Too old for Tik-Tok. Too lazy for YouTube.
08/30/24 - I had the need to get away and my friend, with whom I travel frequently suggested going to Blue Ridge, GA. I didn't know a thing about it, but I've always liked Georgia so I said "why not". We booked a farmhouse just outside of town. This house was built when the farm was first established. As the family grew out of it, they built a bigger and by then more modern one. After much consideration, they decided to turn the original farmhouse into a Vrbo. The house was built in the 50's or 60's and is pretty much still the same as it was back then. The cabinets and some of the furniture is hand painted, the floors are mostly tile, and the place is full with pictures and artifacts from the family. I loved it. So much more character than a hotel. It has three huge bedrooms, with period furniture, a massive kitchen, a living room, and two enclosed porches. At the time of this post, it's $95.00 per night - which I consider a deal.
Blue Ridge is a small community, but the downtown makes it a good tourist destination. We didn't have a single bad meal there. Two places that I highly recommend are General Ledger and Southern Charm. There's also a nice selection of shops with local flair, and a few bars too. I'd allocate a day or two for exploring downtown but you could eat there every night. There is fishing nearby at the Blue Ridge Dam, and a nice selection of waterfalls that are all a short drive away. Mercier Orchards is a another short drive away, but worth it. Get you an apple fritter to eat while you are there and then there are all kinds of goods to take home. If you are a motorcyclist, the surrounding roads there are awesome. I'd go back, and I probably will.
blueridgemountains.com
Cox Farmhouse
General Ledger
Southern Charm
Mercier Orchards
08/23/24 - I'm a train guy. Had HO scale trains as a kid. My dad bought me a big book of Baldwin Locomotives. Rode the regional rail in Philly growing up. I've always liked trains. And now I like to ride them when I can and I like to spot them on the road. If I pull up to a crossing and I'm first in line, I'm getting my camera out. When the Big Boy was coming through Gila Bend, I dragged my friend Gary down to see it with me. So, I like to make videos of trains when the opportunity presents itself. I've posted a few on YouTube. This is the latest as of this post.
I'm not big on counting views, but I do find it interesting. Most of them have less that 100 views. I do have one that is over 4k. Guessing that is because of the specific railroad I was videoing. There are a lot of train channels and livestreams on YouTube. I find it all fascinating. Your mileage may vary.
08/16/24 - About a year ago, I put myself on a quest to find an ultra small travel mouse. I had a few misses, but I finally found what I believe to be (one of) the smallest functional travel mouses out there. Spoiler alert, my model is no longer available, but they have a slightly different version. I found the Cheerpod. Reviews online were mixed, but nearly every negative thing written was a positive or neutral to me. "Just too small." - check. "Not mouse shaped." OK by me, if it is small. "Limited battery life" - not my experience, and it is literally used next to a USB C port, so NBD. It's tiny, it connects via Bluetooth, and it works. Getting used to it was easy and switch back between it and a standard mouse is not an issue. I put it in a case and it's still smaller than a pack of Tic Tacs.
You can mouse, click, right click, scroll and do all of the normal mouse things. You can put it in Air Mode which is more of an in hand mode. And bonus, it has a laser pointer. Now the bad news, it's no longer available. If you can find one from a third party, I'd say buy it. It's 2.6" x 1.4" x .5". The alternative is the new Cheertok. It looks like it's focus is more for hand held, but they do show some desktop/mouse like activities on their website. It's a little bit bigger, but still tiny and might fit your need if you are looking for a tiny mouse.
Original indiegogo link
Cheertok
08/09/24 - On a recent trip to Vegas, I took a slight detour to revisit the Nevada Souther Railroad Museum. I'd been there before but wanted to go back for a second look. They have an open air pavillion with several static locomotives and other rolling stock. One of the first things you see there is a 1923 Baldwin 2-8-2 steam locomotive. This was built in 1923 and did service for the Pacific Lumber company. Under the pavillion roof, there is another steam locomotive. This one is a Baldwin 2-8-0 built in 1907 and was a freight hauler for the Union Pacific Railroad. They also have a tiny diesel-electric switcher that was used to move reactors and engines around a NASA test site at the Nuclear Rocket Development Site in Nevada. Rounding out the locmotives are a 1977 GE diesel-electric that did passenger service for Amtrak in the western part of the U.S. and a 1936 Davenport switcher that was used for construction at the Boulder Dam.
The rolling stock is pretty diverse and several of the displays allow for full or partial access. If you ever wondered what it looks like inside of a caboose, you can go into the old Union Pacific caboose. Another open display is a R.P.O. or Railway Postal Office. This was not just for transporting mail, but it has the makings of a full Post Office inside. There are bins for sorting and bags for receiving or dropping the mail, which was delivered at different stops along the route. There is also the Merci Car from France, which was a gift from France to the US in 1947 in thanks for the liberation of France during WWII. There is also an all wood passenger car built by the Wagner Palace Car Company in 1899. This was a luxury car built for the company president. On this visit, it was not open for interior inspection.
The museum offers an out and back excursion line that I did not take on this visit. It's a 40 minute trip and you can ride in air conditioned comfort or in open air seating. The locomotive will most like be a 1960's era diesel-electric, but I can't say for sure since I did not ride this time. It's a nice way to ride the rails that does not take up your whole day and does not take a lot out of your wallet. They also have a gift shop and run a 1.5" scale live-steamers railroad on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month. (except January, July & August). Much more information on the websites.
nevadasouthern.com
boulderrailroadmuseum.org
mercitrain.org
08/02/24 - As you come to the end of Kingman headed west on Route 66, there is a museum just off to your left. It's called The Mohave Museum and at first glance it might not seem like much. The name might make you think it is all about Native Americans, and while it has a lot of information and artifacts dealing with them, it's actually a museum about Mohave County, AZ. If you bought a ticket for the Route 66 Museum at the visitor center, that gets you in here too. This one is a hidden gem that I found fascinating and I recommend anyone traveling this route take an hour or more to check it out. The first thing you see is a hall of presidential portraits for all of the US presidents. Does not directly tie to Mohave County, but it is still a pretty nice display. Then a small collection of a few pieces of Route 66 memoribila and you go into a room that highlights the history of the county. There are a series of large dioramas showing a different period of time in the county. From the earliest settlers to the westward expansion, through the industrial era and to modern day. It was very neatly tied into a story called The Mohave Epic which tied the lifecycle of the area to the lifecycle of a person. From infant to teen to young adult to senior.
Adjacent to the room with The Mohave Epic were two Native American exhibits and for some reason I didn't quite get, a small dollhouse exhibit. All were interesting and worth the time to explore though. The next two rooms were the ranching and mining exhibits. These had a lot of historical information and displays regarding ranching and mining in Mohave County. This was probably under 300 square feet but it was full and very interesting as these were and to some extent are still important industries for the county today. After this you exit to what is like a Great Room. It has different sections, but is all part of a larger room. There is a section for the actor Andy Devine, well known as someone who came from Kingman. There are also some displays showing the Army Air Corp Base from WWII, some firearms, a lot of the local metals and minerals that were mined in the area, and some local things like baseball in Kingman and Kingman players who went to the bigs. And of course, the massive pipe organ that you can actually play (with permission)
One of the coolest things about this museum is that there are things that you can touch, like the organ, the handles of a turret gun from WWII, and on a table, a seemingly random set of stones, tools and other things that you may have seen behind glass in other areas of the museum. If you need it, they also have free WIFI. There was an outdoor display, but it was closed for my visit. I suspect the 105 degree temperatures had something to do with that. Like most museums, you exit via the gift shop. This one had it's fair collection of touristy stuff but also had a pretty extensive collection of books, maps and other things related to items in the museum. I'd consider going back just for the gift shop. The Mohave Musuem is open Tuesday – Saturday; 9am to 4pm with last entry at 3:30pm.
mohavemuseum.org/mohave-museum