Thanks John for the great pictures and sorry it took me until now to respond but we had visitors today. Anyway....I have to tell the story about John's visit:
The plans for his visit started about a year ago when he and I were attending one of the York meets. Prior to seeing each other at York, John and I "met" on the OGR Forum which for me and I am sure many others has been a place where friendships in this hobby have started. John is one of those guys to whom you take an immediate liking....a guy that one feels like you have known and have been friends with your whole life.
When John approached me with his plan to come to Arkansas and visit, I of course was excited about the idea! But....at the same time I was worried that he might not be able to come for any number of reasons not the least of which we live so far apart...that distance alone has prevented many of my OGR friends on the East coast from visiting...and I don't blame them, it is a LONG distance! John had shared with me that his son had recently made a job related move to the Southern part of Arkansas and might be able to visit family and me so I enthusiastically encouraged him to make the trip...but secretly I expected that he may not make the almost 4 hour drive from his son's location to our place. After all, Arkansas is a big state and my location is such that there is no major interstate or super highway going North/South from his son's city to ours...it is just a plain hard drive through crooked mountainous territory. So...my hopes for his visit were tempered at least in the beginning.
As the months went by John would periodically contact me to let me know that his visit was still on schedule and we even set a month in which he would come...April. Usually a beautiful time of the year here in the Ozarks. Still....I was waiting for his call or email letting me know that perhaps he would not be able to make it. Well....more time went by and John kept updating me on the time frame he was looking at and eventually we settled on the first week of April...mid week. I got more and more excited about the prospect that this visit was really going to happen! Then I knew John was going to make it when he contacted me a couple or so weeks ago with questions about the best route to take from his son's location to Mountain Home as he would be flying into Little Rock and would be driving a rental. HOLY COW...this guy is really going to come see me....WOW....my first East Coast friend to make the trip here!!
I have to tell you that all of a sudden I realized that there was so much to do to get the layout ready as well as the whole place in general. Every weekend and evening since the first of February had been devoted to getting something done in preparation for John's visit. I had told several of my local friends that John was visiting and I was in panic mode because I needed to do so much to the layout as far as landscaping. In jumps one of my best friends...Roger Wasson. Roger calls me several weeks ago knowing I was trying to spruce up the layout and says to me..."If you need landscape material, I have a BUNCH and it is yours...just come up to Springfield and get it"! Well...my friend Craig and I drove to Roger's home and spent about an hour loading up my crossover with TONS of everything anyone would need to make a layout come alive! There was so much stuff that we filled the entire back of the vehicle with the rear seats down...barely room for us to get back home! Thanks to Roger, I was able to get some landscaping done just before John arrived.
So...as the clock ticked down to the month, then week, then day that John was supposed to arrive....not so good things began to happen. On Friday, March 31st, my wife's father unexpectedly passed away. Visitation was scheduled for Monday the 3rd with Tuesday the 4th being the day of the funeral....and the day before John was to arrive. So much was going on during this time that I did not have time to let John know what was happening but he was aware because he saw a posting on Facebook about it. John called and left a message offering to cancel his visit but after my wife and I talked about it, we let John know that we would be disappointed if we had to cancel at this point so we encouraged him to come....and we are so glad we did!!
John had his share of problems trying to get from his home to this part of the country....flight delays, missed flights, etc. mostly because of the unsettled weather going on in the south at that time. Then when he finally arrived at his son's and left out for his "drive" to our place, the poor guy had basically what we call in this part of the country "pig's trails" to get him here!
Anyway....John arrived at our home around 12:30P.M. on the 5th. We were so happy to see him and very excited. I had made arrangements for us to go to lunch but he had to have a sneak peak at the layout before we left for the restaurant. I am not too sure he wanted to go to lunch after that but we got him downstairs and in the car to the eat'in joint to treat him to a meal. John is so interesting and has had quite a career so the conversation was a delight.
After lunch we went to view the garden railroad and On30 layout of Craig and Charlene Chesbro here in town... Then I had to give John a quick tour of the area so that he knew that we do have indoor plumbing and places that sell shoes (OK..these are just local jokes from a bygone era!) After that we went back to our place and up to the train room. John and I as well as LaKeeta spent several hours enjoying our visit and running the trains....and for some reason good ole "Murphy" stayed away so the trains ran without a hiccup!
Wednesday evening John took the two of us out as his guests for dinner....again we had a great time. After dinner, we went back home to another operating session and then retired for the evening because John had to leave early Thursday morning.
Around 5A.M. I got up and started breakfast...made waffles, etc. After that John loaded his car, we all three had our hugs and well wishes for each other and off went John...back down the "pig trail".
I will never forget John's visit....we had such a great time and as it turns out he was a gift from above visiting at the right time to help lighten our hearts. John...buddy...I got to find a way to move you down here!!! Thanks so much for being a great friend...you are welcome anytime to come back and visit...but next time...STAY LONGER!!
Thanks!
Alan
Wish I had that real estate.
