A Brief Nickel Plated Adventure

Yesterday I saw some posts from a friend that the Nickel Plate was out and about, so I looked up the schedule.  Sure enough, she was doing an excursion from her home near Fort Wayne, Indiana to Hillsdale, Michigan.  It was yesterday and today, so I decided to try and catch her.

I saw that she was leaving Hillsdale around 3:00 P.M., so I found a space where I could catch her pulling out.  The first place I thought she was going did not have tracks, so I didn't go there.  I doubled back to the spot where I saw a couple people waiting for her.

She had to back out from the spot where she was parked and then get on this spur to get on her journey to Fort Wayne.

It wasn't a bad spot except for the junk that was around the tracks.  There weren't too many people here, so I didn't have to deal with that either.

I've discovered that many people that follow trains are nuts.  They will race from point to point to catch her.  One time, I saw somebody lapping the train.

Anyway, I remembered that they did these kind of excursions but it was so long ago that I looked, that I almost forgot.

I liked this spot well enough.  Especially with the curve of the track leading into the picture.

It was a nice day and the sun was cooperative.   Since it was behind me.

Made for some nice pictures.

She was still speeding up in this series.

On more shot before the next spot.

I followed the people that were at my original spot until I saw a group of people on the side of the road.  I pulled up there but they told me I couldn't park there.  I think they didn't want my car in the picture, if they had said that, I would have moved.  But if you see where those people are, that's where I wanted to be.

This wasn't a bad spot but the other spot had a nice "tunnel of trees" effect.  But this one had the benefit of being away from that group.

I like this picture.

I even like this.  These guys seemed friendlier than the other group.

And just the train as it passed.

I decided to head to one more place before heading back home.  This place was near Reading, MI again, I was following the other folks and I really had no idea where I was.

This spot had the benefit of having the "tunnel of trees" effect that I was looking for.  Since the train was near speed, I was getting a nice cloud of smoke.

The train was getting closer.

I would have liked this picture more without some of the stuff in the background.

The sign heading into Reading.

The group of people at this stop.  As you can see, there were a few.

I like this picture a little better because it is minus the crowd.

One more.

Hillsdale wasn't as far from me as I thought.  I just shot down US-12 and it was a nice drive today because it was in the 70s.  On the way over, I stopped at a hot dog stand in Jonesville that I've been meaning to stop at.  It was pretty good, the coney sauce was more like a sloppy joe sauce than chili, so it was kind of sweet.

I looked at the Nickel Plate schedule, it looks like they are going to Reading next weekend, so I may have to try this again.  We'll see.

A Brief Stop at Bishop Airport

 Bishop Airport is in Flint, Michigan and was first built in 1928 after General Motors board member Arthur Bishop donated 220 acres of his farmland to build the airport.  It is the third busiest airport in Michigan after Detroit and Grand Rapids.

It is serviced commercially by Allegiant Airlines.  American and United have regional connection flights to Chicago O'Hare.  Delta suspended service after COVID and hasn't restarted.

I was at a nearby place to look at some parts but it's parking lot gave me a pretty good view of the airport.  Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone with me, so the pictures aren't the greatest in quality.

A Diamond plane after take off.

This Allegiant A320 was taking off.  It was heading off to St. Petersburg.

This Cessna 172 was doing touch and go landings.

A Stop at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Preserve

I had to go take some drawings up to Bay City for my mom today.  After we dropped those off, we came back by way of M-13 and that meant a stop at Shiawassee.  They were doing some work on the main entrance, so we had to go another way.  It was a way that we haven't been and I kind of liked it better than the normal entrance because it went through woods.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of it.

It was kind of warm day and we were up there in the middle of the afternoon, so that meant many of the birds were hunkering down somewhere.  But that didn't mean we didn't see any.  This barn swallow was modeling for me.

Another shot of him.

As I came around to another spot, I saw this egret standing in the tree.  I think he was trying to stay in the shade.

He was close enough that I was able to get a face shot.

I love the looks of these birds, they are so regal.

the white really sets off well.

He was also modeling for me.

Hey, what are you looking at.

Another cool shot.

Just love these birds.

One more shot of him.

A water lily.

There were quite a few of them.

I kind of like this one.

I'm not sure what kind of flower this.

A group of cormorants.

I was going to make this one look like he was singing back to the chorus.

A puddle duck.

A closeup on a dragon fly.

Some more water lilies.

I kind of like this shot.

and one more.

I'm not sure how long the main entrance is going to be closed but I hope the change the pattern for a while.

 

The Evolution of Language Mural

 So I read about a mural that was in Saginaw and I decided that I needed to go see it.  I was actually hoping to get pictures of it with my drone.

The grain elevator was abandoned some time ago and was pretty much an eyesore on the side of the Saginaw River.

Mark Flegenheimer, the former CEO of Michigan Sugar, got the idea for this when he was visiting his alma mater and saw that they painted old grain silos with murals.

He started the Shine Bright Saginaw Mural Project to raise $50,000 to bring in an artist to transform this mural.

The artist was Okuda San Miguel, a renowned street artist in Madrid, Spain.

He started in 1997 and has several murals all over the world.

This mural was just finished.

The city hopes that this and other murals will attract people to the city.

There were a few people around as I was here.

I will have to say this mural looks pretty cool.

Evidently, this is painted on the other side but I will have to save that for another day.

So anyway, the title is "Evolution of Language".

And I'll have to admit, it looks pretty cool.  Apparently, this is the second largest mural in the United States.