Hitting the tracks.

 My love of trains comes from the days when I used to have to frequent that form of transportation to go home on weekends, after moving from Malvern, St. Elizabeth to Kingston.

 I took the train every Saturday from Kingston to Balaclava in Northern St. Elizabeth, where my father would pick me up and drive me home. 

I am still nostalgic about those days but alas, Jamaica does not have a good all Island rail service anymore😡.

So, wherever I go,  I still grab every opportunity to ride the rails when I have the time.

(Joan, my views: LYMING IN UTAH (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Joan, my views: Riding the rails (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

Even the little street cars in San Francisco 😁.

These little cable cars have been chugging up the hills of San Francisco for 150 years and they are still working.

The longest trip I have ever taken though, is recently on the Amtrak Zephyr from San Francisco to Chicago, over a two-day period. 

The distance is almost 2000 miles and the scenery is simply stunning.

The Colorado River accompanied us for 238 miles.

We were joined by a large party of Mennonites in Grand Junction, Colorado.  Their dress is distinctive.The women all wear similar hair ties. The men wear suspenders and most have long beards.

They hail from Pennsylvania and speak their own language, a dialect practiced over the years, made up of words and phrases from Dutch, German, and English.

 It is only an oral language, I was told. 

One member of the group told me they were vacationing and had visited towns in Indiana and Colorado and were heading to Naperville in Illinois, one stop before ours in Chicago. 

The journey was so memorable and the scenery so unforgettable, that I found myself feeling sad when we drew into the Chicago terminal, though over two hours late. 

Our quiet, comfortable Zenith.

Inside the viewing car.

That delay was caused by a problem with cargo trains in Nevada, for apparently, they have priority on the tracks.

                                        

During the entire journey, I found myself longing for the day when technology can take us to the point where one can simply look at something and our eyes take photos! For the beauty of this world is beyond verbal description and even the scenes we managed to capture as we went along, cannot do them justice.

California and Colorado are super beautiful. Nevada being mainly desert, is not so great but it has attracted a lot of movies over the years. Maybe it's because it has so many wild horses. 

However, I only saw 4 or 5 as we crossed that state. They were quenching their thirst by a small creek.

Utah is quite attractive too but not to the same extent as Colorado.

We descended from the mountains with their magnificent trees, beautiful deep valleys and gorges and rivers wending beside us  into the plains of Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Omaha,  where the scenery changed totally from mountains and valleys to neatly laid out irrigated farms. 

For many hundreds of miles too, we could see windmills behind these farms as wind power seems to be a big thing out there.

 And of course, there were lots of churches!

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MORE MEMORIES IN PICTURES

Denver, Colorado as seen from the Rockies at night.

Our Zephyr.

Arid Nevada

Red rocks cover much of Colorado.

My schoolmate and fellow traveler Sonja

Links: 

https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/08/its-desantis-fault.html?m=1

https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/08/chicago-born.html

https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2023/08/i-love-san-francisco.html

It's Desantis' fault!

 We visited the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago recently and although it was a great learning experience, we had to pay three times the regular adult entrance fee😡.

We three Florida residents got charged far more than anyone else😡.

 

The posted entry fee was $19 but when we showed our id's which revealed that that we are residents of Florida, we were charged a whopping $49.95!

I can think of no other reason for the inequity except for the fact that we live in a state controlled by that obnoxious Ron DeSantis!

For what else could be the cause?

To tell the truth, I too would charge anyone who I suspected may have, directly or inadvertently, caused that idiot to be the Governor of a state so can now be on the nation's stage, double or triple, so I guess I can't complain too loudly.😆  

My friend says it's a 'punishment tax'.☺

Love it.

Link; Joan, my views: Chicago born. (joan-myviews.blogspot.com.

Fascinating beluga whales frolic in their deep pools.

This aquarium,  the third largest in the nation is a great place to visit though, whether you are an adult or child.

We learned a lot after spending hours on end observing the behavior of some animals that we are familiar with and others that had previously been unknown to us.

So much to learn.

Dolphins delight the audience every time.😊 

The world of corals is vividly displayed. I thought corals were plants, but learned they are animals!

The largest lobster I have ever seen!

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 Videos of ' life in the deep' as displayed at Shedd Aquarium.

  

Yes, it's expensive for Floridians, but still worthwhile!

4th of July

This year, I went to my first Fourth of July event, since becoming a citizen of the USA.

This was hosted by Tamarac City at the Sports Complex. The package included lots of music and at nine pm, fireworks.

                                    

The music was provided by the Cachet Band, which has been in business for over 20 years and describes itself as playing a wide range of musc.

                                    

This is a really high energy band with excellent musicians and singers who had the audience getting up off their feet and rocking on a regular basis, as they belted out popular pop and Latin music.

Posing with Mayor Michelle

As a Jamaican, I was however very disappointed that they never played even one Reggae piece of music much less Soca or Calypso!

For one of the things I love about the city of Tamarac, is how integrated it is with a mixture of born American and host of Latinos and Caribbean people all living together in harmony.

The Mayor was everywere

Tamarac has a very good Mayor too in the person of Michelle Gomez. Not only is she high energy and an excellent Mayor, but also, I have been to City Hall where I have observed that the workers there represent all the groups that make up this great city.

So having Cachet, as good as they were, dissing us Caribbean people, really hurt!

Ours was a peaceful, family day. 

I say that, as these days, living in America and going to events where two or three are gathered, can be hazardous to your health and life.

Look at what happened in Chicago as Americans gathered to celebrate their special day.

In case you have not heard, this was the day that a vicious killer, allegedly a Robert Crimo 111, climbed on to the roof of a building in Highland Park, in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and using a rifle made for warfare, murdered seven people and injured 31 others, who had simply gone out with their families to enjoy an independence parade.

This is just another occasion in which much less persons could be killed or harmed if ordinary civilians were not allowed to purchase and carry rapid fire weapons of war.

But the Republicans, who are in the pocket of the NRA, (National Rifle Association) refuse to keep these weapons off the streets.

It was therefore not surprising that this latest alleged  murderer was a Republican who frequented Trump rallies as numerous pictures and videos have emerged showing him present there.

We in Tamarac are grateful that our event was peaceful and full of comradery and good music.

There were a number of officers from the Sherriff’s department constantly circling the grounds on golf cars, so if that is what contributed to us having a peaceful fun filled family affair appropriately finished off with half hour of quality fireworks lighting up the skies, we are thankful.