Jump to content

NorthGeorgiaWX

Administrators
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    34,615

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1,501

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by NorthGeorgiaWX

  1. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Before

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Front Yard
    These are some before pictures of the front "yard". First, a few things about living here in Big Canoe.
    You can't have a regular yard here, meaning, you can't have a grass front yard. I love it, no grass to cut for me! The POA (our HOA) has to approve all the projects like this, and we had to get a variance for the Right of Way for the top wall.  The POA was very helpful, and gracious for allowing us to redesign the front in a manner that helps them and us. For them, it keeps their road from washing away, and for us, it keeps our bank from washing away.  In this post, I'll try to explain why we decided to change the area in front of the house. 
    The pictures probably make the drive look wider and shallower than it is, so they are a little deceiving. The drive is a semi-circle, and this is the entrance that we normally come in from. The only problem here is the stairs and handrail that was about to fall down. One thing you can't tell in these pictures, is how high the road is compared to the bottom of driveway. This entrance is not as shallow as the camera makes it look, and this is the shallow side of the drive. The bigger problems happen as we move toward the right in the picture.

     
    First, the weather station was only sitting there temporarily! One of the primary reasons for doing the renovation was to get more parking/turn around space. The problem here is the space from that garage door, to the wall. It's sometimes an issue backing out of the garage, especially if we park the SUV against the wall, and pulling back in requires getting right up against the wall, and making a wide swing toward the door. It's very tight and the wife doesn't want to do it, so her car parks on the other side of the garage. Also, if multiple cars pull in, the lead car has to leave first so others can get out, so the extra parking space will be nice. That existing boulder wall (that has already been torn down) will be replaced by the lower of the two new retaining walls, and it will be pulled back in 3-4 feet. 

     
     
    This picture gives you a better idea of the slope of the bank. Also notice that the road slopes up about 4-5 feet from this end of the drive where I'm taking the picture from, to the other end of the drive. The other reason for the walls, is to keep the road from washing down into our yard, and to keep the bank from eroding. Many of the plants that were originally planted, haven't survived, so what was left were a bunch of scraggly plants. The area between the road and the top wall will be landscaped, and the 8 feet between the top wall and lower wall will be landscaped, and that is where the water feature is going. You see this better as things start to take shape. 

     
    In this image, you can start to see the slope at the other end of the drive. Unfortunately, the drive slopes can't be changed, but we're use to it. There are a few people that come to visit that get a little freaked out with this steep part, because it is about a 30% slope. 🙂 The upper retaining wall will be 8 feet from the white line at the edge of the road, and those shrubs have already been removed. That's in the next post. 

     
    The plants in front of the house will be removed and replaced by new ones, so that area will look very different as well. 

     
    In the next post I'll show what they accomplished in the first two days of work. Prior to the destruction of the bank, we had four trees taken down, and will probably have to take one more.  We will be replacing those with trees that are friendlier to retaining walls, and I think those might be some Japanese Maples. I would show the plan, but we've had to change it and I don't have the updated copy yet. 
     
  2. NorthGeorgiaWX
    Just got the car back yesterday after taking it for a ceramic paint treatment. Since the car only has 13,000 miles on it and appears to be garage kept for its entire life and was in near perfect condition,  I wanted to protect the surface and make it easier to clean. So after doing a little research, I took the car to a place that's about 1 minute away from the Road Atlanta entrance called ZeroDefects. Chris had the car for three days and went over every exterior square inch. 
    I went with the top of the line ceramic treatment from Gtechniq called Crystal Serum Ultra. There are other ceramic treatments that you can apply yourself, but this particular treatment has to be applied by an accredited dealer. But because of the steps taken to prepare the surface and the addition of this coating, there is a nine year guarantee for the treatment. 
    The entire exterior of the car was treated and that includes all the paint, glass, trim, wheels, and calipers. The surface feels silky smooth and dirt just blows off. When it comes time to wash, generally a rinse with a hose takes what little dust may be on it. And the best part is that brake dust pretty much rinses off, so scrubbing necessary. Once I get me new wheels (they are being made as I type) I will have those treated before the tires are mounted.

    So here are the pictures so far. The pictures don't do it great justice but you get the idea. The reflections are deep, and in the sun it looks like you can put your hands down in the paint. 🙂 It's very awesome. 










     
     
     
     
  3. NorthGeorgiaWX
    The upcoming 5 days are going to really make you feel like it's fall!
    Today, sunny and warm! Awesome day to get outside, and probably the best day to do so through Monday.
    I'll share several images here, temps and temp anomalies for Thu/Fri, and precip through Sunday night.
    Max Temp Thursday

     
    Thursday Max Temp Anomalies

     
    Max Temps Friday

     
    Friday Max Temp Anomalies - Notice that some of those temps are close to 20 degrees below normal. Looks like a wedge. A wedge is also called Cold Air Damming or CAD. 

     
    Precip through Sunday - For most, close to an inch of rain will fall

  4. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Diorama Part 15

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    12/11/23 - Update
    Ok, we back to the the present time, and all I really have to share are a few more updated pictures. The main changes were the addition of three cars, lamp post for the park, and more trees. I've also rearranged the people a little bit and added more snow. This pictures are from 2020 until present.
     
     
     
  5. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 1

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    I wrote a blog post on my old blog site back in 2016 about a Christmas Village Diorama that I was building, so I figured since we were coming up on Christmas, I would move the contents over here. Instead of one big post, I'll beak it up into several. 
    ------------------------------
    I apparently have more hobbies than I thought I had. 🙂
    My wife and I bought a bunch of Thomas Kinkade Hawthorne Christmas Village houses and buildings off of eBay to use as a Christmas display.  We put them out last year on some fluffy cotton stuff but being picky like I am, I just wasn't satisfied with that look at all, I wanted something that looked "real".
    My interest in model trains goes back to when I was a kid, and I had started looking at creating a detailed and realistic train layout when I remembered the Kinkade houses. I started searching the internet for some examples of designs where people had used the house in some designed setting but I couldn't really find anything, so I started thinking about creating my own winter scene. 
    So....here is where I'm at. First, I've never done anything like this before, so it was all new to me. Second, I spent a lot of time watching videos, reading up on materials, finding examples, and collecting images of scenes I wanted to duplicate, etc. After a lot of thought and consideration, I jumped in head first. And yes, I have messed up and still messing up. 🙂 The great thing is that if you don't like something, you rip it out and start over. 
    The Kinkade houses aren't exactly HO scale, but that's the closest scale to what the the houses are, so that's what I used. I don't have a lot of before images, but even these images are "before" as it is still in the working stage. I'll try to break these images into groups to help show the progression of the build from this point forward.
    I wanted to quote a piece from the Thomas Kinkade website, and it says perfectly what I was trying to capture in creating this diorama:
    "The look of Christmas, with its trees and garlands and twinkling lights, is of course well known. But for Thomas Kinkade, the challenge in painting Christmas scenes was capturing the spirit of the holiday – the warmth, the joy, the good fellowship and family feeling. He loved the contrast of the cold gleam of moonlight on snow with the warm radiance of golden light pouring through the windows of a festively decorated cottage. That golden glow is truly the light of love."
    These are some of the images that I used to help me in the inspiration and design of the Christmas Village, and of course they are all Thomas Kinkade paintings. I tried to incorporate as much of his scenes as I practically could into the diorama. 
          
         
      
    This first group of images were taken after some very basic landscaping had been done. The original pond had to be redone when I realized that its elevation was higher than the stream that was feeding it. 🙂 I blame the clown that is working on it now... :-). I may need to redo it again as I probably dug it too low this time. 😞 I'll get it right eventually.  
    I created a wooden frame for the base and glued sheets of foam over the top and the dimensions are 60"x24". The elevated areas were created using wads of paper and plaster cloth along with pieces of foam cut to shape.  Almost all of my supplies comes from Woodland Scenic and they probably have the most complete set of supplies and materials anywhere. Not only that, they have tons of how-to videos that show you how to use their products. There is no way I could do this without those videos showing the way.
        
     
    The remaining post will follow. 





     
    Next post: 
     
     
  6. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 10

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/21/16 - The Home Stretch
    Just a few items left to finish up before it's done. 
    The two main items to finish are the pond and park area, and the outside edge of the entire diorama.
    I have covered the front and part of the sides with 1/4" thick pieces of sheet foam as well as adding handles on the sides to help in carrying it around.
    The foam was glued tot he sides and hopefully today (Saturday) I will get it painted. I'm going with a dark forest green color, I think the dark color will help in taking your eyes to the layout. I want the sides to fade away so that they aren't really noticed. 
    I added the "ice" to the pond yesterday. I think I'll go back over it one more time today with just a little bit more white pigment. It looks icy right now, but not thick enough to skate on, it needs to look "thicker". After I add that layer and it dries, I'll lightly dust it with snow and it should give me the look I'm after. Before I do the snow dusting I'll go ahead and add the skaters. I have 7 little people with ice skates, and I think I'll have 4-5 on the pond with a couple standing at the edge watching. 
    I added a little pile of wood for a campfire and have a few people standing around it. I have a plan to make the fire look like a fire, but it probably won't happen on this first go around. Woodland Scenic's makes some "Just Plug" nano LED's that flash. My plan is to drill a hole underneath the pile of wood, and secure the LED's about 1/2" below the surface. I would then cover the hole with a flat piece of foam with a small hole that's maybe 1/8" and put the wood back on top. If the plan works, the flashing LED's would appear to be coming from the wood and the random flashing would look like fire. We'll see. 🙂
    Once the water part is done, I'll go back and add more snow all around the edges of the pond as well as the rest of the park, right now there isn't much there and it looks a little out of place with the rest of the diorama. 

     
    I also took some random pictures today. Since I'm been moving the diorama around, some of my little people that haven't been glued down have fallen over. 🙂 They'll just have to lay there until the end. 
    Also, I would not use these fall deciduous trees on a winter layout again, and at some point I will replace them with trees that I've made. These were pre made using a poly fiber product that is like a carpet. When I added the snow and Scenic Cement, it made the poly fiber sag once it was wet. To me, they just don't look like real trees.  Next time I'll buy the armatures (the woody part of the tree) and glue my own "leaves" on the branches. I've already got a stack of these armatures so it's just a matter of getting some fall foliage to glue on them. It's kind of funny, but when I got started I decided NOT to make trees and just go the easy route and buy the pre-made trees. And don't get me wrong, there are different levels of pre-made trees and some are very nice, but also very expensive. I think you are better off buying pre-made evergreen trees due to the density of the plant material. There are also varying levels of quality for these trees as well, and I have about 3-4 different qualities on this layout.
    If you ever decide to try to build a diorama, you'll find yourself doing more and more from scratch instead of using the pre-made materials, trying to make it look as realistic as possible. 
    Pictures are in this album.
     
     
    Next post:
     
  7. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 11

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/22/16 - Close now
    Today I painted the foam surround, or the sides of the base of the diorama. Now your eyes focus on the diorama because you're not distracted by the ugliness of the unfinished surfaced. 
    I added more white tint to the pond and I think I'm done with that feature. Once the water dries (tomorrow) I'll finish the landscaping and snow around the pond and add the skaters. In the end it will get a light dusting of snow, but that will wait until after the skaters are added. 




     
    Next post:
     
  8. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 12

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/23/16 - Well... is it done?
    Well, added the last coat of paint to the front of the base, glued down all the little people, added the skaters to the pond, finished the snow around the pond.... there really isn't much left to do. 🙂 I will go back and add more snow to the fall colored deciduous  trees and I'm still waiting on the rock wall to arrive so I can finish the left side of the park. 
    The night pictures don't really do it justice, I need a better camera to capture that. I may even try my GoPro in low light mode to see how those images look. If you click on an image, they will display larger and you can go through them one at a time.
    Lots of pictures in this album.
     
     
     
  9. NorthGeorgiaWX
    I decided to combine October 27, 29, and 30 into one post.
    -----------------------------
    10/27/16 - More Changes
    I've decided to pull up the deciduous trees. I originally wanted to go for a late fall/early winter type of look, but that just isn't going to work with this winter layout.
    I have ordered new tree armatures so I can make 5 (5-7" tall) new deciduous trees with no leaves. It will be more fitting to the winter look of the diorama. I should have those early next week and it will take me an evening to get the trees formed and to add "snow" to them. It's a pretty simple process to pull the old ones up and glue the new ones back in place, and it really doesn't mess up anything. Once I get them back in I'll re-snow around them and you'll never know anything happened. 
    I did get the remainder of the stone wall in for the park, and I got that painted and installed. I also went back and re-snowed the entire layout, but mostly focusing on those areas that didn't have much snow to start with, and I really think that it looks much better now. 
    I also have a few more people on the way that are three older couples in coats (click on image), and I'll place them on the sidewalks once they arrive. 

    I'm still seriously considering adding a "Just Plug" car to the scene. The Just Plug vehicles have working lights and would be a great addition to the diorama. All of their current vehicles are generally from the 1940's to 1950's era and I'd really like a vehicle a little older, so we'll see. (2323 Note - I added three cars to the scene)
    I'll have some additional images that will reflect all of the recent changes once I change the trees out.

    10/29/16 - Making trees
    The tree armatures arrived today, so while I was sitting around watching a football game, I decided to make and paint the trees. 
     
    The Woodland Scenic's armatures came in a package of 12 and are 5-7" tall and they come flat in the package. I used Woodland Scenic's Flex Paste to add snow to the trees after I twisted and bent the branches into shape. I'll lightly spray them with Scenic Cement and dust them with the fake snow just to add more texture to the Flex Paste. The bases don't get used as the armatures have pins on the bottom that I can just press into the plaster, but they are a great way to hold the trees while they dry. If you were actually making these deciduous trees, the stands would be great for holding the trees after adding the leafy material. These trees are going to be a better fit for the rest of the layout versus the fall colored deciduous trees. 
    The six little old people arrived with the trees, so those will get glued down tomorrow along with the trees. More pictures then.
    10/30/16 - Done?
    Other than gluing down 2-3 little people and re-dusting with snow... I declare this thing done. 🙂
    Leafless deciduous trees were added last night along with a 4 little people, so there really isn't much left to do! I'm sure I'll nitpick little things along the way,  but everything that I wanted to do has been done. I would like to do something different with the bonfire (I need flames) and still considering adding a vehicle. I'd love to find a horse pulling a sleigh but I've come up empty handed so far. I still need to glue down two more people.
    It's been a fun project. I had no clue what I was getting into when I started and I've learned a lot along the way.
    I've had people ask me how much did it cost to build this. A lot! 🙂 I still have materials left over and I initially had to buy some tools, but I've spent more than $600 from Woodland Scenic alone. Granted, most all of the products and accessories I used came from Woodland Scenic, so it was the majority of the build. But if you include the frame materials and the things that I've purchased elsewhere (I bought some Woodland Scenic products at Hobby Lobby), and not including the houses, I probably have $800 in materials. We purchased the houses off of eBay and those were approximately $50-65 each, and there are 7 of those on the diorama. I added lots of detail to the layout, so you could do it cheaper, it all depends on how you want it to look. 
    At this point, I wouldn't  be afraid to tackle a larger, more complex project (trains?) in the future. I think I will be taking our Nativity scene and building a diorama around it... 🙂 Can I have it done before the holidays? 🙂 If you'd like to find out... stay tuned! 
    The pictures in the first gallery below were taken with a GoPro Hero4 camera. It was set to 7 mp medium perspective and set to night mode. I used the GoPro app on a tablet to control the camera and take the pictures. I just set the camera down and look at the tablet screen to see what the camera is looking at and readjust my view if necessary. The shutter (if you call it that) stays open quite a while on the night pictures, so it's nice being able to do all of the camera control from the app. 
     
     
    Next post:
     
  10. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 14

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    01/23/18
    Here are the latest updated images. More changes coming that include lamp post in the park area (LED like the street lights), probably 3 vehicles (like the vehicle in this image) that have working headlights and taillights, more trees for the background, and I may re-work the frozen pond. 

     
    Just wanted to give you an idea of the size of things.... click on any image for a larger view.



     
    2023 Note - This was the last of the original post. I'll make one more post that has the latest images in it, and I'll be done. 
     
     
  11. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 2

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/10/16 - Busy Weekend
    Much more accomplished this weekend. Most of the landscaping except for the park area is done, although I find myself going back and adding and enhancing what I thought I had already completed. Can't help myself. 🙂 I've started adding the realistic water to the layout but it has to be added in layers so it's a slow process. I should have used a different water product and I still may on certain sections. And while it may look like snow, I haven't added any of that yet, that will be the last step before completion. I have used a product called Flex Paste for some of the snow areas and more will be used to create drifts etc., but the final product is powdered snow that will go over everything.  When that is done, you won't be able to see where the house fits in the Styrofoam. 
    I'm getting ready to landscape the "park", the area in the very front of the display. I've saved it for last so I wouldn't tear it up working on the other areas. The park is where the pond is located, so I'd like to get my "water" in place before I do that final landscaping.  I am re-thinking the water material I'm currently using. I started by using Woodland Scenic Realistic Water, but it requires 1/8" increments and 24 hours drying time.  Instead, what I should have used is Woodland Scenic E-Z Water.  E-Z Water is used for deep pours and dries in 15 minutes, but it must be done in one pour. The only problem at this point is that I can't pour E-Z Water over Realistic Water. Learn the hard way. 
    When creating the layout, you have to build it like a regular landscaped non-winter scene. All the plants, shrubs and trees have to be added before any snow can go down. The one thing I am not adding is grass, as that will be covered by snow anyway. 
     
    2023 Note - One thing you'll notice are fall trees. I though I wanted to do a late fall/early winter scene, but I later abandoned that idea. And like I mentioned above, that is not the snow you're looking at, it's just the foam and white paste.
    Click on the pictures to enlarge.
       
     
       
       
      
      
      
     
      
      
     
      
      
     
      
      
     
     Part 3 coming up!
     


     
    Next post:
     
  12. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 3

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/10/16 - Night Scenes


    I took some pictures with the lights off for the first time, just to see how things were going to look in the dark. The houses all use a C7 Christmas light bulb for light. I've replaced some of the incandescent bulbs with LED's, but I'm not happy with the light output. I have some new ones on the way and hopefully they will work out better.
    The "Just Plug" street lights look awesome and cast a light that makes them look like real street lights, I'm very pleased with that addition.  In the future I'd like to add more "Just Plug" lights and possibly a couple of vehicles to the scene. I'm also going to find a blue LED light to cast a faint glow (like moonlight) over the entire layout to enhance the nighttime look. For an example, see the last image in this gallery. 

    There is no snow on the roads right now but it almost looks like there is. The roads were formed with Smooth-It, a product that provides a nice smooth road system. I need to fill in the gap between the road and sidewalk with some grass like material before I cover it all up with snow.  
    2023 Note - I did end up finding blue lights to illuminate the scene, which you'll see in later posts. I have also added cars and more street lights to the scene since this 206 post was made.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Next post:
     
  13. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 4

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/11/16 - Yes, I will redo the pond. 
    Last night I started adding snow to the hills behind the houses. It's going to be a multi-layer process to get it just right. I want to make sure I pay attention to how the snow "falls" on things so that it really looks like fallen snow. It's almost ashamed to cover up all of the landscaping, but hey... that's winter.  If I had to do it over, I would also add more deciduous trees into the mix, and I would make it thicker. I may still add a few more trees just to try to make it more lush.
    The pond... yes, the pond has been a pain in my arse. I've learned a few lessons about water features. First, don't use any slope in the stream or creek if you want the water to have any depth. If you have a slope, the Realistic Water will just run down to the lowest level and not pool. What I've had to do to get around this issue is add dams to sections of the stream so the water collects instead of running off. Second, make sure you thoroughly cover the water feature in plaster. The Realistic Water will seep through any holes or other porous areas of the layout, and make it difficult to build up any depth. And speaking of depth, they really only recommend a 1/2" or less of Realistic Water. You might think that's not enough to make it appear deep, but it really is.  Woodland Scenic's makes a product called E-Z Water that you heat and pour and it can be used to make deeper pours. Unfortunately, I can't use it on top of the Realistic Water, but I can use Realistic Water on top of the E-Z Water. So I think I'll raise the pond back up some, and then use E-Z Water for the main pour this time, then maybe add some Realistic Water over the top. E-Z Water has to be used in one pour, you can't go back and add more or it will leave a transition line in the water, so the pour needs to be planned and setup ahead of time. 
    Icicles will be my next first time part of the project, but that will be easy, and  I will use a product called "Water Effects" to create those. You simply get a piece of wax paper and with a toothpick, draw out of lines of Water Effects on the wax paper. Once they dry (and they dry clear), you peel those off and tack them anywhere you want icicles.
    I'll have more pictures tonight as demolition begins on the pond. 🙂
    I added more plaster to the pond and covered up the water I put down. I needed to raise the bottom of the pond by about 1/2", so I mixed up some plaster and covered everything  up. I'll let that dry and then paint it a darker color before re-adding water. I do think I'll use E-Z Water on the pond so I can get it a little thicker. If I need to, I'll give it a top coat of Realistic Water mixed with a little white pigment to make it look like ice.
    Two days of snowfall in the mountains... 🙂 I'm starting to get a better accumulation of snow now. Not sure how deep I'll go, but I have a real desire to have a blizzard. 🙂 Of course that's probably just my own personal "what I'd like" kind of thing but hey... who's building this? 🙂
    The water in the stream is starting to look good and get some depth to it. At some point I'll add a little white pigment in places so it looks like certain areas are frozen. 
    The last image in this group shows the house with some snow that I added just a little around the base just to show how the edge around the base of the houses will be covered up. It looks really good too. 
      
      
      
     
    Next post:
     
  14. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 5

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/12/16 - Work continues...
    I painted the pond today, so that's going to dry for 24 hours before water goes in. I also added another layer of snow to the background hills, but I'm not sure how much I want to add.  With each layer, I spray Scenic Cement over what's already there, lay down the new snow, and then add another spray of Scenic Cement, so it takes some time to build it up. 
    Most of the stream has had it's last layer of water before the final "ice" layer. It's mostly the pond that will be icy, but certain places in the stream (near the waters edge, etc) will be icy as well. I'm still adding layers to the section just before the bridge. 
    I'm making icicles for houses and for the waterfalls if all goes well. If it doesn't, nothing lost, just try again. The white "Water Effects" dries clear in 24 hours. 
    I took a bunch of pictures today, again, no snow on anything but the hills right now.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
    Next post:
     
  15. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 6

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/13/16 - Construction Accident
    Started added Realistic Water today. I thought I would use E-Z Water until I heard some bad stories about it eating up foam, and changed my mind. So it's going to take more than a few layers to get it where I want it. The roads around the pond will not be in the position you see now, I'm just playing around with placement. Started adding snow to the all areas of the layout where there are shrubs and plants, and that required me to take the two left houses off to keep them from getting sprayed by Scenic Cement. 
    The "construction crew" got a little careless when taking some of these pictures, and the camera strap caught one of the street lights... so now there is some utility repair work going on. Luckily, I had a spare street light, so that will get installed tomorrow after the pond dries. 
    I'm also playing with icicles and the waterfalls. I'm redoing the icicles to be smaller but they are easy to make, so if I mess up, no big deal.  
    There seems to be a creature in my forest... 😉
     
     
     
     
     
    Next post:
     
    \
  16. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 7

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/16/16 - Working on The Park
    These images in this particular gallery don't necessarily appear in the proper order of assembly but you'll get the idea...
    Spent time today working on the Park feature. It's right in the front of the layout so I wanted it to look as good as I know how to make it, which at this point, probably isn't all that good. 🙂 I kept putting it off simply because I wasn't sure how I wanted it to look. I'm not sure why I have that fear... maybe it's just because this is all new to me and I don't want to screw it up at this point, I don't know.  So I went ahead and forced myself to jump right in and it seemed to have gone pretty well. 
    I added a stone wall around the perimeter of the park and I still need to go back and black wash some of the sections where I joined the pieces of wall together with plaster. I use a stone grey paint to paint them, and once that dries I go back and use some diluted black paint over the top. The black "wash" runs into the cracks between the rocks and gives them definition, and makes them look more like rocks. I've ordered more stone wall for the other side of the park so I can't get it all completed until that comes in. I will be adding a small Christmas tree to the center of the park as well as a bonfire with people standing around. Details make the difference. 
    Once I get the landscaping done, I'll then go back over everything with snow and cover it all up. It's almost ashamed to cover up my landscaping but hey... it is suppose to be winter time! 
    Filling the pond with water is coming along but it's a slow process. I actually tilted the whole diorama today to get more water in places where I don't have it right now. I'll keep tilting in different directions until it fills up like I want it, and then I'll then go back over it with a some white tint to make it look frozen. I do have HO scale figures that will be skating on the frozen pond. 🙂
    I hope to have my street lights plugged back up today as well. I had three lights connected to one junction connector and when I unplugged the one street light to replace it, the wires for the other two street lights came out as well. These wires are SO tiny you can hardly see them, so it takes me a while to get them back in the holes. 
    Since there are a lot of images, I've added those in this album:
     
     
    Wow... can't believe how much I've gotten done today, I'm getting pretty close to being finished! Today I managed to get pretty much all the snow down on everything except the road and park. All of the structures got "snowed in" so you can no longer see the base of the building, it's all blended in by snow. The park got a light dusting of snow but I need to wait until the pond is done before I finish that part. I can start adding certain figures to the layout, I just need to decide where I want them to go. I haven't decided if I'm going to have a vehicle or not, I'm back and forth about that right now.
    So, what's left?
    I'll try to get the three street lights hooked back up later today (done) Install the  4 trees and some stone wall pieces I ordered today Finish the pond Snow in the park/road/detail Add figures  Next Post:
     
     
  17. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 8

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/17/16 - Almost done

    I figure I'm about 90% done at this point. The park area needs more snow and the area around the pond needs more landscaping. I'm still adding the fake water to the pond and that may take another 5 or 6 days. By that time, the extra stone wall pieces and  4 trees, one that will be a Christmas tree, should be here.  I also have to add a little stack of wood that will be a bonfire.
    None of the little people are glued in place yet, and some not in the places they will probably go. I also have 7 skater figures that I need to put out after the pond is done. 
    I snowed in the road today and pushed a Matchbox car over the road surface to make it look like cars had driven on the road. 
    I've found some blue LED light bulbs that I will be using over the diorama at night to make it look like moon glow. The last picture on this gallery will give you an idea about what that might look like. at least what I hope it will look like. 🙂
    I still need to enclose the entire edge of the diorama with something... and still debating that one. I may use 1/4" sheet foam and then paint it black, my wife mentioned wrapping it in something like dark green felt. It is my very last worry in the build though. 
     
    Next post:
     
     
  18. NorthGeorgiaWX

    Christmas Village Diorama - Part 9

    By NorthGeorgiaWX,


    Christmas Diorama
    10/18/16 - Adding final touches
    I started putting foam sheeting around the outsides of the box holding the diorama, and I bought some dark green paint to cover it all up. More water was added to the pond, and I went out and bought a blue LED light to give the snow a moonlit glow... I think it works pretty well and matches the example in the previous group of pictures perfectly.









     
    Next post:
     
     
  19. NorthGeorgiaWX
    Home to Baltimore Here we go! Up early this morning for one of our two longest continuous stretches of driving. Our destination today is the Hyatt Regency at the inner harbor area of Baltimore Maryland. Thanks to @mudrun for all of the great information about the Baltimore area!

    This leg of the trip is about 650 miles and Google is estimating about 11 hours on the road, so it's going to be a long day. The plan is to leave at 4 am in order to miss rush hour traffic in Charlotte and DC.  The original plan was to travel I-85 to I-95, but after noticing that the back roads through Virginia only take 20 minutes longer, I think that's the route I'll take, and that's the route you see in the map above.  We'll get lots of pictures and videos along the way, and I'll be posting those as time permits. 

    We wanted to get past Washington DC to find a place to stay for the night, because early the next morning (Friday) we are going to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. I didn't want to have to battle early morning DC traffic and we need to be at Independence Visitor Center when it opens (you need tickets), so Baltimore was a good stopping point.   From our place in Baltimore, it's about 100 miles and a little less than a 2 hour drive to the Independence Hall parking. We need to be there at 8 am as they start selling tickets at 8:30 even though it doesn't open until 9. 

    I don't mind the long haul driving, we drive 8 hours one way to see my parents in Sarasota, and when I go to the SCCA National Championships in Lincoln Nebraska we drive for 14-15 hours. My longest drive was 22 straight hours from Atlanta to Boston once, so 11 is very pretty doable. And since I don't normally like to ride with other people driving, so unless I can't keep my eyes  open, I'm it.  :-) With lots of different things to look at, the side roads won't be as boring as the interstates, so staying awake in broad daylight shouldn't be a problem.

    Update Friday AM: Well, we made it to Baltimore. No, not in 10-11 hours as planned, but instead it took us 15 HOURS to get here. If you think Atlanta traffic is bad, try DC traffic.  Let me say this... if you ever thought you might like to live in northern Virginia/Maryland... you'd better drive those roads before you decide. 

    One 14 miles stretch took 1:10 and after that the next 39 miles took 53 minutes. So 2 hours to go 53 miles. For those in Gwinnett that know the road, we took Lawrenceville Hwy all the way through Virginia. 🙂 Yes, highway 29 goes all the way through Virginia (NC too). For the most part, Hwy 29 was an awesome drive. The speed limit is lower, but it's a 4 lane divided highway, and you can sit back, stick it on cruise and relax. It's nothing like taking I-95. 

    We're off to our next overnight stop in Connecticut, this drive will be a lot shorter and we're going around NYC instead of through it. View the full article
  20. NorthGeorgiaWX
    Home to Baltimore
    Here we go! Up early this morning for one of our two longest continuous stretches of driving. Our destination today is the Hyatt Regency at the inner harbor area of Baltimore Maryland. Thanks to @mudrun for all of the great information about the Baltimore area!

    This leg of the trip is about 650 miles and Google is estimating about 11 hours on the road, so it's going to be a long day. The plan is to leave at 4 am in order to miss rush hour traffic in Charlotte and DC.  The original plan was to travel I-85 to I-95, but after noticing that the back roads through Virginia only take 20 minutes longer, I think that's the route I'll take, and that's the route you see in the map above.  We'll get lots of pictures and videos along the way, and I'll be posting those as time permits. 

    We wanted to get past Washington DC to find a place to stay for the night, because early the next morning (Friday) we are going to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. I didn't want to have to battle early morning DC traffic and we need to be at Independence Visitor Center when it opens (you need tickets), so Baltimore was a good stopping point.   From our place in Baltimore, it's about 100 miles and a little less than a 2 hour drive to the Independence Hall parking. We need to be there at 8 am as they start selling tickets at 8:30 even though it doesn't open until 9. 

    I don't mind the long haul driving, we drive 8 hours one way to see my parents in Sarasota, and when I go to the SCCA National Championships in Lincoln Nebraska we drive for 14-15 hours. My longest drive was 22 straight hours from Atlanta to Boston once, so 11 is very pretty doable. And since I don't normally like to ride with other people driving, so unless I can't keep my eyes  open, I'm it.  :-) With lots of different things to look at, the side roads won't be as boring as the interstates, so staying awake in broad daylight shouldn't be a problem.

    Update Friday AM: Well, we made it to Baltimore. No, not in 10-11 hours as planned, but instead it took us 15 HOURS to get here. If you think Atlanta traffic is bad, try DC traffic.  Let me say this... if you ever thought you might like to live in northern Virginia/Maryland... you'd better drive those roads before you decide. 

    One 14 miles stretch took 1:10 and after that the next 39 miles took 53 minutes. So 2 hours to go 53 miles. For those in Gwinnett that know the road, we took Lawrenceville Hwy all the way through Virginia. 🙂 Yes, highway 29 goes all the way through Virginia (NC too). For the most part, Hwy 29 was an awesome drive. The speed limit is lower, but it's a 4 lane divided highway, and you can sit back, stick it on cruise and relax. It's nothing like taking I-95. 

    We're off to our next overnight stop in Connecticut, this drive will be a lot shorter and we're going around NYC instead of through it.  
    View the full article
     
  21. NorthGeorgiaWX
    Mount Jefferson is the one with the snow. That snow doesn't melt until July. Incredible. A must do. Ride, don't drive. 

    If you ever get up to the New England states and you travel to New Hampshire, a visit to Mount Washington is something you do not want to miss. On a good day you will get to witness one of the most spectacular views anywhere in the country. Reaching 6288 feet into the New Hampshire sky, Mount Washington is the king of the White Mountains and is one of many peaks in the Presidential Range. If you look it up on Wikipedia, you'd see this...

    ​"The Presidential Range is notorious for having some of the worst weather on Earth, mainly because of the unpredictability of high wind speeds and whiteout conditions on the higher summits. Because of the poor weather conditions, the Presidential Range is often used for mountaineering training for those who go on to climb some of the world's highest mountains, including K2 and Everest." 

    One thing they tell you right before you get off the train at the top is "don't miss the train going back down",  You don't want to have to hike down this mountain. Even in the summertime, the top of Mt Washington is covered in fog 90% of the time. During the trip up and down the mountain on the cog railway you'll notice all of the stacks of stones known as cairnes (can be seen and talked about in the videos below). Those are used as trail guide markers for the hikers. Since you can hardly see in front of you in the fog, the markers are placed VERY close together to help keep you on the path and not fall off the mountain. As you approach the top of the mountain the Appalachian Trail crosses the tracks, and the hike across Mount Washington and the Presidential Range is considered to be the most difficult hike on the entire Appalachian Trail.  The Presidential Range of the White Mountains You have three ways to get to the top of Mount Washington, you can walk, you can drive, or you can take the cog railway, and that is the method we took. It's about a 4 hour hike to the top and then another 3-4 back down, so unless you are REAL adventurous and have perfect weather, that is probably out of the question. You can also take your own car to the top by driving on the Mount Washington Auto Road, but a word of caution. This road has no guardrails and if you mess up, there is nothing to stop you and your vehicle from tumbling to the bottom.  I haven't been on it but I hear from others that have that it's terrifying. It's makes it hard to enjoy the views when you have to worry about driving off a cliff. See the video at the very end of this post, then decide. ;-)

    So... that leaves the cog railway. THIS is the way to go. This is from their website: Here's a video of the train that took us to the top pulling into the station. They operate multiple trains up and down the mountain during the day and our engine is one of the bio-diesels that they run. The Cog Railway also has a couple of steam locomotives in case you want that old time feel to the ride.  Notice that the engine pushes the passenger car up the mountain instead of pulling. The engine has a cog (it's like a gear) that engages slots in the center of the track and that is how you get pushed up the mountain. The steepest grade is about 38%, so it looks like you're headed off into space at times. If not for the cog, the train would never be able to make it up the mountain.  The passenger car has two sections of seating. The left side of the car (facing forward) has three seats and across the aisle are two more seats. When you make your reservations (and you MUST or you probably won't get a seat and certainly not the best seat) you want to get the front seats on the left because the best views are on that side of the train. 

    The day we went up was about as good as it ever gets on Mount Washington, so the windows were down on the train. Keep in mind, some of the worst and wildest weather in the U.S. occurs on Mount Washington.  Most of the time the mountain is in the clouds with fog and mist. In the winter, that fog and mist become rime ice that covers everything up there.  For nearly sixty-two years Mount Washington held the world record for the fastest wind gust ever recorded on the surface of the Earth: 231 miles per hour, recorded April 12, 1934 by Mount Washington Observatory staff. To learn more about the day that wind speed was recorded, click on this link.  Another item to note, the tree line starts about 5000 feet. Out in the Rockies, that elevation is about 10,000 feet. 

    The maximum temperature ever recorded on the summit is only 72 degrees and the high the day we rode up was about 60 degrees, so it was a relatively warm day on the top. The image below shows the conditions right before we started the ride up (we had a 12:30 pm train). It was an incredibly warm day at the bottom, we had seen temps in the low 80's driving to the mountain so we knew the top shouldn't too bad. Even the winds cooperated that day and stayed at speeds that wouldn't blow you off the mountain like they normally do.  Notice that our visibility was about 80 miles... today it's 1/16 of a mile (see image below). Here's a link to the current data. The image below is from today, June 14th about the time we left the station. Compared to our visit, it is much colder with no visibility today. Not a great day to go to the top if you want to see a view.  Conditions at 12:26 pm June 14. This is about the time we left. Compare this to how warm it was last Monday the 10th Mansfield Station The elevation at the bottom where you start the ride up is about 1600 feet. It's funny, but Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park is 1529 feet high and you think that's tall when you're on top of it, so this being at the bottom helps put things in perspective. 
    ​
    The station has a gift shop, a restaurant, and restrooms. If you didn't purchase your ticket online, you get your tickets here.  There are no restrooms on the train so go before you board. 

    ​It's very cool looking up toward the top of the mountain from the station. You can barely make out the tower on the top, and off in the distance you can see the train tracks going up the side of the mountain.  Now... picture yourself hiking that. :-)  The top is on the top of the peak in the right of the image. You can see the tracks in the distance to the right of the flag. I mounted my GoPro on the window using a suction cup mount. Stupid me... I could have mounted the actual camera part of it in the open part of the window, but instead, the whole thing was behind the window. It doesn't seem to hurt the image to much but I'm sure it helped with reducing the wind noise. Granted, the train only moves about 4 MPH, so the wind noise doesn't come from the train movement. :-) 

    Anyway... here are my videos from the front of the train. I should have mounted the camera on the left side window to catch the views, and I was going to on the way down, but someone on the other side of the aisle asked if they could swap seats with us for the return trip. And being the nice person that I am, we swapped, so I didn't have the best view coming back down. And trust me, the left side is spectacular.  The pictures I have just don't do it justice.  The conductor was great and full of information, I was glad I captured his narration on the videos. It is a ride you'll never forget. I've added a few pictures below, but if you'd like to see them all, you can click on this link. Keep in mind that during times of bad weather, the train may not go all the way to the top. They will ride halfway and when there is snow, they stop at a newly built platform and everyone can get off the train and hang out at a bonfire and eat s'mores. We were very blessed with our weather and it couldn't have been more perfect. Because the weather on the top is so unpredictable and generally not so good, it makes it very tough to factor in to your plans. You plan for the worst and hope for the best, and in our case, that's the way it worked out, so your visit may or may not go as well. That's Mount Washington.

    Once you're at the top there are several places to explore, and if you're hungry you can grab a bite to eat eat while you're there. And there is even a United State Post Office on the top so you can send mail with a Mount Washington postmark. The Mount Washington Observatory on top is continuously staffed even in the winter time. Research is conducted on new weather instruments and manually taken weather readings occur on schedule 24/7. 

    Not much more to say except you need to add this place to your bucket list. I do recommend the train up, but if you think you may want to drive up, watch this video below. You will be amazed and terrified at the same time. :-) View the full article
  22. NorthGeorgiaWX
    Mount Jefferson is the one with the snow. That snow doesn't melt until July.
    Incredible. A must do. Ride, don't drive. 

    If you ever get up to the New England states and you travel to New Hampshire, a visit to Mount Washington is something you do not want to miss. On a good day you will get to witness one of the most spectacular views anywhere in the country. Reaching 6288 feet into the New Hampshire sky, Mount Washington is the king of the White Mountains and is one of many peaks in the Presidential Range. If you look it up on Wikipedia, you'd see this...

    "The Presidential Range is notorious for having some of the worst weather on Earth, mainly because of the unpredictability of high wind speeds and whiteout conditions on the higher summits. Because of the poor weather conditions, the Presidential Range is often used for mountaineering training for those who go on to climb some of the world's highest mountains, including K2 and Everest." 

    One thing they tell you right before you get off the train at the top is "don't miss the train going back down",  You don't want to have to hike down this mountain. Even in the summertime, the top of Mt Washington is covered in fog 90% of the time. During the trip up and down the mountain on the cog railway you'll notice all of the stacks of stones known as cairnes (can be seen and talked about in the videos below). Those are used as trail guide markers for the hikers. Since you can hardly see in front of you in the fog, the markers are placed VERY close together to help keep you on the path and not fall off the mountain. As you approach the top of the mountain the Appalachian Trail crosses the tracks, and the hike across Mount Washington and the Presidential Range is considered to be the most difficult hike on the entire Appalachian Trail.  The Presidential Range of the White Mountains   You have three ways to get to the top of Mount Washington, you can walk, you can drive, or you can take the cog railway, and that is the method we took. It's about a 4 hour hike to the top and then another 3-4 back down, so unless you are REAL adventurous and have perfect weather, that is probably out of the question. You can also take your own car to the top by driving on the Mount Washington Auto Road, but a word of caution. This road has no guardrails and if you mess up, there is nothing to stop you and your vehicle from tumbling to the bottom.  I haven't been on it but I hear from others that have that it's terrifying. It's makes it hard to enjoy the views when you have to worry about driving off a cliff. See the video at the very end of this post, then decide. 😉

    So... that leaves the cog railway. THIS is the way to go. This is from their website: Here's a video of the train that took us to the top pulling into the station. They operate multiple trains up and down the mountain during the day and our engine is one of the bio-diesels that they run. The Cog Railway also has a couple of steam locomotives in case you want that old time feel to the ride.  Notice that the engine pushes the passenger car up the mountain instead of pulling. The engine has a cog (it's like a gear) that engages slots in the center of the track and that is how you get pushed up the mountain. The steepest grade is about 38%, so it looks like you're headed off into space at times. If not for the cog, the train would never be able to make it up the mountain.    The passenger car has two sections of seating. The left side of the car (facing forward) has three seats and across the aisle are two more seats. When you make your reservations (and you MUST or you probably won't get a seat and certainly not the best seat) you want to get the front seats on the left because the best views are on that side of the train. 

    The day we went up was about as good as it ever gets on Mount Washington, so the windows were down on the train. Keep in mind, some of the worst and wildest weather in the U.S. occurs on Mount Washington.  Most of the time the mountain is in the clouds with fog and mist. In the winter, that fog and mist become rime ice that covers everything up there.  For nearly sixty-two years Mount Washington held the world record for the fastest wind gust ever recorded on the surface of the Earth: 231 miles per hour, recorded April 12, 1934 by Mount Washington Observatory staff. To learn more about the day that wind speed was recorded, click on this link.  Another item to note, the tree line starts about 5000 feet. Out in the Rockies, that elevation is about 10,000 feet. 

    The maximum temperature ever recorded on the summit is only 72 degrees and the high the day we rode up was about 60 degrees, so it was a relatively warm day on the top. The image below shows the conditions right before we started the ride up (we had a 12:30 pm train). It was an incredibly warm day at the bottom, we had seen temps in the low 80's driving to the mountain so we knew the top shouldn't too bad. Even the winds cooperated that day and stayed at speeds that wouldn't blow you off the mountain like they normally do.  Notice that our visibility was about 80 miles... today it's 1/16 of a mile (see image below). Here's a link to the current data.     The image below is from today, June 14th about the time we left the station. Compared to our visit, it is much colder with no visibility today. Not a great day to go to the top if you want to see a view.  Conditions at 12:26 pm June 14. This is about the time we left. Compare this to how warm it was last Monday the 10th   Mansfield Station
    The elevation at the bottom where you start the ride up is about 1600 feet. It's funny, but Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park is 1529 feet high and you think that's tall when you're on top of it, so this being at the bottom helps put things in perspective. 

    The station has a gift shop, a restaurant, and restrooms. If you didn't purchase your ticket online, you get your tickets here.  There are no restrooms on the train so go before you board. 

    It's very cool looking up toward the top of the mountain from the station. You can barely make out the tower on the top, and off in the distance you can see the train tracks going up the side of the mountain.  Now... picture yourself hiking that. 🙂 The top is on the top of the peak in the right of the image. You can see the tracks in the distance to the right of the flag.   I mounted my GoPro on the window using a suction cup mount. Stupid me... I could have mounted the actual camera part of it in the open part of the window, but instead, the whole thing was behind the window. It doesn't seem to hurt the image to much but I'm sure it helped with reducing the wind noise. Granted, the train only moves about 4 MPH, so the wind noise doesn't come from the train movement. 🙂

    Anyway... here are my videos from the front of the train. I should have mounted the camera on the left side window to catch the views, and I was going to on the way down, but someone on the other side of the aisle asked if they could swap seats with us for the return trip. And being the nice person that I am, we swapped, so I didn't have the best view coming back down. And trust me, the left side is spectacular.  The pictures I have just don't do it justice.  The conductor was great and full of information, I was glad I captured his narration on the videos.   It is a ride you'll never forget. I've added a few pictures below, but if you'd like to see them all, you can click on this link.       Keep in mind that during times of bad weather, the train may not go all the way to the top. They will ride halfway and when there is snow, they stop at a newly built platform and everyone can get off the train and hang out at a bonfire and eat s'mores. We were very blessed with our weather and it couldn't have been more perfect. Because the weather on the top is so unpredictable and generally not so good, it makes it very tough to factor in to your plans. You plan for the worst and hope for the best, and in our case, that's the way it worked out, so your visit may or may not go as well. That's Mount Washington.

    Once you're at the top there are several places to explore, and if you're hungry you can grab a bite to eat eat while you're there. And there is even a United State Post Office on the top so you can send mail with a Mount Washington postmark. The Mount Washington Observatory on top is continuously staffed even in the winter time. Research is conducted on new weather instruments and manually taken weather readings occur on schedule 24/7. 

    Not much more to say except you need to add this place to your bucket list. I do recommend the train up, but if you think you may want to drive up, watch this video below. You will be amazed and terrified at the same time. 🙂  
    View the full article
     
  23. NorthGeorgiaWX
    After the fiasco from yesterday, we have decided to skip the stop in Philly to see Independence Hall, and I think that decision proved to be a wise one.

    Also... if you travel and use Google Maps... just know that the drive times you see is probably not going to be the time you actually spend on the road. Obviously Google doesn't know how many times you're gonna stop, and it doesn't know how fast you'll travel among other things. 

    The bridge you see in the picture above is one of many on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. Each bridge is a little different, but each one is very fancy. Those were kinda cool.

    Today we end up in Shelton Connecticut at a Hampton Inn. (EDIT: this was a GREAT place to stay). Tomorrow... onward through the fog!  
    View the full article
     
  24. NorthGeorgiaWX
    EDIT: The bridge and the bridges I talk about below were actually the next day, June 1. They are in Connecticut... I do know that. :-) We arrived at Shelton CT and stayed at a Hampton Inn (the best one of the whole trip) and then continued driving the next day on the road you see above. I think. The days all ran together. :-)

    After the fiasco from yesterday, we have decided to skip the stop in Philly to see Independence Hall, and I think that decision proved to be a wise one.

    Also... if you travel and use Google Maps... just know that the drive times you see is probably not going to be the time you actually spend on the road. Obviously Google doesn't know how many times you're gonna stop, and it doesn't know how fast you'll travel among other things. 

    The bridge you see in the picture above is one of many on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. Each bridge is a little different, but each one is very fancy. Those were kinda cool. Here's a link to the picture album with images of 33 bridges. https://photos.app.goo.gl/xNYEnbYg5yvYVKhF8 . There are a total of 42 bridges that cross over Merritt Parkway. We will do another blog post about the bridges, there is a great story and history behind them.

    Today we end up in Shelton Connecticut at a Hampton Inn. (EDIT: this was a GREAT place to stay). Tomorrow... onward through the fog! View the full article
  25. NorthGeorgiaWX
    We made it! We arrived in West Yarmouth about 4:30 pm on Saturday.  Along the way we stopped to visit two lighthouses in Rhode Island and eat a lobster roll. :-)

    I've added a few pictures and a couple of videos below. Most were taken at the two lighthouses or on the way to them. Oh... and my lobster roll. :-) You can't forget the lobster roll. 

    We're just getting started so I'll have lots more pictures and videos. Now is when it starts getting good!
    EDIT: Here's the link to the photo album. 
    Here are a couple of videos I took on the ride, and both of these are from the Beavertail Lighthouse. I'll have more later. This first video is from the dash cam and the second video was taken using my S7 with polarizing filter.  View the full article

Various Links

These are links to various pages on my Daculaweather.com site

NWS Links

×
×
  • Create New...