The Year That Was 2013

Wow, I can't believe that another year has flown by.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was doing my 2012 in review post.  In terms of number of posts, this was one of my least productive years but I think I made up for that in terms of quality.  I felt like my photography was starting to grow this year and I feel like this blog is pretty well established.

 As has been tradition for this posts, I will start by posting a picture of M-Hat V.  This hat hasn't seen as much travel as some of my other hats because I've spread out the travels amongst my hats.  Still, this hat has seen the Empire Builder and Canada, so that counts for something.

 The pictures are in chronological order but I may talk about somethings out of order.  January brought me back to basketball pretty hot and heavy.  The Eagles gave me quite a bit to be exicted about as they went a little deeper in the MAC tournament than they have in the past.

 I also finally got the ice covered lighthouse pictures I've been looking for.  I'm gonna have to try to get some other ones this week, if the weather decides to cooperate with me.  It's supposed to get back in the 20's this week.  This is the Grand Haven light.

 February pretty much just had me sticking pretty close to Ypsilanti, so I didn't really have much to show for it.  I did like this picture of the Wolverine however.  I also had some pretty good basketball pictures.

 March brought me back to the covered bridges.  I posted this one because this is the bridge that was burned down earlier in the year.  Hopefully, they will be able to replace it.  I guess this shows that stuff is fleeting.

 March also took me up to the Soo Locks and I was able to get a picture of a freigther passing through the ice.  It made a pretty neat sound as it did so.

 April brought me some lighthouse pictures.  I was able to complete the Lake Michigan Lighthouses of the Lower Peninsula.  This particular one is Mission Point.

 April also took me to Canada for the first time in forever.  I thought Niagara was pretty neat but I was more impressed with the Welland Canal.  I will have to find my way back there in the next year.

 May brought me to Belle Isle where I found out about the Cherry Blossoms there.

 May also took me on the Empire Builder to Seattle.  Sadly, the weather wasn't very cooperative, so I didn't get to do quite as much as I had hoped but it was still pretty neat to experience the rails again.

 The Coast Starlight to San Francisco and the California Zephyr.  I could probably say the same thing for San Francisco that I could for Seattle.

 June took me out to Grand Haven where I got to witness a re-enactment.  I really should make it a point to go to more of these.

 The end of June brought me to my second Engineer's Day.  I was sort of waffling on whether I wanted to go there or not but I did end up going.  I'll have to say it was worth just for this view of the Gott.

 I also took the Mackinac Island Ferry over to Mackinac Island.  The ferry I took gave me a view of the Bridge that I'd never seen before.

 July brought me to the Canada Day Fireworks.  I think this was the only year the shot them from this part of Sarnia, so it gave me a pretty good view from the Maritime Center in Port Huron.

 In Bay City, they had the tall ships festival.  This particular vessel is the Niagara.  I would sort of see her re-enact her role in the Battle of Lake Erie later in the year.

 August brought Thunder Over Michigan.  Despite the boneheads in Congress and their sequestor, it was still a pretty cool air show.  It would have been cooler had the Thunderbirds been there though.

We had our company picnic on the Diamond Belle and that gave me the opportunity to get some ship pictures from the water.

 In September, I took a trip up to the Soo Locks and went through the Locks for the first time on the Soo Locks Boat Tour.  I will have to try this again on a day when there is more freighter traffic though.

 October brought me back to the Fallasburg Bridge but I was hoping to get better autumn pictures.

 It also found me on the rails with a day trip over to Chicago.  I took the boat tour there as well.  It was a pretty neat tour where they talked about the architecture of Chicago.

 The fall had me at a few Eastern games.  The Eagles did not look so good in football.  This was a picture from one of the brighter moments of the season, where they beat the Western Michigan Broncos.  The would finish the season at 2-10 and would fire their coach.  From what I've read about the replacement coach, I expect bright things for the Eagles in the future.

And December brought me back to boatwatching.  I was able to welcome an old friend after not seeing her in a while.

I think it was a pretty good year for me.  I got a picture in a book called "Football Nation" that was put out by the Library of Congress.  I also got a picture in the December issue of Esquire and they actually paid me for that one.  Like I said at the beginning, I think that my photography is finally starting to grow.

So what does 2014 hold for me?  Find out when I decide to post that in a couple of days.

Riding on the California Zephyr - Day Three

So this was my final day on the California Zephyr.  Sadly, the interesting part of the trip was behind me and for the most part we were passing through farm fields.  I guess it's just as well, it gave my camera a much needed break.

 The morning found me waking up in Omaha, Nebraska.  We had a little excitement as the police were checking the train for something.

 I think we were passing along the Missouri River for part of the trip.  Again, things were pretty calm and it made for nice reflections.

 A pretty typical scene for the day.

 There was a point where we had to wait for some freight trains.  The first one.

 And the second.

 This is Ottumwa, Iowa.  It is the fictional home of Radar from MASH.

 Looking down the main street.  I think.

 As we approached Burlington, we passed through an old train yard.  I saw this pair of old style diesels, so of course I had to take a picture.

 Looking down one of the streets of Burlington.

 A shot of the Burlington Skyline as we cross over the Mississippi River.  This pretty much meant I was in the home stretch.

 I like the looks of this Bridge too.  Again, a fairly calm river made for some reflections.

 I'm not sure where this Church was.

 One of our stops was in Galesburg, IL.  Galesburg was the home of the poet Carl Sandburg.  It was also the site of one of the Lincoln debates.

 One of the gate guardians.

 I kind of liked the looks of this barn.

 Another gate guardian.

 I really liked the looks of this barn.  Probably my only complaint about travelling by train is that sometimes I'd like to stop and take pictures of scenes like this.

 I think this is Naperville, IL.

 One of the yards we passed through on the way to Chicago.

A view of the Chicago skyline as we approach.   It was a nice enough day too.  It seemed like crappy weather plagued my whole trip.

Riding on the California Zephyr - Day Two

The next day, I woke up to the sights of Utah.  For the most part, Utah was very similar to Nevada.  It was just about as deserty.

 We found ourselves passing through a mountain valley as the sun rose.

 Another meal in the dining car.  As I said, the food on the train is quite good.  Breakfast on the Zephyr is kind of a treat because they make a really good French toast.

 And we continue through the desert.  There are people that don't really like the desert, since I don't get to see the desert all that often, I thought it was pretty neat.  I would imagine like anything else, you could tire of it though.

 For something that is so devoid of life, it is still pretty colorful.  I just love all the oranges, reds and little bits of green.

 The mountain formations are pretty interesting looking too.

 I really like the looks of this one.  I am not sure of the geological reasons for this ocurring though.  I want to say it's from erosion from years ago.

 A river that we passed, unfortunately I wasn't taking notes or I would have known what river it was.

 A pretty typical group of mountains for the desert.

I believe this is the Colorado River.

 Slowly it snakes through the valley.

 Another shot of the river.

 I kind of liked the lone tree against the mountain backdrop.

 Probably one of my favorite stations along the way is the Grand Junction station.  Although this isn't it.  There is a neat little gift shop with all sorts of railroad paraphenalia.

 The folks that used to run this line.

 A shot of our engines.

 The old train station.  I am hoping that they are renovating this because I'd love to see what its like on the inside.

 A Union Pacific Engine.

 A Southern Pacific engine in its original colors.  I think they are owned by the Union Pacific now.

 And back to the mountains.  We are now in Colorado and the mountains start to look a little greener.

 A truss bridge passing over the Colorado River.

 I think this is the Colorado Hotel in Glenwood Springs.  There is a spa here that uses the springs.  There used to be a regular train run between here and Denver.

 This is a ranch that was started by Paul Newman.  I think it is used for wayward boys.  Proceeds from his products still go here.

 More mountains.

 A mountain with a river in front of it.

 I really love the more reddish looking mountains.  Eventually these give way to the more granity mountains of the east.

 Another shot of the Colorado River as it snakes through the valley.

 We are still on the western side of the Continental Divide.

 Another shot of the Colorado.

 A few snow capped peaks off in the distance.

 A shot of the train.

 Another shot of the river.

 I think this is a Bronco that ran off the road.  The people in it survived but they were hurt pretty bad.  There are a few other wrecked cars here.  Apparently this is a popular spot to try to get rid of cars.

 This is very similar to one of my favorite shots from the last time I passed through this way.  In it you can see the three highways of history - the river, the rail and the highway.

 Somewhere in this shot you can see the entrance to the Moffat Tunnel.  It is named after David Moffat who was an early Colorado Railroad pioneer.  It passes under the continental divide.  the tunnel was completed in 1928 and cut almost 200 hundred miles off the trip from Denver to the Pacific.

 The tunnel itself is 6.2 miles long and passes under the continental divide.  I forget how long we were going through it but we couldn't move between the cars as an effort to keep diesel fumes from getting into them.

 A shot of the Boulder dam.

 Another set of snow covered peaks.

 Overlooking the Great Plains.

 Another shot overlooking the plains.

 Off in the distance, you can see Denver.

 In order to get down the mountain, there is a series of switchbacks.  The average grade on the rail is about 3%.  This is one way they keep the grade down.

 And we approach Denver.  As we do, we pass through a pretty major railyard.  This is a switcher engine.

 Another Union Pacific engine.

 And then we pass through a fairly major BNSF yard.

 Another BNSF engine.

 And Denver.

 Another shot of Denver.

A shot of the former stockyards.  Shortly after this picture, I went to dinner and was treated to a pretty fantastic sunset.