ON THE ROAD AGAIN - HMM - WE SAY THAT A LOT

April 1st we are kicked out of Valle Del Oro and we really are ready to hit the road. 

Noticed something stuck in one of the RV tires.  Well, that isn't a great start.  Found a tire store to check it out - a belt buckle!  Lying sideways and not harming the tire.  We were given the go ahead!  And off we've gone.

Valle Del Oro (VDO) has so much going on at all times.  And twice as many activities the last two weeks of March.  Busy busy.  Art and craft shows.  Quilt shows.  Many many talented folks here.

Love this piece at the quilt show - nice pick of colors

These make me dizzy - wonder how the maker kept from going cross-eyed

The woodshop monitors had a contest.  Each taking a 

block of wood and making something.  

Saw a cribbage board, 

and a small side table but this clock was FANTASTIC.  

Up to 5% could be not wood - 

those are the numbers on the clock.  

See that the gears are wood! 

and the pull chain is wood!  

Wow!

Dean has been playing railroad and entertaining the kids with Thomas the Tank Train, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Minions in the Whimsical area.  The kids get so excited and they all know Thomas!

Here are a few words from the Railroad's Chief Engineer recapping the railroad's success this year.  (Note: during COVID last year - there were only 3 people running trains as so many folks stayed home)

"We have just completed the 2021/22 season at the VDO Railroad. After last years pandemic season, things have roared back to life.  This year we made track modifications allowing us to add 2 additional independent loops, bringing our loop count to 9.  We also modified trackage to allow for running trains counter direction without interference to normal operations.  We received a generous donation adding three engines, 8 cars, a small engine and 2 Eggliners to the Whimsical area, and 5 buildings.  We also added one new building (hotel), and a used metal control tower to the layout.

Eggliner

We held a total of 8 night runs this year, 2 special runs to coincide with Christmas park activities and 6 planned night runs.  This is probably double what we normally schedule. At our scheduled runs we generally had 12 engineers running trains. Including the Whimsical area and trolley operations we ran 17 pieces of equipment.  The additional loops greatly helped in allowing this level of activity on the layout. The ladies helped at the night runs serving park provided hot chocolate at five of the six night runs, and all of these events resulted in an estimated 500 visitors each night."

Of course, putting the Railroad to bed for the summer is a big part of getting ready to go.  And this, sadly, is how it looks for the summer.

In between times, we recorded 6 readings of children’s books for online.  The Elks Lodge has a grant to buy the books, we read them to the kids as they follow along with their own copy.

There was a Mardi Gras parade and gumbo for later and green beer for St Patrick's Day.  Plus we had a lot of people we needed to say "Happy and Safe Summer" to.

As we have worried for a couple years, our non-vaccinated granddaughter and her family caught COVID.  3 of them had pretty mild reaction but the 3 year old had such a high fever that the EMT's took him to the hospital and he was treated to get the fever down.  They have all recovered.  

My little baby brother is turning 60 in April.  I used to think the age 60 was VERY old.  Now it sounds young.  I remember when I got married and my folks were under 50 and pretty old.  Now I would think they were kids!  Oh, how our views change.  We will be visiting him in Huntington Beach and then head north from there along the Oregon coast.  Supposed to be a great Dungeness crab season.  First time in 8 years that the season has opened on time. 

So ON THE ROAD AGAIN!