Travel | Life of Pat and Nat

Big South Fork Scenic Railway

Ready to see the sights. What sights? We’re on the Big South Fork Scenic Railway.

train engine — Diesel engine on the trail

Currently the train is pulled by this diesel engine. They’re renovating a steam engine that will be used in the future. I’m not sure which is better; smelling diesel smoke on the ride or having smoke and ash rain down from a steam engine.

They clearly didn’t waste a lot of effort creating clearance for the train when they cut the bed through the hills here.

rock walls close by — Keep your hands in the car here

I didn’t get the closest shot of the rocks. I should have looked at the sides of the train to look for scrapes from the train wobbling.

Someone set up a colorful garden gnome on this rock shelf in the hillside. My cell phone camera couldn’t shoot fast enough and we were past it.

Blue Heron history placard — The stop on the train

The train’s sole destination is the somewhat historic Blue Heron coal and lumber camp. This placard explains some of the history.

One feature of this camp was this very advanced coal tippler. At the time it was built it was the most modern I think in the world. Unfortunately the coal seams here weren’t as abundant as thought.

There was a small museum associated with this camp but not a lot of attraction.

Happy Birthday Chuck

Nat and I were invited to Daytona Beach for our friend Chuck’s birthday. Not just any birthday though; this one was designed to be a surprise. Chuck’s girlfriend devised a distraction to get him away from the house. While he was away folks gathered at his house.

While we were waiting for Chuck this guy stopped by for a minute. Chuck wasn’t there yet so he left.

surveying — Chuck takes in the size of the crowd

While the gang waited watching the gate to the yard Chuck naturally went inside first. He was steered out onto his deck for the surprise. At this point he’s just noticing how many folks are in his back yard.

Very surprised guy — Still grasping the magnitude of the surprise perpetrated on him

About now he’s begun spotting faces in the crowd he never expected to see. Look closely and you’ll notice a tear.

In a matter of seconds he appears in the crowd and begins hugging. Friends, family, spouses, anybody in reach got hugged. This is one happy guy.

See what I mean? He’s not done though…

stunned look — Looking stunned and seeking another hugger

The two daughters helped plan this. Clearly Chuck has forgiven them for surprising him.

people on deck — Catching up with some old friends

Chuck has finally gotten his fill of hugging for now and is settled into eating and chatting.

People in yard — Some folks may have started drinking early

cake being set on table — Setting down the cake while we butcher happy birthday

Okay we may not sing well but the cake is another cool surprise. It’s in the shape of his business logo. Luckily nobody tried to put 60 candles on it. Unfortunately the only candles around were trick candles that light themselves.

Time to make a wish.

fish shaped birthday cake with some lit candles — Chuck makes his wish before snuffing the candles

Much visiting, reminiscing, and some drinking and eating ensues.

Next day we hit the beach to walk down to the Ocean Deck for a drink and a snack.

group walking on the beach — Chuck, his daughters, girlfriends, and my wife

window onto beach — Looking out at the beach while we ate at Ocean Deck

sign advising no alcohol beyond this point — Only one way to take alcohol on the beach.

Daytona Beach has rules about open alcohol containers on the beach. Ocean Deck is responsible in letting you know about the rules and (if you read the fine print) a quick happy solution to the problem.

Happy Birthday Chuck! We had fun watching you have fun.

Biltmore

Nat and I visited the Biltmore as part of the BMW RA rally there. We even managed to carry Sammie along.

The pool has been filled in to restore things to original.

It was fun looking for critters in the garden pools.

This is Nat taking pictures on the roof of the Biltmore during the Architect’s tour.

Vintage Red

Nice clean vintage BMW bike

Lewes Beach

What could be better than playing at the beach? Well, okay, water temps warmer than the 62 degrees we had.

There were some people out in spite of the cool temps.

I grew up calling these sand fiddlers. One day I’ll look it up.

Shore defense from WWII

We went out to see Fort Miles while we were in the area. Very cool shore defense installation from World War II. They had some gun emplacements of 6″ and 8″ guns and a 12″ gun from a battleship that was there for cleaning up and display. I want to see what the 16″ guns look like but we were limited on time when we were there.

We could get up close to the 8″ and 6″ guns as well as some anti aircraft guns placed around. We also climbed the spotter towers. I know I’ve got more pictures to add to this somewhere.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

We drove up to Delaware via this to avoid DC and its traffic. Much better scenery too. It was a nice drive but long. We saw huge numbers of cicadas flying around but I managed not to collect any on the car. Several times I found myself dodging my head around.. inside the car which I kept straight.