A few more of my train trip photos........these were taken from the middle of the Nevada Dessert on Friday night into saturday afternoon on that weekend.

Here we are (Rob and I and a few others) watching a movie on my laptop in the sightseer lounge car...we pretty much camped out in that car all of late friday night and into early saturday morning. Photo taken 230am...on the 28th of May

My first saturday photo...of Eastern Utah. I had just gotten up and it is probably about 7am in the morning and we are coming into some of the most awesome cliffs and lower mountians of eastern Utah. The night before we had trained down Utah from Salt Lake City which was early in the morning and it was Dark so I didnt get to see Salt Lake....oh well. Still enough ahead.....Sat, May 28, 2005  

Rob decided I wasnt worthy of a good picture...in the background are two of my other traveling buddies...George and Dale (late morning on Saturday as we are training through Utah) 

Two of my wonderful new friends that I met just after boarding in Sacremento. Jerry and Arnie...a couple who are taking an anniversary train trip given to them by their children. They are on their way back home to Alton Ill. I will remember them fondly...in fact since being back, we have communicated with each other via email a few times.... this was taken May 28th 2005-saturday morning as we are training through Utah heading east towards Colorado 

So...my friends Jerri and Arnie (prior photo) gave me an orange...and I just had to get a photo of it..so my friend Rob helped me pose it..that is the back of his head...whos crazy here??? 

I thought this rock formation was kind of cool looking...almost looks like an animal face (or maybe a dinasour fossil buried in the rock??)Sat May 28, 2005 in SE Utah 

A Freight train on the tracks to the left of us...the eastbound Zephyr uses that track.....we are in the southeastern part of Utah here.....it is saturday late morning..just before noon on May 28, 2005 

I think this is a photo of one of the cliff sides going through eastern Utah that they call "painted Rock Park" or something like that...the different colors of the cliffs were so cool...the photos dont do the cliffs justice 

What a wonderful day....I want to go swimming..another Eastern Utah view from the Saturday May 28, 2005 on the choo choo 

A little "trailer ranch" in the foothills of the Utah countryside.... 

The sightseer lounge on saturday afternoon as we are training through eastern Utah....my friends Jerri and Arnie at the front of the photo. (Notice how the little guy in the background is walking...he hasnt quite gotten his "trainlegs" yet... 

The Rock faces of some of the slopes of the mountians as we are traveling through the edge of Utah just before Colorado (saturday May 28,05 early afternoon) 

A chance to visit....

I had the opportunity to visit , alebeit breifly, with our Chef yesterday and I had the chance to meet his mom.
He stopped in for lunch to the restaurant om Friday afternoon.
It was so nice to see him and to meet his mom.
He seems to be in very good spirits and he is sporting a very snazzy reverse "mohawk haircut style" which looks very "dapper" on him.

Since speaking with him and a few other managers yesterday, I have been researching some of the "overwealming" bits and pieces of info about Brain Cancer that are available on the internet and found the following site to be esp. cool. (It is a journal written by another Brain Cancer patient and has many interesting insights to offer)........

http://home.earthlink.net/~sdepesa/

.....and is also very emotional reading. But I for one am learning alot and have a much better idea now what this "friend" of mine is going through...though I cannot even begin to fathom his situation.

I have told myself I will say a prayer for him each and every night before I go to sleep...and I wish for him the biggest miracle of all time.....the dissapearance of his illeness.

Warm regards for a good weekend to all.
Time to get ready for work......

West Coast Earthquakes Worry Scientists....

Scientists are unsure about whether or not the recent spate of earthquakes that have rumbled along the western Pacific Rim are connected or not.

If they are connected, they could be precursors to a major event sometime soon, such as slippage along the unstable Juan de Fuca plate off the US Pacific Northwest.

A 7.8 quake on June 13 in Chile has been followed by a 6.8 quake on June 14 in Alaska, then a 7.4 quake on the 15th off the coast of northern California, which resulted in a brief tsunami warning along regional coasts, and, as of today, June 16, a 5.3 event in the Los Angeles area.
None of the quakes caused serious damage, but the cluster in time has seismologists watching the situation closely.

The US Geological Survey has rolled out a new, online, real-time earthquake prediction map for California showing the probability of earthquake shaking over the next 24-hours. The new online map shows a clickable map of all of California, and is based on previous earthquake sequences. The system uses seismic information networks combined with known patterns of aftershocks to show the probability of additional shaking in the next 24 hours.

Right now, the map predicts a 10-40% chance of a quake south and east of Los Angeles within the next 24 hours.
To go to the California Earthquake Prediction Map, click here.

A new Island to visist soon???

How Strange...A California Ocean Quake and a Tsunami Warning

It seems that the latest quake to effect the California coast, where I have friends living (in the city that was evacuated)....click on link below:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CALIFORNIA_QUAKE?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME

.......has resulted in a breif Tsunami warning.

One of my friends works in Crecsent City for the California DMV.
I am sure she is alright but it must have been pretty scary to be told to evacuate because of fears of a Monster Wave......weird weather for sure.

I emailed them to find out the details of what it was like.....

Warm regards for a good wed and I will have more travel photos posted soon.

PS: The photos below are more of the ones from my Amtrak trip out west this last month. I have photos posted from just before Grand Junction here...I am going in reverse order and posting from the end of my trip to the beginning of the trip, so next up (above this post) will be the Nevada and the Green river as we were tracking across the Nevada and Utah areas.....

Recent flooding along the train corridor in western Colorado..sat afternoon 

Coming into Grand Junction on saturday afternoon...you can just make out the mountians in the distance.....a 30 minute stop coming up in a few minutes...yaaa! 

Grand Junction...off the train for a strech....And Waiting in line at the fresh fruit stand that was setup at the station...notice the pears in the background...yummy....sat afternoon 

Getting off the train in Grand Junction, Colorado...this was one of our longer stops and allowed us to grab some "off train" refreshements...there was a fresh fruit stand set up and I picked up some grapes, carrots and celery and a few different sodas and juices....alot cheaper than on the train...sat afternoon (I didnt realise until looking at the photo that my reflection was showing in the glass of the doorway) 

I had to jump around and decided to try and get a photo of the FRONT of the train station in Grand Junction,Co....sat afternoon 

My friend Rob and I taking a smoke break while stopped in Grand Junction Co.....sat afternoon 

The flat part of western Colorado just after Grand Junction....sat afternoon 

So much Family

Well so here I am getting ready to check out of the Marriott Courtyard here in Wausau Wisconsin, having been brought up here for the very sad and somber funeral of my Uncle.

My trip was with problems as always. Just before Madison, while on the Interstate 94...the highway pavement decided to "buckle" and raise off the road...about 2 miles ahead of me. This backed up traffic for miles and we were at a standstill for almost an hour..which of course made me very late getting to my uncle's viewing at the Funeral Home. But I did make it there eventually and paid my respects to my Uncle Richard.

I also had the occasion to visit with alot of my family. My two sisters and their other halfs, my neice Haly and alot of my Aunts and Uncles and I got to talk with some of my cousins who I havnn't seen in years...which was nice.

I am now heading back to Stevens Point (Plover) for the church mass and burial. Then it is back home to my Scrappy...who must be thinking her daddy deserted her. I wonder if she ate both bowls of food I left her.

Warm Regards for a nice Saturday to all

One of my Uncles has went on to meet God

I am sad to say that my Uncle Richard, who I wrote about in an earlier post has passed away.
He was one of my younger uncles.
His funeral and all that goes with that will take place this weekend in Plover Wisconsin.

His obituary from the one of the Stevens Point Newspapers:

http://www.pcgazette.com/obits/2005/june05/repinski6-8.htm

Warm Regards to everyone for a pleasent weekend.

Some of my Train Trip Photos....

I have been sitting on my front steps since midnight last night....adding some of my trip photos to my blog. It is now almost 5am and the sun is coming up and I need to go to sleep...I hope everyone enjoys looking at some of the things I saw and some of the people I met on my trip.

When I started this project last night, I figured since blogs are in reverse order, I would post the photos in reverse order from the end of my trip to the beginning. So as you look at these they should be in forward order, at least from this post onwards....I have over 1500 photos and can not post them all...so I have chosen the ones that I think turned out the best and also ones that have special meaning for me...friends and different places.

The photos below start just after Grand Junction Co on Saturday of Memorial day weekend, as we are heading into the Rocky Mountians and into Denver that evening and into sunday morning and end at the end of my trip back in Chicago....waiting for the METRA to take me back to wisconsin on that Sunday evening.

Above this post will eventually be photos from before that point which will include the awesome trip through the Sierra Nevada's as well as California and the trip out west on the Southwest Chief.....stay tuned

Happy Monday....
On to the pictures.......Beware..I think there are 95 in this bunch alone.

Cool western Colorado....just after Grand Junction. Just the beginning of the views to come...sat afternoon

My buddies...having a good time training through Western Colorado on saturday afternoon 

An explanation is in order for this photo which I call "Rockin Out". We had stopped in Grand Junction and I bent under the train to grab some colorado rocks...the train conductor yelled at me and Lola for doing this...said we were setting a bad example for the kids...who also started reaching under the train...ooops. So, once we got aboard, I wanted to take a picture of my "bad" rocks...so I put them on Rob's leg to take the picture and he decided to put his headphones around them and said "they are learning how to appreciate "Rock" music!!" ha ha... 

Thought that was kind of cool.....there is a name for that formation...but I forgot....sat afternoon in the lowlands of the Colorado Rockies.... 

Another view of 1-70 as it keeps passing by us and we by it....it seems like an old friend by this time...sat afternoon 

The westen ridge of the Rocky mountians...between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs...sat afternoon