3 January, 2021 - Ridge Live Steamers, Dundee, Florida
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And we start a New Year with Car Card / Waybill Operations here at the Ridge Live Steamers on January 1 -3, 2021. Ran the passenger train to the hourly schedule, yesterday (Saturday). Early runs today are annulled do to rain, but traffic should pick up as the weather moves through this afternoon. We start putting the 116 pieces of rolliong stock away at 2 pm. Jan was the Conductor and Bo provided Security as the railroad goes through some pretty tough neighborhoods. We had a young guest engineer, Mathew, on 2 runs. He used the horn so much he provided some false signals to other crews, but everyone seemed to understand what was going on. Its nice to see the Year start on a somewhat normal schedule.
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2020 certainly was not normal and we are both blessed to survive. Our young part of the family is healthy. My Mom passed with the Covid, while we were back in Illinois. However, she was 96.5 and really had lost her desire to fight. She just wanted to peacefully move on and we did our best to keep her comfortable. Working to get all her affairs in order, we stayed back home from Thanksgiving, until we celebrated Christmas with our kids and their families on the 20th of December and then beat feet south to be in Florida for Christmas. T’was our first time to not be home for Christmas in 48 years. Jan says we still need to fine tune this.
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On New Year’s Eve we did a short bike ride in on the Withlacoochee State Trail out of Inverness, Florida. This was trackage of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and originally laid as the Brooksville and Inverness Railway of the Florida land boom of the 1920’s. And operated from the 1920’s through the 1970’s. This is our second time to ride this area. First time was in 2011. Nice area in the winter months, but I think the name is pronounced “Infurnace” in the Summer. This is the area where Andrew Jackson fought the Seminoles in our Country’s early history. Very interesting part of the State. Bike riding is a great way to see an area and learn the history. The “Rails to Trails” program has opened many abandon right of ways to new usage and many times preserves the Stations and other railroad artifacts for future generations. Yes, it is also controversial in some places.
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So a NEW YEAR begins. Hope you can keep the rails shiny, explore new areas of your life and enjoy all that we have been given. A pessimist will complain that his glass is half empty and an optimist will be pleased that his glass is half full. I get so excited that I have a glass, I almost “p” in my pants. Thank each and everyone of you for your friendship. It means a lot.
