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 |  I travel the country on business, sometimes the world. Come see where I've been. |
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Talk about perks, my job has one of the best ones I can think of! I travel in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I am a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and teach classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2 way radio communications. I'm qualified to deliver approximately 30 different classes, but about half of those are 'Legacy' classes, and are not in demand anymore. My students are technicians, those who maintain, program, calibrate, and repair large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I get to travel, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where am I this week? This probably won't have daily entries, but I will make entries when I get to go somewhere, and keep an updated list of coming trips. My schedule changes faster than the weather, so don't be too surprised to see me list an upcoming class, only to remark later on that it is cancelled, or delayed. Delays are fine of course, but a later date might mean that someone else gets to go instead of me,,, Well, here we go with this, let's see where it takes us.  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
| Date: Week of May 20th Locale: Phoenix, Arizona This week finds me in Phoenix, Arizona again, and I loved it. It always amazes me how much I find I miss the Southwest, especially Arizona and New Mexico. One day, I'll live there again. This class was very short, only two days in length. It's one I've taught many times, so everything went smoothly. The flights were okay, at least I gave myself enough of a layover at O'Hare each way so I didn't have to imitate O.J. to get from one gate to the next. Also, I change hotel chains to try and build up point with a second major chain (Marriott), but I think I've decided I like Hilton more. Noteworthy Restaurants: Bitter & Twisted https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52851956e4b0d970d0600f3c/t/5bec7ddb562fa7b3c4bf4aaf/1542225374746/B%26T_FoodMenu_11_12_2018.pdf This place was more of a tavern/bar than restaurant, but their food was excellent. The drink menu was extensive, I ended up having something different. No idea what was in it, but it was good. Their House-Smoked Beef Brisket Tacos (4 street sized tacos + guacamole + pico de gallo + cotija cheese) were excellent! Mother Brunch Brewing http://motherbunchbrew.com/menu.html If you ever visit this place, be careful with their sliders. They are really a slider and a half, and the order comes with three of them! Talk about stuffed! In Closing I will spend next week in Schaumburg, meetings and more meetings. Then a picnic. After that, Atlanta, followed by Albuquerque. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE!  Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of May 6th Locale: Santa Fe, New Mexico This week finds me in Santa Fe, New Mexico for another class with the New Mexico Department of Information Technology. Once again, we didn't have access to one of their sites, and used a trailer containing the same equipment, just installed in a different manner. The class itself was great, there was a lot of discussion, questions and answers all around. It is always so special to come 'home'. Being raised about 60 miles south in Albuquerque, this state is still home to me, no matter how many places I've visited. When I was younger, I wondered why New Mexico was called 'The Land Of Enchantment', but now I see why. Simply put, there's no other place I'd rather be, no where I'd rather live, than here. I know, I know, you'll say 'What about Hawaii Jim?' And you're right. But it's too expensive to live there, and despite my love of the islands, it doesn't quite have the hold on me that New Mexico does. Since the site we used for doing the hands-on exercises is not installed in the same fashion as what they'll really see when doing their jobs, I thought it extremely important that they see a 'real site'. Last class we went to one in Santa Fe, but there was an employee there who was pretty anxious about us being around the equipment, so the decision was made to visit a different site this time. As luck would have it, we visited one in Albuquerque on the last day of class. This worked out very well, and gave me an opportunity to play tourist Thursday afternoon. Once show-n-tell finished on Thursday, I drove eastward to the edge of the Sandia Mountains, and rode the Tramway from the base of the mountains to the crest. We started at an elevation of 6,400 feet, and arrived at the crest about 15 minutes later. Elevation: 10,386 feet. The view from there is fantastic, there's trails you can walk, with one leading you to the 'Kiwanis Lodge'. This is an abandoned stone building that hikers or other people will stay at should they need shelter. There's no windows (all smashed out by weather), no doors, but a decent sized stone building that can shelter you from rain, snow, and heavy winds. I've made the three quarter mile walk to the shelter in the past, but didn't try it this time, I had other things to get done. The descent down was as uneventful as the ascent, sadly I saw no wildlife. I swear, the wildlife hears that Jim's back, and go into hiding.  Noteworthy Restaurants: Maria's New Mexican Kitchen https://marias-santafe.com/wp-content/uploads/Marias-Dinner-Menu.pdf This place is excellent, and while it doesn't have quite the charm of La Posta De Mesilla in Las Cruces, it is still a great place to dine. I loved their Green Chile Relleno's (Can you tell I go ga-ga over Green Chile while home?). The students and I returned for lunch on Wednesday. I had their Southwest BBQ Ribs, and they were delicious as well. La Choza http://www.lachozasf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Dinner_Menu.3.14.19.pdf This place is also excellent. I couldn't resist, and had their Stuffed Sopaipilla. If you haven't had a Sopaipilla, you're missing a real treat. This was stuffed with cheese & refried beans, and I chose to add Pork Adovada to mine, and smothered in green chile or course! Photo's From Visit:  View Of Clouds Hugging The Mountaintops, From Sandia Peak In Closing I am in Chicago next week delivering a class at Motorola. The following week, I'll return to the Southwest, this time Phoenix! Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of April 29th Locale: Montrose, Colorado This week finds me in Montrose, Colorado for another class with the Western Area Power Administration. It's the same class I've delivered in Bismarck, ND, Watertown, SD, and Loveland, Co. Montrose is in the Southwest area of Colorado, about four hours west-southwest of Denver. There's not a lot to Montrose, it's a nice small town. One of those where if you blink your eyes, you're past it. The area is beautiful, the town surrounded by mountains in every direction. The journey getting there was something else. I woke at 4 am for my 8:15 flight, and left about 5:30 so I could stop at a small restaurant for breakfast. My first flight was delayed by about 30 minutes, but I had a 2 hour layover at O'Hare, so that wasn't a problem. The flight to Denver left 'on time', except we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. Luckily, I had a 2.5 hour layover in Denver, so being late wasn't so bad. It did make for a long day of travel though. I ended up landing in Montrose at 5:45 or so. I found the training site first thing, then had dinner. By the time I checked in the hotel, it was after 7pm! Needless to say, I wasn't up long. Then I had to shorten the class from 3 days to 2 for the customer, so the first day went from 7am to 5pm. Another exhausting day. The trip home.... we won't go there. It was longer, if that's possible, and I had to run my 'you know what off' in O'Hare to make my last flight. But I'm alive and well, and ready for next week. That's about all I can ask. In Closing I will spend the weekend at home before flying to Santa Fe Monday. Wish me luck with these flights! Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of April 15th Locale: Santa Fe, New Mexico First and foremost, this is one of my longest entries! They say it's always good to go home, and for me, being anywhere in New Mexico is being home. I can't begin to tell you how comfortable I feel being there. But first, the reason that caused me to be home once again. My customer this week was the State of New Mexico, Department of Information Technology. The class covered the equipment on a Motorola Trunked Radio Site. It was a little odd, because they didn't want us touching a live site (and rightly so in many ways), but provided the same equipment in a small trailer near the building. The only thing about that was this equipment was not assembled in the same manner as their sites are. So there was a lot of discussion on how the radio worked, a lot of hands-on activities for them, but it wasn't exact way they would see it. This made for an interesting class. Everything went well, the students learned a lot, and seemed happy with the everything overall. The week before Santa Fe, I was in El Paso delivering a class. I spent the weekend in New Mexico playing tourist, and relaxing a little. Since the El Paso class was so short, I was done on Wednesday afternoon. So Thursday I went north into New Mexico, and explored a couple of small towns I am considering retiring in, Silver City, and Deming. Both are great small towns, but Silver City is at 7,000 feet elevation. While that's not an issue for me, it's also very hilly, and may present problems as I age. Deming was relatively flat, and about 2000 feet lower in elevation, so to me, it's a more desirable destination. The drawback there though, is that it's only 40 miles or so from the Mexican border. Don't let the news of today fool you, or mislead you on what's going on at the border. Trump's wall? Yep, it's very necessary, long past due. There's a lot going on at the border that we rarely hear about in the news. Enough about that kind of stuff. I spent Thursday night in Las Cruces, and had a great dinner at La Posta De Mesilla. If you're ever in that area, it's an almost must stop kind of place. Very reasonably priced dinners, excellent food and service. Friday I headed north to my true home in New Mexico, Albuquerque. Along the way, I stopped in Hatch, NM, home of that world famous chile festival. Except that happens in September, so right now, it's a sleepy, small town whose whole livelyhood and notoriety is centered around green chile peppers. I tried to stop at Spaceport America, but found out that you can only visit it by booking a tour through one specific tour company. Now there's someone who has a corner on a market! Saturday I decided to head a little south again, then west, and visited the Very Large Array outside Socorro. This was definitely worth my time! I was fascinated by the 90 foot tall Radio Satellite dishes, all 27 of them. Reading about how they are used in the exploration of space could have kept me going for days if not weeks and months. I ended up spending about 3 hours there (it's a 2 hour drive one way from Albuquerque), and got back to my hotel about 5pm. I ended up meeting my niece for dinner at a restaurant in Old Town Albuquerque, La Placita. Another excellent meal there too. Sunday was my day to rest and relax some, and get wash done. Sunday night I visited my Sister-In-Law Ruth, and she fixed us a outstanding New Mexican meal of Indian Taco's with homemade sopaipillas, and all the fixin's needed for both the tacos and the sopaipillas. Monday was my travel day to Santa Fe, but I took the long route through the Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque. I got on State Highway 333 (really is Old Route 66. Wish it was still called that) in Tejeras Canyon, and drove along one stretch at 45 miles an hour. Why so slow? At a certain spot on that road, if you straddle the white line on the right hand side of the road, you'll hear 'America The Beautiful' played, caused by the tires on the road! It is truly a unique experience. Sadly though, the song only plays when east bound, not west bound. (Look for a blue sign that states 'Entering Musical Highway zone', or something like that). I also drove through the town of Madrid, famous from the movie 'Wild Hogs'. Maggie's Diner is not a restaurant, it's a store! How sad. Once class was done on Thursday, I visited the Taos Pueblo. I have wanted to visit here since I was knee high to a grasshopper. There was no way I was going to not visit on this trip! Frdaiy morning I headed for the midwest, leaving this beautiful state behind. Along the way, I stopped at Fort Union National Monument (I visit National Parks and Monuments every chance I get). I also stopped in the little town of Clayton NM to see dinosaur tracks! That was pretty interesting.... Noteworthy Restaurants: La Posta De Mesilla, Las Cruces https://www.laposta-de-mesilla.com/ This is a restaurant that has seen the likes of Billy The Kid, Pancho Villa, and Kit Carson dine there at one time or another. Outstanding traditional New Mexican food. I chose their Chile Rellenos, and they were some of the best I've ever had. Cowgirl BBQ, Santa Fe http://www.cowgirlsantafe.com/pages/menus.php Cabeza De Ajo. A head of roasted garlic in melted jack cheese, tomatillo salsa, and Crostini's. Yummmm. And that was just an appetizer! Prime-On-The-Nine, Dodge City, Kansas http://primeonthenine.com/dinner-menu/ Despite this being a steakhouse, I had their Mahi-Mahi. Grilled Mahi-Mahi with a sweet, citrus, cherry glaze, served with green beans and almond rice. The glaze had a bit of a kick, with sriracha sauce in it. Excellent! Photo's From Visit:  Very Large Array Satellite Dish  Storm Approaching The Very Large Array  Taos Pueblo  San Geronimo Church, Taos Pueblo  The Original San Geronimo Church, Taos Pueblo Historic/Interesting Places Visited: The Very Large Array vla.nrao.edu For the geek in all of us, or anyone who loves any subject involving space exploration Musical Highway https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/45182 This is worth the small detour off I 40, just for fun! Taos Pueblo http://taospueblo.com/ If you have any interest in Native Americans, particularly the Pueblo people and how they lived (still live in some cases), this is a must see location. In Closing I will spend part of next week in Schaumburg attending a short class before going to Colorado the following week. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of September 10th Locale: El Paso, Texas This week finds me in El Paso Texas working with Yselta Del Sur Pueblo. It's a short, two-day class that I have a lot of fun delivering. Since spring is here and the weather has turned warmer, I decided to drive. What a fund drive it was too! My route took me down I-44 through Missouri and Oklahoma, then west on I-40 to Amarillo, then SW along state highways through Western Texas and Eastern New Mexico. In planning this drive, there were a few places I really wanted to visit. I made a list of places to visit based on the route, with the first one being 'Larry Baggett's Trail Of Tears Memorial. It's a small homemade memorial for the Trail of Tears on State Route D, accessed from exit 172 on I-44. It is a very unique memorial, beautiful in its own way. The second place to visit, was the Uranus Fudge Factory. It is there that you can get fresh fudge, packed daily, in Uranus! You can see the obvious play on words, and they use it to the hilt there. I bought a pound of fudge at the chocolate factory, and the young woman at the register thanked me for picking Uranus. I looked at her and said, "I always love visiting Uranus and seeing what I can pick out for myself." I know..... I know.. .. But I couldn't resist. The next stop was Geronimo's grave at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I have felt a strong desire to visit him since learning his gravesite was there, so this was almost a must for me. The final place to visit on this drive was the McGinn Pistachio farm in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It's the home of the world's largest Pistachio, standing almost 40 feet tall! A fun place to visit, especially if you like nuts. Photo's From Visit:  Entrance To Larry Baggett's Trail of Tears Memorial  A Touching Sign At The Entrance to Larry Baggett's Memorial  Geronimo's Grave Historic/Interesting Places Visited: Larry Baggett's Trail Of Tears Memorial - No website for this beautiful place. Geronimo's Grave - No website for Geronimo's Grave, but if you want to visit, just go to Google maps and search for it. McGinn's Pistachioland http://www.worldslargestpistachio.com/ A bit of unique place to visit,. Nice place to shop for gifts, or find some Pistachio's, Wine, or other small gifts for friends or loved ones. In Closing I will spend the weekend in New Mexico, staying in Las Cruces and Albuquerque while I visit the state I love, and plan to retire to in a few years. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of March 18th Locale: Schaumburg, Illinois This week finds me in Schaumburg cross-training a co-worker. I have to say that this is very satisfying to me, for a couple of reasons. Let me explain. When I was hired by Motorola, I knew NOTHING about RF, radios in particular. Well, I did know two things. I knew that AM stands for Amplitude Modulation, and FM stands Frequency Modulation. But they (the management people I was interviewing with) told me that if I could teach, they (Motorola) would teach me RF theory and practices. I had a good technical background thanks to my Navy career, but it definitely wasn't in RF. But my thinking was, "I learned Nuclear Power, learned how to operate, maintain, and repair a Submarine Nuclear Power Plant, so I could definitely learn RF!" When I interviewed, I had to do what's called a 'Practice Teach', to prove I could deliver classes. My students were instructors, people I'd be working with if hired. After I was done, one of the senior instructors (Bob) told the man who would had the final say about new hires, that he should not hire me. He explained that I didn't have the background for the job. As you know from reading above, he was absolutely right. But Alex (the hiring manager) said, "Jim is former Navy, from the Nuclear Power Program, I'm going to give him a chance." Bob later became my manager for several years, and this story is one of our favorite to tell. Bob taught me a lot about RF and radios in general. He was always willing to answer any questions I had. What does that have to do with this blog entry? It was Bob who I was cross-training this past week. In Closing This week I am home in central Illinois doing 'office work'. Next week I will deliver a class on line. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! |
| Date: Week of March 11th Locale: Austin, Texas This week finds me in Austin, Texas delivering about the same class I delivered in Quebec last week. Fortunately, it wasn't near as cold in Austin as it was in Quebec! All went well in delivering the class, I was able to answer every question they asked, and helped them with some things they hadn't been able to do before. The firrst day of the class started off a bit different though. I had driven to the training site when I arrived Monday, and as expected, it was a huge place. So I called my customer contact and left him a voice mail asking where to be in the morning. He never returned my call until the following morning as I was leaving the hotel. It was then that I found out that the training site wasn't where the documentation had said it would be. I groaned, because I was afraid it would be somewhere pretty far away. You know Texas is a small state  , so it shouldn't have been too hard to get there. It turned out the the training site was a 45 minute drive from my hotel... Oh well, things could be worse, huh.I think Austin's a nice city, but it's getting bigger with each passing year. Plus, while I was there, a convention of some type was going on. Add to it that apparently Austin is a place quite a few people go to on spring break! That made it crowded, and with all the road construction going on, it made driving any where a real chore. Again, things could be a lot worse... Besides, there was so many good restaurants near me that I could have been there a month! I would have gained quite a bit of weight too, lol. Noteworthy Restaurants: Roaring Fork http://roaringfork.com/menus/RFSL_MenuDinner.pdf This place was so good the first time that I went back for seconds. Their 'Fried Avocado and Crab' was excellent, as was the 'Kettle of Green Chile Pork'. Can you say Yummm??In Closing This week (week of March 18), I am in Schaumburg cross-training my former manager on a new course (for him). Things might get a bit busier for us with a couple of instructors unable to travel for one reason or another. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of March 4th Locale: Quebec City, Quebec This week finds me in Quebec City, Quebec for a class with the Canadian Coast Guard. Quebec was hit by a major snowstorm the week before I arrived, so it was quite cold while I was there, as well as being completely white. As a result, other than going to and from work, I didn't get out much. The class went well for the most part. For the most part? Yep, I'll explain in a minute. There was only one Base Radio and one Site Gateway/Router available for this class, so a lot of it was show n Tell. Except when this occurs, I don't do the showning n telling. I've done it so many times I can do it blindfolded. Almost. So I had them entering the commands to configure each piece of equipment. During the second day of class, one of the students asked if deleting the boot.cfg file would delete the IP addresses in the Site Router. I replied, "No, but rather than try and explain it, let's show you." I then directed the student who was doing the hands-on operations to delete the boot.cfg file. We then rebooted the router (since that was necessary), and imagine my surprise when it started to do what we call an 'Endless reboot'. What I mean is, the router would boot, then reboot, then reboot, etc. I was shocked, because I'd done this before, and it never happened. I knew what we had to do to correct this, but when we tried doing that, it didn't work. Now I was really puzzled. It was the end of the day, so they left, and I knew I wouldn't be able to relax that night until I had it fixed, so I went to my hotel and got my bag of cables and adapters. I came back, and within 30 minutes I had the router 'fixed'. I called a co-worker about this, and he explained that ever since a firmware upgrade had been done in a previous release, this would occur (the constant reboot), if the Boot.cfg file was deleted after the router had booted from it. The next morning I went over the steps I'd done the night before, so they would know how to correct this if it happened to them. It was about then that I realized the reason we couldn't correct the issue the previous night, was that they were using laptops with a French-Canadian keyboard. As such, even though the alphabet is displayed correctly, the numeric and special character keys didn't send the same ASCII text code when pressed. As I mentioned earlier, it was so cold while I was there that I didn't get out much. It wasn't below zero (other than one night), but the wind blowing across that snow made it feel a lot colder than it really was. I tried walking to a nearby Pub (less than a half mile away), but the wind cut right through my winter coat. I gave up after having walked maybe 300 yards.  Old Quebec City  Partially Frozen St. Lawrence Seaway In Closing I will spend the weekend at home in Central Illinois, then fly to Austin Texas on Monday. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of February 3rd Locale: Phoenix, Arizona This week finds me in Maricopa County Arizona (Phoenix), for a class I haven't taught in over 7 years! It's changed a lot since then, and I put in a lot of time preparing for the class. As I suspected, the second week went quite a bit better than the first one! My struggles with one of the hands-on labs were gone this week, in fact, everything went pretty smoothly. At times, some of the students struggled with completing their hands-on activities, but I was able to answer all their questions, and assisted them in completing them. All in all, I felt everything went about as it should. I still have some areas to improve on, still need to gain more in-depth knowledge of this course, but I'm quite happy with this past week. Noteworthy Restaurants: The Original Blue Adobe Grille http://www.originalblueadobe.com/menu.html I dined here my last time in Phoenix, and was determined to return. Their Green Chile Corn Chowder is excellent, as was the Ocean Front, New Mexico. Shrimp Cocktail Relleno on a painted plate of Shrimp Cocktail Sauce, Lobster Tamale with Mango Salsa & Raspberry Chipotle. Red Chile Rice. Yummmmmmm! I'd say business for this place is going very well, when I came in (a Saturday evening), they had open tables, but a book full of reservations, and were ecstatic when I volunteered to sit at the bar. Hula's Modern Tiki http://www.hulasmoderntiki.com/menu You might wonder why I came to a Hawaiian style restaurant in Phoenix. Well, I was browsing Google maps looking for likely restaurants, and when I saw this one, the menu appealed to me. Their Tuna Poke was excellent! Their traditional Kalbi Ribs were good too, but I've had better in states other than Hawaii.... Historic/Interesting Places Visited: Tombstone Arizona Tombstone of course, is famous for 'The Gunfight at the OK Corral'. The gunfight was actually in a vacant lot next door to the corral./ As it turns out, I probably parked just a few feet away from where it all occurred. This is really a tourist trap at heart, but one I just had to visit. If you find yourself in the Phoenix or Tucson area of Arizona, you should visit it too.  'Downtown' Tombstone, Az In Closing I will spend next week home before going up to Schaumburg next Sunday to teach a class. Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
| Date: Week of January 27th Locale: Phoenix, Arizona This week finds me in Maricopa County Arizona (Phoenix), for a class I haven't taught in over 7 years! It's changed a lot since then, and I put in a lot of time preparing for the class. I knew the first week would be a bit tough, and it was..... Overall the class went decently well, but not as well as it could have, or should have. I stumbled over a one of the hands-on activities, and found myself a little on edge Monday and Tuesday. I talked to myself a bit Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning I'd relaxed enough to feel good about things. Then came that stumble on Thursday.... The important thing is, I lived, they all lived, everyone learned something, and that little stumble won't happen again. I teach the same class to them (new students next week, and know it will flow much better than this one did. While Maricopa County is the customer this week, I'm actually in the city of Phoenix. As all of you know, this was a great week to not be in Illinois. It was -25 at home on Tuesday night, and below zero from that point, until mid morning yesterday. All in all, about 48 hours of below zero weather. Meanwhile, I am here in Phoenix where it's been in the 60's and 70's all week. Talk about being lucky! I made sure to thank the students for having me here this week, even though they had nothing to do with me being scheduled here. Noteworthy Restaurants: Bluewater Grill https://www.bluewatergrill.com/locations/phoenix#menu=dinner You would think that in going to an excellent seafood restaurant like this that I'd order seafood. And I did, in a way. Their New England Clam Chowder is excellent. Plus, I was in the mood for a salad, so chose their Seafood Louie Salad. Mixed lettuce, diced tomatoes, cucumber, egg, avocado with San Francisco Louie dressing, red rock crab and bay shrimp. Can you say Yummm? Richardson's Cuisine Of New Mexico http://www.richardsonsnm.com/dinner-menu/ There is no way I could be in the Southwest and not eat food from New Mexico, given the chance. I have to go back though, because all I ordered was their Roasted Garlic Plate. The menu describes it as this. With green chile, roasted peppers, cheese & dipping sauces. It doesn't say it's the size of a football field! Seriously, this was a HUGE platter, with about 6-7 full cloves of Elephant Garlic.. a thin flour tortilla on the plate was totally obscured by the green chiles, cheese, onions, and sauces (red and green, or Christmas as it's called in New Mexico). I have to go back and try something more, maybe twice more even? Anyone care to join me? Organ Stop Pizza https://www.organstoppizza.com/ I heard about this place while getting my hair cut Tuesday, and knew I had to see it. The food is good, not fantastic, but the highlight is the person who sits on a stool at the organ, and plays the largest Wurlitzer Pipe Organ in the world! Tonight, the organist played many songs, some hits, some soundtracks, all with no sheet music. It's all in his head! WOW.... Some of the songs were Mamma Mia, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Pink Panther, Take Five (Dave Brubeck Quartet), and others I can't remember. It's quite the experience to be honest. But you really have to be there to appreciate it. Historic/Interesting Places Visited: McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park https://www.therailroadpark.com/ This is one for Railroad Buffs, and anyone who enjoys interesting sites. This is a museum, a play area for young and old, scale model railroad in a good sized building, and more. For anyone who likes railroads even a little, this is a place for you to visit. I spent over an hour there. On the property is a couple of Pullman railcars. From their website: The Roald Amundsen Pullman Car was built in 1928 for $205,000. As one of the last cars built by the Pullman Company, the Roald Amundsen is best known for being used by every president from Herbert Hoover through Dwight Eisenhower (Harry S. Truman and Franklin D. Roosevelt were the other two) It was on this car in 1940 that President Franklin Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister W. L. McKenzie King signed the agreement that provided for the joint defense of North America, now known as NORAD. The car was donated to the park in 1971 by Mr. and Mrs. Franz Talley. The car has been placed on the National Historic Register. In Closing I will spend the weekend here and teach the same class next week to a new group of students. Stay tuned! Til next time, be good to yourselves and those you love, and WRITE! Jim Dorrell |
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I then went to Taiwan for two weeks; but, although that was nice, it wasn't 'home'. 
