave earlier.
Due to a lack of advance preparation, we didn’t make our planned 8am deadline. We finally got on the road around 10am. Jim prefers to do all the driving so I spent the trip reading, dozing, and occasionally playing navigator. When I’ve made this drive alone in the past, I filled up before leaving town, stocked up on snacks and a cooler of drinks, then drove straight through to Knoxville. I stop there for gas and a meal from someone’s drive thru. Then go straight through to Charlotte. As long as traffic kept moving, my normal routine was to leave town around 8am and arrive in Charlotte by 6pm (5pm our time).
That’s not Jim’s way. He waited to get gas at a truck stop on the way to Nashville where gas is a few cents cheaper. Then, since we got a late start, we stopped to eat just on the other side of Nashville. Jim usually doesn’t care to eat while driving, so we went in at an iHop. Jim doesn’t usually carry a cooler, so we stopped every few hours for drinks and snacks. Since we were running so late, we stopped to eat again at a Cracker Barrel near Asheville around 6pm. We finally arrived at our destination around 9pm. We all have preferences for traveling. Sometimes, it’s about arriving as soon as possible. Other times it’s about the trip itself. Normally, when we travel together, it’s mostly about the trip.
We always have a destination and a schedule, but it’s usually more relaxed and allows for stops or side trips. When I travel alone, it’s mostly about the destination. At least, we made it into the Smokies before dark which is always my goal because I love the mountains. We always take I40 from Nashville to I 77 in Statesville, NC. I love the stretch of road between Knoxville and Asheville. it’s like the earth rises up to wrap its arms around you and welcome you home. If we had more time, we would have stopped along the way to take photos. I took my camera with that in mind but, since we were running late, it stayed in the bag.
I’ve done turn around trips before when my grandchildren were younger and I’d go pick them up to come home with me for summer vacations. Drive for 8 hours, spend the night or may two, then drive home. I’ve done it alone, and with others. This was the first one in a long time. It felt rushed and didn’t allow us to spend the time we’d have liked to with them. I’d much rather have spent several days. But my current “job”, while I love it, doesn’t have much room for extended vacations.
This weekend my sister April and I made a quick trip to North Carolina to visit Sophia, my 15th great-great niece/nephew and her 15th great grandchild! It doesn’t seem possible that we have that many, but we are truly blessed beyond our belief that we do!
We have been meaning to make this trip ever since Sophia was born on New Year’s Eve, but we both have had this annoying cough that was going around and takes forever to get over! It took us both about 3 weeks or so! Didn’t want to give her or anyone else the cough!
We headed out on Friday morning, trying to keep ahead of the bad weather the forecasters said was coming our way and heading for the Carolina’s. Fortunately we were able to do just that going both ways, only running into a little rain on the return trip Sunday the 13th. The trip over took us about 10 hours with gas, food and photo stops occasionally along the way. Can’t make a trip without photo stops and of course this includes a train or two during the trip!
I guess we got checked into the hotel around 9pm or so and then headed on over to Jamie’s, Stephanie’s mom, and Sophia’s YaYa (YaYa is a popular Greek grandmother nickname and yes, I had to ask!) for our first visit with Stephanie and Justin’s daughter Sophia ! Of course neither of us were disappointed as she was awake, alert and beautiful!
We had a great visit Friday night and then headed back over Saturday morning to continue visiting her and everyone else. Since Jamie was hosting a Kitchen Party for a bunch of ladies, just about all the guys escaped to other locations and I used the opportunity to find a few trains to photograph in Monroe and at the I-485 metro stop!
I got back to the house just as the party was breaking up and had enough time to meet and greet some of the folks I met and saw at Stephanie and Justin’s wedding. It was nice to catch up! We all sat around and nibbled on the foods they made during the kitchen party before everything broke up.
Afterwards we headed out with Stephanie and Sophia to meet up with Justin for dinner before heading back to our motel for the night. Poor guy had to work during our visit! (I remember those days and don’t miss them!!) We actually went to three different restaurants (all had long waiting lists) before we settled on waiting at a Texas Roadhouse for about 20 minutes to get a table. It was well worth the wait though as all our food was great and we had a great time of visiting before heading in for the night as we planned on leaving for home early Sunday morning.
Sunday morning we got away early so I could stop by the train yard at Charlotte, NC from a bridge on the north end that Wally had told me about. It was a great view and I was able to get several nice shots of rail action before we hit the road back to Kentucky.
On the way home I kept watching for a spot where I could stop in the mountains and get a shot of the river as it ran through them. I passed up a couple spots because it was raining fairly hard, but finally found a spot at Cosby, TN.
All in all it was a good trip, despite it being too short and we finally arrived safely back home at a decent hour without any really bad weather!
Right now our next planned long trip is to Chicago for a concert in March! Stay tuned!!
Well, as we draw 2018 to a close I thought I’d do a bit of a look back and some of the events since our last post in July!
One of the biggest things was our trip to St. Louis, MO for the baptism of my great-great nephew and sis’s great-grandson Liam, the son of Katie and Colt. Yeah, I know most folks call Colt by his given name, Faron these days, but he’s always been Colt to me and old habits are hard to break!
We all had a great time and it was good to visit and catch-up with everyone!! We were able to visit the museum there and I even got to do a little railfanning, even though I only caught one train!!
Several of the kids participated in their very first parades this fall as well. Damion, Elaina, Jayden and Xaver all rode in a float during the Veterans Day Parade and also in the Christmas Parade! They all had a great time and can’t wait till next year!
Also, Sloane was baby Jesus this year at the Annual Return To Bethlehem presentation at the First Baptist Church, along with dad Seth and mom Melanie! Of course we all made the pilgrimage to Bethlehem to pay our respects!
On December 23 Elaina, Journey, Damion and Jayden were all in the Christmas Nativity Scene at church! The girls were both Angels and the boys were Shepherds! They all did a fantastic job!
To finish out the holiday season mostly everyone met over at Jeanne and David’s house for their annual Christmas party and a visit from jolly Saint Nick himself!
We’ll see what 2019 has in store for us!