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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Today is a short harbor tour of Duluth/Superior and then a bus drive-by of the yards and stuff in Superior, WI. I don't want to miss this. I bring my entire box of Kleenex with me, but the faucet is turned off and I really do feel much better.



School buses! Shades of the 2003 Havre convention (or so I'm told). It's not nearly that hot -- quite pleasant actually. There's lots to see and we get a good look at the former GN ore docks as well as various lakers (ore boats) along the way. We are told boat traffic (as well as everything else) is way down, but then things are tough all over, Doc.



After the harbor tour, we head back to the buses. There's some confusion over which bus we should get on and all 3 end up heading back to the hotel just in case someone didn't want to go on the Superior land tour. This turns out to our advantage as Lindsay, Bruce, Joel and the rest of the boys have this one bus here all to ourselves! Yes, they said we would be the LAST to have the catered lunch (courtesy of BNSF), but each of us have our own bus seat so it's quite comfortable.



Well they showed us EVERYTHING in Superior. Twice. I was actually starting to recognize where we were after passing the same spot 3 or 4 times. We sure got our money's worth. At the Superior Yard office for lunch, we had a nice sandwich box under a tent, got a picture of the James J. Hill statue, and a GN-paint scheme taxi cab, took a pee in a real BNSF crew bathroom and generally had a grand time!

We even had a tremendous rainstorm passing the old NP-GN depot in Superior. But the oddest site of all had to be the two deer spotted halfway up the tremendous pile of coal behind a fenced-off, secure harbor area. Say what do you two "dears" plan on eating up there? You're going to get your little hooves dirty!



They had us off the property and back to the hotel at a reasonable time. So THANK YOU BNSF -- for being great hosts and showing us around!

Not even time for a nap, but I grab a quick shower and change into my "evening clothes" (Aloha Shirt and long khakis). Jim Chinquist (bless 'em) buys me my first glass of cabernet. Now where to sit. This year, we had this rather annoying, "sign up for a table of 10" thing for the banquet. The only problem is I never saw the list until just before the chewings. At registration on Sunday, no one knew about it. Oh well. Hopefully they won't do that at Glacier Park 2010.



I finally got to meet Pat Dorin! That was fun. He's the guy who wrote Lines East (GN) and Iron Ore Railroads to name just two. Pat was also our convention speaker and he talked about trains on the Iron Range.



For the raffle, I bought $60 worth of tickets. I had my eye on a book on railroads in Kelly Lake, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. Bill Sornsin recruited me as a "runner" (at my weight, yeah, I guess I could stand to exercise a bit) and we both took the door prizes to the winners. The Grand Prize was a set of F units won by former GN Traveling Passenger Representative, Greer Nielsen!



This concludes my report for the GNRHS 2009 convention in Duluth.  If you want to hear about the continuation of my trip down to Sioux City, IA and back (to see GN 1355), read on.

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

A looong drive ahead of me today. Duluth, MN to Sioux City, IA by way of Austin, MN (the famous SPAM museum!). Check out and start heading south. As I bump along on I-35, a little message comes on my dashboard: "Left Front Tire Pressure Low". Oh joy. Once you leave, there's not a lot of civilization south of Duluth.

Up ahead, there's one of those Gas Next Exit signs for "TJ's". Hmph. Wonder if they're open. Uh-oh, it says TWO MILES. OK, here we go then. Wow, this is really boonie country. Well here's TJ's in this little bitty town. No one around. No air pump. Back to the freeway. Next exit has a gas station...but the air pump doesn't work. Third gas station is the charm. Whoa, my tire was down to 20 pounds! (40 is normal). I fill it up and I'm on my way. Somehow I think yon tire is going to give me further trouble later on.

I stop at Pine City for some Mickey D's and a tank of go juice. Funny how I-35 becomes smooth as glass the moment you reach the Twin Cities area. I get through town with no trouble and soon start hitting the construction zones south of that. Austin, MN appears in my windshield sooner than I realize and the NAV system takes me right to the Spam Museum. This is great!



The Mrs. and I both love SPAM. Always have. And holy moley look at that GIFT SHOP! I go a little crazy and buy T-shirts, sweatshirts, all kinds of knick knacks and, of course, a couple flats of the more esoteric SPAM varieties (bacon, cheese, Hot N Spicy, etc.). At the cash register, they tell me they can ship it home, so I don't have to mess with it. It's going ground, so it might take a while.

I had planned to have lunch at the SPAM cafe across the way, but I'm still full from breakfast. Off we go. About 3/4 of the way across southern Minnesota on I-90, the NAV system INSISTS I get off and take this little road cutoff instead of the I-90/I-29 route I'd been planning. Okay, fine. Have it your way. I turn off on MN Highway 60 and before I know it I'm on this beautiful, four-lane, concrete, smooth as silk, expressway. In the middle of nowhere. I cross into Iowa and highway 60 continues as this beautiful superhighway, as yet untouched by overweight trucks and a harsh winter. None of this showed up on my map when I researched. They must have just built it.

As I roll through Iowa, it's becoming clear where all the ethanol gasoline is coming from. I'm following what appears to be a signaled Union Pacific branch line and there are dozens of brand new tank cars along the route joining the ubiquitous grain hoppers. New processing plants appear every 30 miles or so.

The last 20 miles into Sioux City, I'm following both a UP branch and a BNSF branch and I see trains on both lines (but am out of position to get a decent picture). I stop at Hinton to take a nifty shot of a couple SD9's at a grain elevator.



In late afternoon, I finally roll into Sioux City. I pull up alongside a long tank car train (is this Texas?) and grab a couple shots as he trundles by. The engineer really lets me have it on his horn -- holding the last longgggggggggggg all way across the crossing.



The unit train of ethanol takes a while to clear. Finally, I wend my way through downtown and onto I-29. Heading north, I pass what looks exactly like the City Auditorium I can see in my postcard of GN 1355.



It is a warm evening, so I check in at the Country Inn and drive around Sioux City looking for a restaurant. I find this place: http://www.minervas.net/

They are playing Harry Connick, Jr. on the outside speaker as I enter, so that's a good sign. I am promptly seated and it appears I am the youngest customer! OK, someone brought their granddaughter, but you get the idea. During my entire stay, they keep playing Frank Sinatra and swing music. My kind of place. I start with a couple very nice lime margarita's on ice. The shrimp on a skewer looks good, but...what am I thinking? This is Iowa. Salt water is a good 1,500 miles away. So I go with a rack of short ribs which are excellent. Appetite sated, it's back to the hotel for a good night's snooze.