That's awesome! I love to hunt but it's really strict as you know up here in New England. Maybe I should consider moving to New Hampshire... :)
Hi njoynlife I found this thread about your rails.
Maybe you can continue writing your adventures on the rails.
I know you are on the rails today, so I would like to read a story tomorrow. :-)
Maybe you can continue writing your adventures on the rails.
I know you are on the rails today, so I would like to read a story tomorrow. :-)
Oh boy, do I have a story for you!!!
Tuesday night I posted an email to the gang to see who wanted to go on Thursday. Right away I had affirmative answers from two of the guys. Wednesday I called to confirm and set up a meeting at the diner like we always do before going to the railhead. Then I called the others who are not so good about checking their email and the ones who don't use computers at all. We actually have some old farts around here who don't have computers and some whose wives do and they have to depend on her for computer stuff. Wed. evening one of my yeses turned into maybe but probably and one of my nos turned into a yes.
Thursday morning I was the only one who made it to the coffee shop. The maybe didn't show and the no who became a yes didn't show. I drove over to the railhead where the other yes was supposed to meet me and he was there. While we were getting on the rails the guy he called who said no, showed up with 4 riders with him. We all have two seat cars so that left one of us carrying an extra passenger who had to sit on the engine cover. That's not a problem as the cars can handle it OK but it's uncomfortable for someone ---- other than the driver.
We can go either East or West from the railhead but the problem with going East is the road in front was paved over the rails. It used to be about 2 inches above the rails which was not pleasant to have to get the cars over. Last year they repaved the road and our trailmaster had it arranged with the state highway boss that they were going to grind away the pavement and leave the rails exposed when they did the new paving. He was on vacation when the paving crews got there and the temporary ass in his chair wouldn't do it. So we ended up with about 6 inches of pavement covering the rails, which is a real SOB to get over.
Of course our sight seeing guests wanted to go that way, because that's the real scenic route, a causeway that crosses a lake, past a bunch of rich peoples summer camps that are nice to look at. Our lakes used to have camps that were not much bigger than a single room in a normal house, sitting on lots that were not much bigger than the camp. Just big enough to park your car and get your boat past it, to the water. A real fancy one might have sleeping space above the first floor, under the roof. In recent years most of those have been sold because the original owners can no longer afford the property taxes on them due to rich people from away coming here and being willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a $20,000 camp which pushed the property values way up beyond what the natives can afford.
They usually buy one or more camps in a row so they have room enough to build a million dollar year round mansion where two or three little seasonal camps used to be. The mansions are nice to look at but I have to feel sorry for the natives who are being driven from camps that have been in their family for a hundred years.
There are also quite a few grade crossings on that end where we have to stop and dig the gravel out of the flangeways so we can cross, and we were the first to ride that section this year so there was plenty of road sand from the winter to be dug out.
We also meet walkers and bicyclists who feel the trail belongs to them alone and we are invading THEIR trail. The truth is the trail wouldn't even be there if we and the snowmobilers had not petitioned the state highway department to let us use it after the railroad abandoned it years ago. We have a symbiotic relationship as they use it in the winter and we use it in the summer. Together we have maintained culverts that get washed out and bridges that need repair and keep the vegetation cleared. If it weren't for us doing that, the land would probably have been sold to abutting property owners years ago. It's only been in the past three years that the trails division of the highway department has added bicycling and walking surfaces to the old railbed. But the bicyclers and walkers feel it was built for them exclusively and most have no knowledge of the history of the trails, so some of them show us their displeasure when they meet us.
On the trip to the West the walking trail goes away and we have a more pleasant ride. This time we encountered a small tree that had blown down across the tracks which we cut up with my folding hand saw. A couple miles further we found a large tree that was about two feet in diameter, across the tracks. That took about an hour to hack and saw away. It's all Bush's fault!!! Well actually it's my wife's fault. As I was leaving in the morning I left my chainsaw at home because she said I wouldn't need it.
Ahhhh, but the chile at the diner at the end of the tracks was worth it though!!!!
Then I had to go to the annual stock holder meeting of the dragway that evening. Got home from that after midnight and had to have my car at the exhaust shop at 8:00 this morning to get the damage done by a chain shop's repair job last summer, repaired. When I had the AC refurbished two years ago they apparently backed it into a granite curb in their parking lot shoving one of the dual exhausts forward. This pushed in the front of the muffler and a year later it broke loose from the pipe. Of course this had to happen at the beginning of a holiday weekend when the exhaust shop was closed so I had to take it to the Munroe Muffler shop.
While the exhaust shop owner was fixing it this morning we discovered how bad those muffler shops really are. I had a "tick" in the exhaust that I thought was a crack in the manifold. He found it was from the pipe being loose where it bolts to the manifold. Apparently they loosened it to install the muffler last year and didn't tighten it up. The muffler was installed backward. I don't know exactly what this does but there must be a reason the manufacturer lables one end "inlet" and the other "outlet" when it lines up with the pipes either way. I also found a tear in my frame where it got hung up as they were backing it off the lift at the muffler shop last year. I remember hearing a clunk and seeing the car go forward for a minute then back again when I was in the waiting room. Apparently he didn't have the lift all they way down or something.
But anyway, I now have a great exhaust with two nice sounding mufflers and no leaks. And I'm tired enough to sleep through all the TV programs this evening.
Tuesday night I posted an email to the gang to see who wanted to go on Thursday. Right away I had affirmative answers from two of the guys. Wednesday I called to confirm and set up a meeting at the diner like we always do before going to the railhead. Then I called the others who are not so good about checking their email and the ones who don't use computers at all. We actually have some old farts around here who don't have computers and some whose wives do and they have to depend on her for computer stuff. Wed. evening one of my yeses turned into maybe but probably and one of my nos turned into a yes.
Thursday morning I was the only one who made it to the coffee shop. The maybe didn't show and the no who became a yes didn't show. I drove over to the railhead where the other yes was supposed to meet me and he was there. While we were getting on the rails the guy he called who said no, showed up with 4 riders with him. We all have two seat cars so that left one of us carrying an extra passenger who had to sit on the engine cover. That's not a problem as the cars can handle it OK but it's uncomfortable for someone ---- other than the driver.
We can go either East or West from the railhead but the problem with going East is the road in front was paved over the rails. It used to be about 2 inches above the rails which was not pleasant to have to get the cars over. Last year they repaved the road and our trailmaster had it arranged with the state highway boss that they were going to grind away the pavement and leave the rails exposed when they did the new paving. He was on vacation when the paving crews got there and the temporary ass in his chair wouldn't do it. So we ended up with about 6 inches of pavement covering the rails, which is a real SOB to get over.
Of course our sight seeing guests wanted to go that way, because that's the real scenic route, a causeway that crosses a lake, past a bunch of rich peoples summer camps that are nice to look at. Our lakes used to have camps that were not much bigger than a single room in a normal house, sitting on lots that were not much bigger than the camp. Just big enough to park your car and get your boat past it, to the water. A real fancy one might have sleeping space above the first floor, under the roof. In recent years most of those have been sold because the original owners can no longer afford the property taxes on them due to rich people from away coming here and being willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a $20,000 camp which pushed the property values way up beyond what the natives can afford.
They usually buy one or more camps in a row so they have room enough to build a million dollar year round mansion where two or three little seasonal camps used to be. The mansions are nice to look at but I have to feel sorry for the natives who are being driven from camps that have been in their family for a hundred years.
There are also quite a few grade crossings on that end where we have to stop and dig the gravel out of the flangeways so we can cross, and we were the first to ride that section this year so there was plenty of road sand from the winter to be dug out.
We also meet walkers and bicyclists who feel the trail belongs to them alone and we are invading THEIR trail. The truth is the trail wouldn't even be there if we and the snowmobilers had not petitioned the state highway department to let us use it after the railroad abandoned it years ago. We have a symbiotic relationship as they use it in the winter and we use it in the summer. Together we have maintained culverts that get washed out and bridges that need repair and keep the vegetation cleared. If it weren't for us doing that, the land would probably have been sold to abutting property owners years ago. It's only been in the past three years that the trails division of the highway department has added bicycling and walking surfaces to the old railbed. But the bicyclers and walkers feel it was built for them exclusively and most have no knowledge of the history of the trails, so some of them show us their displeasure when they meet us.
On the trip to the West the walking trail goes away and we have a more pleasant ride. This time we encountered a small tree that had blown down across the tracks which we cut up with my folding hand saw. A couple miles further we found a large tree that was about two feet in diameter, across the tracks. That took about an hour to hack and saw away. It's all Bush's fault!!! Well actually it's my wife's fault. As I was leaving in the morning I left my chainsaw at home because she said I wouldn't need it.
Ahhhh, but the chile at the diner at the end of the tracks was worth it though!!!!
Then I had to go to the annual stock holder meeting of the dragway that evening. Got home from that after midnight and had to have my car at the exhaust shop at 8:00 this morning to get the damage done by a chain shop's repair job last summer, repaired. When I had the AC refurbished two years ago they apparently backed it into a granite curb in their parking lot shoving one of the dual exhausts forward. This pushed in the front of the muffler and a year later it broke loose from the pipe. Of course this had to happen at the beginning of a holiday weekend when the exhaust shop was closed so I had to take it to the Munroe Muffler shop.
While the exhaust shop owner was fixing it this morning we discovered how bad those muffler shops really are. I had a "tick" in the exhaust that I thought was a crack in the manifold. He found it was from the pipe being loose where it bolts to the manifold. Apparently they loosened it to install the muffler last year and didn't tighten it up. The muffler was installed backward. I don't know exactly what this does but there must be a reason the manufacturer lables one end "inlet" and the other "outlet" when it lines up with the pipes either way. I also found a tear in my frame where it got hung up as they were backing it off the lift at the muffler shop last year. I remember hearing a clunk and seeing the car go forward for a minute then back again when I was in the waiting room. Apparently he didn't have the lift all they way down or something.
But anyway, I now have a great exhaust with two nice sounding mufflers and no leaks. And I'm tired enough to sleep through all the TV programs this evening.
Wow that was a big story. You sure had a good time. Sorry for not reading it sooner.
When is your next rail drive?
When is your next rail drive?
Tomorrow
So soon? Well have good one this time also. Do you have any tourist this time?
I brought a tourist home with me ----------- a tick.
But it was just a male dog tick.
No Lyme disease today. XD
But it was just a male dog tick.
No Lyme disease today. XD
Did it suck your blood out? :-)
No, it was still looking for a spot to attach itself.
I had a tick last year, and it wasn't fun looking at it as it sucks the blood. Fortunately had no problem with it.
Do you ever go to ride at night?
Do you ever go to ride at night?
Fortunately they seem to be slow at choosing a spot to attach themselves. It takes from 24 to 48 hours for them to dig in and I've never had one get a grip on me.
When I was a kid we never saw ticks around here, or at least I never did, and I played in the fields and woods all the time. I had seen pictures of them in school books but the first time I saw some for real was on a farm in Kansas in 1962. They had some cattle that used to get them but they didn't worry about it. They were too hard to remove and they fell off by themselves anyway after they got enough blood. Apparently they didn't carry any bad diseases like we worry about now.
Of course the only disease we worry about getting from them is Lyme. I've read that Lyme is a designer disease that escaped from the government's germ warfare lab off the coast of Connecticut, and first appeared in Lyme CT.
Night rides would be awesome but we don't do any. I have seen a video of a night ride somewhere else in the country or maybe it was in Oz. They have some very active groups there. Or, they get a lot of publicity for their videos.
When I was a kid we never saw ticks around here, or at least I never did, and I played in the fields and woods all the time. I had seen pictures of them in school books but the first time I saw some for real was on a farm in Kansas in 1962. They had some cattle that used to get them but they didn't worry about it. They were too hard to remove and they fell off by themselves anyway after they got enough blood. Apparently they didn't carry any bad diseases like we worry about now.
Of course the only disease we worry about getting from them is Lyme. I've read that Lyme is a designer disease that escaped from the government's germ warfare lab off the coast of Connecticut, and first appeared in Lyme CT.
Night rides would be awesome but we don't do any. I have seen a video of a night ride somewhere else in the country or maybe it was in Oz. They have some very active groups there. Or, they get a lot of publicity for their videos.
Is there a reason why don't go on night rides or you just never organized one?
And problem with ticks is that you can't spot them easily if you are not looking for them. It didn't cross my mind that I could have a tick and I didn't look for one. I just noticed him by accident. I was lucky I guess. :-)
And problem with ticks is that you can't spot them easily if you are not looking for them. It didn't cross my mind that I could have a tick and I didn't look for one. I just noticed him by accident. I was lucky I guess. :-)