REA Express

Back in 2014 I mentioned that my Husband's father worked for Railway Express. You can read the entire post, HERE. Oh, and don't miss the photo of the two sons, standing by a restored truck, similar to one their father drove.

When we were at Wall Drug, they had a mock up of a train station, which I thought was ironic, since they lack passenger rail service in the state.

It immediately attracted my Husband, and he spent quite a bit of time checking everything out.

Once again, Railway Express was mentioned on the side of the station. I am always surprised when I see one of those signs.

It makes my Husband happy to see it, too.

Sunrise Santa Clarita

This was sunrise on Wednesday morning.

I don't normally go out at all in the morning, but I saw the colors out the window and could not resist.

I believe this was 6:30AM, which gives you the hint that Fall has arrived.

Very beautiful to see. Oh and yes, I picked up the papers when I finished taking these photos.

God's handiwork.

Tunnel

My thanks to my Husband, who walked down the road, to take these photos of the Miners Gateway tunnel.

We went through it every day, but on the last morning, it was raining.

So that's what you get, the tunnel in the rain.

He liked the fact that a tree on the left was changing color, and gave the photo a fall look.

I was glad we stopped and got it, and did not get hit by a car.

The Reason Why We Had To Fly To South Dakota

I have worked on trying to find a way to get my Husband, and I, to South Dakota for at least 4 years.

Why is it so difficult?

From what I can tell, passenger train service was stopped in 1969. Amtrak did not begin until May 1, 1971.

Any time Federal money was offered to the state, they took it, but used it for other projects.

That may eventually change, but I can't wait anymore.

My choices were, Amtrak to either Denver, Colorado or Minot, North Dakota, and drive 5 or 6 hours to the Rapid City area.

Seriously, a hard pass.

So we ended up flying for the first time, post pandemic.

As I have mentioned before, we did have a good visit in Rapid City, and my Husband now only has to visit Tennessee.

We are still waiting to see if we made it through without getting some illness, like COVID-19.

Peggy's Place

The owner, Peggy Janecek, lets her MAGA politics lead her life, via white boards displayed at the entrance to the restaurant.

In spite of that, we decided to eat at her restaurant, anyway. After all, we were in South Dakota, which is a very red state.

When we made our decision, we were not aware that we would get a 15% discount for veterans. It was a surprise, and appreciated. Especially since I used almost all the cash I had on hand, to pay for our meal.

We had eaten at our hotel for the past 2 mornings, and we were tired of it. It was edible, but not worth much in the way of satisfaction.

Peggy's Place food was spectacular!

My Husband and I both went with the chicken fried steak. The only difference was the choice of bread. I love biscuits, and he went with white toast.

We also got a turkey club to go, with homemade potato chips. We ate this at the airport in Denver, and it too was worth the price.

I am so glad we took a chance eating there.

A Fountain At Crazy Horse

My Water Post For Today.

In between the buildings at Crazy Horse, is a viewing area for the mountain itself.

In the viewing area is a lovely fountain and creek with a bridge.

It is quite lovely, and gives off a serene air.

You can also throw pennies into the stream, which I thought was nice.

I enjoyed it, and spent more time then I expected, viewing it all.

I hope you enjoy it, too.

Washington's Profile

On our way to visit Crazy Horse, we must have come around the side of Mount Rushmore.

There was a sign that indicated a turn-off to see the profile of George Washington.

We were in, and look at how cool that photo is.

Mitch was the photographer, since I was driving the car at the time.

Too bad you can't see them all, but so worth it to stop and see what you can see.

Bye Rapid City, South Dakota

This is the control tower at Rapid City Regional Airport.

It reminds me so much of the tower at Van Nuys, and so I took a photo of it for my son.

We flew back on Friday afternoon, and with luck, we will get into Burbank late on Friday night.

We have a forecast of thunder showers on Friday, so hopefully all will go well.

We had a good time, all in all, and I want to say that there are lots of good things in South Dakota. Minus their governor, of course. :-)

In an unexpected thing, we went through Ellsworth Air Force Base, while traveling to Wall Drug on Thursday. As my Husband mentioned, they have a B1 bomber wing stationed there. So he got a kick out of passing through the base.

With luck, back to the grind, today.

Wall Drug

When my family drove across the Country in 1974, we did go to Mount Rushmore. To do that, you had to pass the million signs, for a place called Wall Drug.

I have no idea if we made it a stop along the way, but I promised my Husband I would take him there.

It is, first off, a drug store. But over the years it has expanded into so much more.

Every possible kitschy item is represented, in rooms all around the cafe.

What is great about the cafe, is that they sell 5 cent coffee, and free ice water.

Those two items are what draw the customers in. It's a winning strategy.

My Husband, as a veteran, got a free doughnut, along with his free coffee.

The doughnuts were so good, that we bought a day-old dozen, for half the price.

Worth a stop, if you are driving the I-90.

Mt Rushmore And Crazy Horse

On the agenda on Wednesday was the 2 mile trip up the mountain, to Mt. Rushmore.

The short journey made it easy to visit, and it only cost us $5 to park.

It is quite beautiful to see and with the court of flags, it makes every citizen of the United States feel right at home.

I had heard about Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream, and we stopped at the concession counter to get one.

It was very vanilla tasting, but comes from his personal recipe, that he brought back with him from France.

We had our left-over lunch in the car, so we took a break after the visit, and ate.

Then on to our 2nd stop of the day, Crazy Horse.

The last time I visited him was back in 1974. There was almost nothing there.

They just showed off the 1/34th model of what it would someday look like.

49 years later, they have carved the face of Crazy Horse, and are working on his fingers.

A BIG improvement.

I was glad we went.

Tomorrow we might drive to Wall Drug, and maybe Dignity.

Our Hotel In Keystone

We made it to South Dakota!

My Husband has now been to 49 States.

This was almost as hard as driving to Kentucky, earlier this year.

Minus the squall line I had to drive through, and the thunder rumbling, it has been good so far.

Our hotel is the Roosevelt Inn, and it carries much of Teddy around the place.

We will visit him tomorrow.

Coke Y3000

We got a free Coke the other day and Monday we decided to test it out.

It is called Y3000, the Coke of the future.

My thoughts were as follows:
It tastes like a Coke (they seem to go to great lengths to always taste like Coke)
It tastes like a Creamsicle (the ice cream)
It tastes fruity

In other words, it wasn't bad.

It surprised me.

Would I ever buy it? I have no idea, but if I was somewhere that offered it, I would not hesitate to try it again.

My Husband was not sure if he would ever choose it, if offered.

Bar Harbor, Maine

My Water Post For Today.

I know it is not the best shot, since it was from my TV, but seeing Bar Harbor, Maine at any time, is worth the price of admission.

My girlfriend lives there, and so I was a little worried when former Hurricane Ian came her way, but I think it went well.

Maybe someday, I will get that high up into Maine. I only got as far as Portland.

Glad they did not take a direct hit.

Sitting On The Couch

My queen is sitting on the sofa.

This has happened but once, in the past few months.

She used to do it all the time. I am sure the shot of Solensia is the reason.

We are setting things up for her leaving us on Monday, including her shot that is due on the 28th.

Both the vet's office and I figure a few days early (on Saturday the 23rd) would work better than having her back in again on the 28th.

Why freak her out twice in 5 days.

We fly out early Tuesday, so we want her where she is going to be, before then.

Good luck little girl, see you on Saturday morning.

Happy Jewish New Year AKA: Happy Rosh Hashanah (2023)

Happy Rosh Hashanah to all who celebrate.

I had plans to bake a Challah in my new bread machine Friday, but I woke up to a totally clogged sink.

We called our plumber and we were put on a waiting list, so we knew it was going to be a late fix...if at all.

I had taken a tri tip roast out of the freezer and it had to be cooked, so I used my Dutch Oven. It came out well, and the juices made a nice gravy. Plus, it was an easy cleanup...Win!

I had bought hummus from a local middle eastern deli. I had matzo that I used, instead of baking. We had gefilte fish and potatoes.

Fresh fruit and wine rounded out our dinner.

It was good, but not what I had planned.

As I said to my Husband, I have 10 days to bake a Challah.

As to the clogged sink, the plumber was finished at 4:30PM. I took that as a New Year's Eve victory.

P-22 Got His Day

P-22 was a Los Angeles legend.

He was born and raised here in LA, and spent his life roaming a small area of the Hollywood Hills.

When he was captured and eventually found to be extremely ill, they humanely put him down.

The citizens of this city were very upset, and mourned his loss to the community.

In his honor, the Hollywood Bowl commissioned a new work. Here is the story, straight from the composers mouth.

Cool Cat is inspired by the extraordinary life of P-22, the mountain lion that captured the heart of Los Angeles and beyond. This playful and celebratory concert-opener, aka fanfare, is meant to get the party started.

We knew that this work would be premiered on September 12, 2023. Serendipitously, that date falls exactly 10 years to the day when the orchestra premiered my first commission for the LA Phil. At the time, I was asked to write a children’s ballet, which I titled Bounce. That work was dedicated to my then one-month-old, Luca. My youngest son, Leo, had yet to have a piece solely dedicated to him, so I knew it was only fitting. He is fierce and determined, just like P-22! This new piece is dedicated to Leo, our very own cool cat.

—Adam Schoenberg

Angel here: I found the work full of little nods to songs that the mountain lion might have heard, as he roamed the area around his home. It was very lovely, and a meaningful tribute to a truly cool cat.

Anne At The Bowl, Along With The Planets

We have seen Anne Akiko Meyers perform several times over the decades I have blogged.

When I saw that she was featured on September 12th, I bought 2 tickets, and gave them to my Husband for our anniversary.

We still are not totally happy with being in crowded areas, but we masked when appropriate and enjoyed the evening.

She performed on the Philip Glass Concerto No.1, which was in three movements. The first was pretty energetic, the second was a much calmer one, and the final movement was frantic. So you got to see several sides of her playing.

After the intermission, we got The Planets By Gustav Holst

* Mars, the Bringer of War. ...
* Venus, the Bringer of Peace. ...
* Mercury, the Winged Messenger. ...
* Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity. ...
* Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age. ...
* Uranus, the Magician. ...
* Neptune, the Mystic.

My Husband's favorite is Mars, and amazingly, mine seems to be Mercury. We enjoyed the entire thing, though.

Off To The Bowl: Our Only Concert Of This Summer

We are attending a concert at The Hollywood Bowl.

As with most bowl concerts, we have dinner with us.

This time I decided to try out my new Biaggi Bag.

It has a water proof area that you can put things like shoes, and swimsuits in.

I decided to put our drinks in it to keep things like napkins nice and dry.

Looking forward to trying it out in the real world, before our trip.

A review of the actual concert, will come later, of course.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The latest chapter in the Star Trek world, is a fleshing out the original pilot show of the original series. It was called "The Cage" and when season 1 of the series could not keep up with the airdates, they took that pilot's footage and wrapped it with scenes that they shot on set. Gene Roddenberry said it saved their bacon, that first year.

The Captain of the ship was Christoper Pike, and there was Spock, and someone named Number 1.

This new series takes its name from the opening of the show,

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before!

I had heard from others that they really liked the show, so I went in hoping I agreed with them.

As it ended up, I totally agreed with both people I heard from. It was very good.

The cast was excellent, and there were lots of Easter Eggs that brought back memories from those long ago shows.

Spock is played by Gregory Peck's grandson, which is amazing. He definitely has that "Spock" vibe.

The young Uhura is an interesting character, and they give us lots of her background, in episode #2.

I am sorry they just gave us two episodes on CBS, with directions to find it on Paramount+.

I am not into streaming, if I can help it.

Water At The Footprint Of The World Trade Center

My Water Post For Today.

I visited the World Trade Center site back in 2017.

At the time of the visit, I took photos of the water feature, which covers the footprint of the twin towers.

It is a very moving rememberence of a horrid day in the life of America.

We shall never forget!

Songs That Get Stuck In You Head, Reprise

I wrote about this very subject, HERE in 2008. You might want to click the link and read the post and the comments. It was quite amusing, and worth the effort to do so.

The reason I found this post was that I was going to do a review of Star Trek: Strange New World's today, but you are going to have to wait a bit for that.

What going through posts about Star Trek did for me, is bring me to Leonard Nimoy singing "Cotton Candy". So now I have that stuck in my head. Sigh...

Continuing on that subject, my Brother-in-Law mentioned earworms, just last week. His was Dr. Wu from the Steely Dan album Katy Lied, and mine was "Car 54 Where Are You".

I think my current earworm is closer to what Bill Watterson had in mind. :-)

Much thanks, 15 years later, to the Dimension Skipper. He did the research and found this comic.

A Close-Up Look At The White Pass And Yukon Route

I find it amazing that a really cool photo of our journey on the White Pass and Yukon Railway never got onto my blog.

Since I passed it by a few days ago, I decided to bring it here.

Better late than never, right?

They let us go out on the platform at the end of the train, and so that is where this photo was taken.

You can see how little room the tracks have, and as a matter of fact we went through a small tunnel, around that section of track.

Skagway was a definite highlight of our Alaska trip, and the reason my Husband wanted to return.

Makenna's Osteoarthritis Seems To Be Doing Better

Remember at my cat's bi-annual check-up, the vet gave her a shot of Solensia, which is for osteoarthritis problems.

It works like the cat's normal antibodies, to reduce pain signals from her joints.

I was told it would take a few weeks to take effect.

It has been almost 2 weeks and I see improvement with her.

It had gotten to the point that she barely moved, and now she wanders around several times a day.

She shows interest in her food again, and will follow me, when I have a plate of wet food in my hand.

For right now, I highly recommend this injection, if you have the money to get it. (It costs $75 per injection)

Photo is of the three of us in the morning.

Pumpkin Time

Yes, it is pumpkin time here in Santa Clarita.

A few days early, but look what's for sale in the store.

I always love buying one for the house, and will do so soon.

Due to all the rain we have had the past 3 weeks, we are actually greening up on our hills, too.

Who knew that would happen. :-)

Two Weird Sons Enjoy The Labor Day Weekend In Separate Locations

My two sons, and I managed to have lunch with them, back in July.

This past Holiday weekend, one of them was in Denver (my Son) and one of them was in Las Vegas (my magic Son).

I was glad to see both of them enjoying themselves (with friends), via photos.

Both got drunk, along the way. Something they rarely do.

All in all, I was glad to see them take advantage of the 3 day weekend and yes, I am proud of both of them.

My upcoming trip doesn't have to be during 3 day weekends. It is coming up just past the middle of the month.

Our first trip via plane and yes, we will be masking on the plane. South Dakota is the destination.

Wish us luck.

Men In The Trees

"They say there's a race of men in the trees..." (Nightfly, Donald Fagen)

So I am sitting on my couch on Sunday and sometimes I hear something. I mention it to my Husband and he too hears something, but we have no idea what.

Finally, a large branch falls off the tree in our neighbor's backyard.

Mystery solved, it is a tree trimmer working on a Sunday.

My best guess is that they were worried about Tropical Storm Hilary, 2 weeks ago and set up a tree trimming for the closest day, which happened to be 2 weeks later.

Very weird, but I am glad they dealt with it now, rather than next spring.

I hear Branford Pear trees are dangerous, so it is good that it is now trimmed.

Lake Ontario From The CN Tower In Toronto, Canada

My Water Post For Today.

Back to our trip across Eastern Canada in 2018, and our dinner at the CN Tower in Toronto.

The view up there was incredible, and we saw a real panorama of Lake Ontario, as the restaurant rotated.

The runways shown in the photo, are Toronto City Airport. Talk about right by the city, but clear skies all around it.

Lake Ontario, like glass. Yep, what I was basically used to, when I lived on the other side of the lake.

I hope you enjoy.

Prisencolinensinainciusol

I follow Room Rater on Twitter (now known as X).

As the entire J-6 and other lawsuits played out, I followed one of the Room Raters, Claude Taylor.

A thing he does at the end of the week is play a video and tells people to dance.

It is called Prisencolinensinainciusol, and you can view it HERE.

The song is totally gibberish, but made to sound like singer Adriano Celentanohe, and his wife Claudia Mori, have American accents.

I find it incredibly funny, and can't believe it was recorded back in 1972.

You can read more about it: HERE.

An Electric Unicycle

I have been holding this photo from May, because I had no idea what I was looking at.

The best I can come up with is it is an Electric Unicycle, and the delivery person works for Door Dash.

I remember walking in the Loop of Chicago on our 3 hour layover. We saw this guy as we waited for the light to change.

When it did, off he went.

I was pretty impressed with it, all in all.

The Blue Supermoon (2023)

Here it is, the Blue Moon, Super Moon, on August 30th.

It came up over the mountain at almost 10PM, so it gets to wait until today to get its own post.

It was beautiful, but I don't see it when it first appears, so it is strictly a moon in the dark sky.

I hope you got to see it in your neck of the woods...and if not, enjoy mine.