Wow, how time flies. I just noticed Feb 7th was the last RCC posting. First the excuses: I went back in for more cancer surgery. It was a day thing and I got to go home that night, minus a large chunk of my right arm and another road on my head map. A few days later they did a core biopsy just above my heart. No one wanted to call the shots on that one, so I get retested in six months. So much for the sick thing.

I met with Santa Fe Southern Railway and they asked me to write a living history Billy The Kid drama that takes place on the train. Most of that has now been written and will be acted out in July and August as part of Santa Fe's 400th anniversary.

March 22 was a fun day. Several months ago I wrote a jingle about The Red Candy Caboose. We have been waiting for the scheduling to come together for the singer (Ellie Dendhal) and the musicians. Originally I wanted the song to sound a little like Johnny Cash. Ellie has a beautiful voice, but no way does she sound like Johnny Cash (much better). So, flying by the seat of our pants in the recording studio, Micki said can we toss the idea of a Johnny Cash sound? Westin the banjo player along with the guy in the studio doing a two-fingered key board laid down a new background sound. Ellie steps in the sound room and hits a home run. The recording studio couldn't believe the whole thing came together in one hour. I left to run a few errands and when I returned the whole thing was mixed and ready to go. I have sent copies out to the railroad stations selling the RCC book and they all love it. If you would like a free copy, just send me an e-mail @ redcandycaboose@gmail.com

Our second book "Rail Tales That Haunt Us" finally got sent to the printer and is now out.

What else? I worked a few days on the Santa Fe train spinning yarns. My son Jason and Sierra our granddaughter came for a visit. Way to long between sightings!

When we returned from Texas and Arizona in Feb. we immediately put the travel trailer up for sale and sold it withing two hours. The trailer was great in many ways, but both of us get stiff backs when we travel all day, so we sold the trailer and my pickup and bought a small used motorhome. April 7th we left for the National Transportation Exposition in St. Louis. Traveling is much better when one of us can take naps and read along the way. I'll let you know how it really is when I get a turn.

The exposition was beautiful. It is a huge museum that encompasses trains, planes, boats and cars. Four authors were invited to attend. We were honored to have top billing and top sales. Dirk Whales, author of Lucky Dog had the booth next to us. He is a delight and has a terrific sense of humor. With over 30,000 Lucky Dog books sold sense its release Dirk is virtually in every book shop I visit.

We left St. Louis the evening of the 10th and drove a few hours and decided to sleep in the motor home. We stopped at a mom and pop RV park that was wooded and had a small pond. The dogs loved chasing each other around the pond. Geese now have put the word out "No Longer Safe For Geese." It was the first week-end of good weather so it took several trys at sites before we found one without broken water lines.

Missouri is in full bloom. Trees, flowers and beautiful green grass has made us quickly forget the heavy snows of just a couple of weeks ago.

4/11 Arrived in La Plata, MO at the Depot Inn. Tuesday and Wednesday I will be doing story telling for the local school children and Micki and Kahuna will do dog tricks. Actually Kahuna does the dog tricks and Micki hands out treats for his efforts.

La Plata is a small town of 1,400 people. It has a train depot where Amtrak stops twice daily. It also has about 80 freight trains per day. This is the only place I've ever found that you can turn your TV on in the hotel and watch the trains live as they pass through town. The restaurant next door has a path going out the back that meanders through the woods and ends at a little viewing house on a hill that overlooks the tracks. Some people order their food to go, take it down the path and watch the trains as they dine. People who aren't into trains take the dinners to the barber shop and watch hair cuts.

The other activity in town is the short drive west to a small Amish settlement. The hotel staff said if I went out there not to tell anyone that I learned of it from the hotel. They prefer to be left alone and aren't interested in being commercialized. So, after breakfast we took a drive over to see what we weren't supposed to see. It was just like the movie with Harrison Ford "Witness." People dressed in black with little buggies pulled by single horses. After three passes down the road, I finally noticed a small sign on a fence post that said "General Store and Variety Store" or something similar. The last pass I pulled the motor home next two one of the buggies and got out to see the store. the outside looked more like a farm house than a store. The first hint of it being a store was the sacks of onions setting by the front door (like I've seen at the Farmers Market). Walking inside was a treat. Little ladies dressed in bonnets and long dress (all black) were having their goods weighed and rung up at the register. There were five locals in the store plus the lady at the register, who also dressed like the customers. They didn't speak English to one other, but something akin' to Pig Latin (at lease to my untrained ear).

Micki and I wandered up and down each isle and were in awe of the wide selection of merchandise as well as their very reasonable prices. Eatable things like candy and raw popcorn were in generic plastic sacks with simple labels. The shelves gave the appearance of being stocked by the tossing method. Toss here, toss it there or toss it on top of something else. And it worked. I had to wonder if modern stores got it all wrong. This little store arranged their things so that I wanted to pick up the merchandise and examine it and see what else was there.

Only two people were in front of me at the register, but it took a half hour to get my turn. I was smiling inside wanting to say "Can you open another register?" One of the little ladies in front of me laid a roll of weather stripping in front of the cashier and said something in Pig Latin. The cashier opened the package (probably a roll of 15 feet) took out a yard stick and measured two feet and cut it off for the customer. What a novel concept, "Buy what you need!" I immediately thought of the two half packages of weather stripping lying in my garage.

As it came close to me getting a turn at the register a group of five people walked in, dressed like ordinary people. It looked liked a woman in her late forties with two teenage boys and two teenage girls. Their laughing and giggling broke the atmosphere like someone throwing a stone through one of the windows. One of the boys walked up to an Amish man standing to the side and said "I'm from Tennessee and we don't have anything like this where I live." The man politely responded with "And I hear it is warmer where you come from. They say summer rushes in." That was my first inkling that the Amish spoke English.

When I stepped forward with one onion, a bag of licorice, raw popcorn, and sesame seed treats the lady behind the counter said "That will be seven dollars." I was surprised that her English was perfect with no hint of an accent and I was surprised that my small purchase came out even. Unless you are using a vending machine, that just doesn't happen.

Micki is currently in bed with a bag of ice on her head. We took a walk down the path to the train overlook. While chasing the new dog (Roxie) Micki ran into a sign and knocked herself almost out. She is concerned she will have two black eyes for tomorrows dog and pony show. We might call it the dog and racoon show.

I'll try and keep the blog up to date. Thanks for checking.

Ron