I rose around 7:30, much after sunrise, and the skies were filled with broken clouds that soon burned off. A marine cloud bank. I reheated yesterday’s coffee; there were about three cups left (meaning I had drunk a lot of coffee the day before). I took the last banana and sliced some more raisin loaf, toasted it, and buttered it. Thus supplied, I spent most of the morning writing the blog.
I also did the usual things of updating Quicken with my new transactions and balances. On US Bank, my IRA is nearly back to the balance before I withdrew my first money to live on. This makes it less of a worry; it is all I have, plus Social Security (starting next month).
I am in a bit of a hurry as I want to get to Train Day at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center. There, they don’t play with toy trains, but full-sized ones. I talk to Deborah a few times, as it is Saturday and she is not working. Later, we would finalize our hotel and the last flights for the June trip to California. We are splitting our time between Long Beach and Orange County (Deborah’s conference for the second week). I finally posted the blog, shower, dress, and all of that. I board Air VW the Gray to Portland on Saturday morning. I arrive in time to get one of the last free parking spots in their lot and get a ticket to ride the steam train at noon. Perfect.
It is an adult-kid paradise with trains, full-sized and models, and ‘N’ scale sets all running or in pieces. A huge steam engine is live and blowing its horn. Another huge steam engine is out too, though not running. There is one in pieces being slowly rebuilt by volunteers (I think I have ridden in that one before). Food carts and excellent spare bathrooms are available. The round house is spinning a train. Again, a train lover’s happy place. There are people everywhere with stands and digital cameras, and many in train outfits. The staff, mostly in reflective vests, are everywhere keeping everyone informed and safe.
The train ride is 45 minutes and goes down a track out of an industrial area in Portland, following the river to Oak Park. A paved path follows the tracks and is full of runners, bike riders, and other folks. The steam whistle is loud, and my watch warns me repeatedly that it is too loud. I enjoy the open car for tourists just behind the oil-fired, smaller steam engine (I am told by a train person that the larger trains are now too heavy for the aging tracks to Oak Point).
I forgot my hat and retrieved it after heading to the baggage car to get a Diet Coke and a small bag of chips. I stay there as the steam whistle’s sound is starting to hurt. The guy is a bartender and a designer, and we talk about steampunk, all the interesting industrial ruins along the river (now bright in graffiti and looking ready as the set for a dystopian movie), and the rivets on the old car (it is not welded). It was $30 for the ride and free entry (usually $5) to the museum/train repair center. I decide to try a food cart, and I have a lovely pulled pork sandwich with excellent BBQ sauce running all over my hands. It is not often this far north and west to get a juicy pork with that hint of smoke. Excellent.
Fed and my hearing returning, I managed to not get anything in the gift store (books!), find the EV where I left it, and head to Lucky Labadore for the rest of the afternoon. The irony is not lost on me when a freight train blocks the area; I wait and chat with Deborah, finally U-turn, and head out of the industrial area (there is a path around the train tracks), take the bridge road above the train tracks, and park at Lucky’s.
There, after talking to Pastor Ken, I spent an hour sending out church stuff. There is a meeting on Tuesday, and all the information is not out there, and a Zoom meeting. Next, I set up The Plague of Dracula solo board game. I have forgotten how to play, and I am looking through the rules to find my way. This is the nature of solo games: lots of rules and processes. I managed to play four turns before I ran out of time. I met Pete and shared about how the game works. He was playing a GMT card game, The Kaiser’s Pirates, that had interested me with two others, and Pete offered to include me next time if they have a seat, though their usual day is Sunday. Excellent!
I pack up, finish my why-would-you-use-jalapeños-peppers clam chowder soup. It had one taste. Paid the bill and arrived at Richard’s. We agreed on Euphoria for the game, which is an older game, but quite different. It is a race to contribute by adding stars. I have played it before and liked it. Today I came in last (there is only one winner, Richard, but I had four stars left, the most) as I misplayed, but I managed to annoy Kathleen, which suggests I was playing OK. Next time! We all agree that Euphoria should hit the table more often.
Katheen left after the first game, but Richard, Laura, and I tried The Fellowship Of The Ring: Trick-Taking Game. We played three games until we won. It is cooperative: everyone plays a character with a special winning condition, and the chapter is completed (hand won) if everyone completes their objective together. Not a bad game.
After that, I headed home in the VW and soon was back, found a few lights on left by Corwin that surprised me, and I took apart the rest of Alexa (no more Amazon products, thank you, and they have stopped working well). I went to bed reading and soon fell asleep. All dreams are forgotten, but I bet they involved another train ride!
Thanks for reading.
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