We Need a Couple Pictures ...

So the boss calls me in because they need a few pictures of regional landmarks to decorate the station. It's a real compliment actually, though when they suggested I could produce 50 pictures in about four days I began to wonder. At any rate, everyone seems happy.

Here are a few examples ....

The Christmas Candlelight Procession

For the twentieth year, the people of Lexington Virginia, gathered at one end of Main Street, just in front of the landmark Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, lit small candles and walked through town, singing Christmas carols, to Hopkins Green, where the town's Christmas tree was lit.

Santa and Mrs. Clause moved through the crowd, handing out candy canes ...

The fire was passed from candle to candle as the moment to step off arrived.

The Clauses led the procession, riding in a white, horse-drawn carriage.

Among those watching and waving from the sidewalk, local businessman Alvin Carter, standing in front of his clothing store, Alvin-Denis. He would salute those he knew with his cup as the passed.

Ben Carson at Liberty University

During the Q & A after his speech.

He seems rather pleased with his answer.

11 November 2015

House Mountain in Fall Colors ...

South Carolina

A group of Liberty University students went to South Carolina to help with flood relief through Samaritan's Purse, and we followed to cover for WFXR ...

The students gathered in the predawn darkness to board two Liberty buses for the four-hour journey from Lynchburg to Columbia, SC.

It was an easy enough drive to Columbia, and even through the flood-damaged area to the house where the students were to help clear out possessions and tear out moldy, damp walls and floors. However, just a few yards past, a bridge had vanished completely, bringing the road to a rather dramatic end.

Homeowner Thomas Williams tells the story of his close escape from the flood with his wife and grandchild.  Everything else was left behind ... and ruined. He watched, thanking the students for their help, as they took everything he owned to the curb.

At the Fair

A day at the Rockbridge Regional Fair ...

The champion chicken ...

Miss Virginia Returns

Miss Virginia, Courtney Garrett, has been by the Morning News before, but she's always a fun guest, and it makes for fun pictures.

In Washington ...

We recently were able to spend a couple of days in Washington, DC, and of course took the opportunity to hit some of the museums.

Inside the Holocaust Museum, visited at her request, my daughter stands in a display designed to be Daniel's House, the home of a young Jew in 1930s Germany.

The marking on a boxcar of the sort used to transport people sent to the camps.

The museum's main atrium.

The Return of the 611

After $3 million raised by the Virginia Museum of Transportation and years of careful work, mostly by volunteers, the legendary J-Class locomotive 611 returned to Roanoke under her own power on May 30. I was assigned to join her in Lynchburg and ride the final leg into town.

The 611 as she pulls into the Lynchburg station, with a slow, even chug and bell ringing.

Special guests got to sit in the baggage car behind the tender, where the doors are open to the air. In the passenger cars, the windows are sealed because of safety regulations.

The train paused for an hour while water was pumped into the train's tanks.

Volunteers were rewarded for their work by getting to ride forward, or even in the locomotive cab itself.

Tom Mayer held a leadership position in the restoration. I met him many months ago as he worked on the 611 in North Carolina.

Fifty-eight years ago, Tom Garver rode the 611 on a regular run. He was with the now famous photographer, O. Winston Link, for whom he worked as an assistant. On May 30 he got to ride behind the old steam engine again.

An Art Deco detail on the door to one of the passenger cars.

Ron Davis, President of the Norfolk and Western Historical Society (seated) and Trey Davis make pictures as the train pulls slowly through the Norfolk and Southern Yard in Roanoke.

Virginia Museum of Transportation Executive Director Bev Fitzpatrick waves to the crowds gathered along the rails as the train approaches the museum.