Our time as volunteers in the Oregon State Parks is rapidly drawing to a close. We are getting a last few dental and doctor appointments taken care of and then we will be following the geese south for the winter.
Last year about this time my son, Glen, introduced me to a game. It is a railroad simulation game and it is actually quite good. It is a beast to learn, however, but this week I realized the vision I had last December. That is to re-create the United Railroad from Burlington Oregon all the way to Vernonia, which is very close to Stub Stewart State Park. Indeed the Banks to Vernonia State Trail is a rail to trail conversion of the United Railway right-of-way.
Friday evening I made a presentation of the history of the United Railway and the Oregon American Lumber Mill that used to exist in this valley. I had the computer hooked up to the park’s video projector. I managed to attract an audience and a steam engine once more chuffed its way along the tracks beside the Nehalem River. One young girl was brave enough to take over the controls and act as the engineer. Her mother snapped several photos and mentioned Face Book.
The talk was well received, and I managed to keep my feet out of my mouth, so all is good. Only now can I admit that I have spent 635 hours creating my little universe. Thanks, Glen. (That is all right, I am even on that score. I gave him the sailboat and he caught a nasty case of sailing fever.)
My other time grabber is the new van and the shop I am building inside. We bought a large Sprinter van in late August. Since then I have been devoting every spare minute to building benches and storage shelves inside the van. At this point I have both the Lathe/milling machine and the Shopsmith installed and functional in the van. I have completed the bench on the left side of the van. I knocked together the basic structure of the right side bench today. I have just a bit over three weeks to get everything out of the red trailer and get the trailer sold before our annual trek south. I am really welcoming the warm dry weather. I will include a few photos on the web blog at:
Here is the photo gallery:
