And so it begins....

What to do, what to do, what to do? Spring is opening all kinds of possibilities this year. I mentioned earlier that I will have more time now that I am retired. I also mentioned that we are trying our hands at golf. And now, I find that I have time to start a project that will be ongoing, I would imagine, for years to come (or at least until I run out of space).

Yup, I promised myself a LONG time ago that when I retired I was going to set up a scale model railroad system. In anticipation of that, I have been collecting odds and ends over the years.

A few months ago I finally decided on my theme. It is going to be of the city of Randall, Minnesota, circa 1950s. Over the last few weeks I have been visiting with quite a few people in town. It seems that Randall was quite the hopping railroad town for quite a while. The streets today are shadows of their former bustling selves.

It may take a while to get everything in. I am hand building, or at least attempting to, all of the structures. I have been taking pictures and doing a lot of research on technique and materials. I have been taking quite a few pictures of the structures in town and getting pictures from a few different people who have a long history living here.



The first structures are just to see if I can get the scale correct. As I get more accomplished it will be interesting, at least to me, to see how sophisticated the layout develops. If nothing else, I will have a couple of nice trains to run around the Christmas trees each year ;-)

Anniversary golfing

A great 42 years has been enjoyed by at least two people in this relationship. We took a vote and agreed that it just seems to be getting better each year. Combine a great partnership and two people being retired and who knows how much better it is going to be in the future.

We decided that a quick trip south for a golf outing might be fun. It would be a chance to see if the rehab I have been doing on my back is paying off. Des Moines, Iowa was as far as we had to go to find open golf courses.



When we found out a cart was included in the very reasonable winter rates at the Toad Valley golf course, we hopped right on. And, since I have not been able to golf in over a year, I could use all the help available on the course. Did it work? Well, let me put it this way. I played the same ball all day.

Of course, when one is offered a bit of good luck, I say, "why not?".
















The scores, at this point, do not really matter. Toad Valley the second day was even nicer.





Our third day had us playing in Omaha. We were able to get a tee time at the Elmwood City golf course. By the end of the day it was delightfully warm. Then we headed home.

On the way, to finish off the celebration of our 42 years together, we stopped at the 25th avenue Dairy Queen in St.Cloud. The significance of this particular DQ is that, except for 2 years in service and 2 years in Ely for college, we have celebrated a treat here sometime during the week of our anniversary for the past 45 years. We found out that the building will be torn down in the fall of this year.
I thought we should have a picture taken to commemorate long standing traditions. We will still be able to visit the location for a DQ in the future. A new building will be taking its place nearby. So, while some things change (the structure and location of the DQ), other things stay constant (our love and the times we cherish together).