Big Boys

Cuzzin Ricky and I went to see the Union Pacific "Big Boy" Monday while it was on display in West Chicago, Illinois. That's about a 2-1/2 hour drive away from us but worth it for a couple of old rail fans. It's not often you get a chance to see any operating steam locomotive anymore, especially the biggest ever. They had some kind of "railroad experience" going on in a couple of the cars but the line for that was pretty long and it was starting to rain, so we passed on that. It was enough to see the locomotive and tender - over a million pounds worth. I forgot to put the memory card back in my little camera, so I got a few photos of my own but I'm not sure how to down load them to the computer so the photo above is one I glommed off the internet.

I did get a photo taken with my flip phone during the private welding lessons I've been giving. The photo came out surprising well considering the subject matter. It's hard to get a decent shot of the welding arc without everything else in the shot being too dark to see. The lessons are going well. Both of the boys are showing interest and progressing, even though we only spend two hours per week and the two boys have to share a machine.

I had to get my thumb x-rayed Monday. I ran into a couple of guys I know at breakfast Sunday morning and I invited them to ride over after breakfast to check out the Himalayan. The one guy wanted to sit on it and when he got off I explained that the side stand was a little long and you had to be careful how you park the bike so it wouldn't tip over. A couple minutes later a gust of wind hit the bike and over it went. I lunged for it and got my thumb tangled up in the brake lever and something else while it was falling. I was able to slow down the fall of the bike and it hit the case guard I installed, so no harm to the bike. I'm going to shorten up the kickstand one of these days before it happens again. If I take a cut-off wheel and slice it right above the foot and then dress the cut just a bit, that should be enough. The bike has a center stand so it won't be hard to remove the side stand. Thumb isn't broken, by the way. It's still swollen and bruised, however.