Sunday, March 2, 2014

All Work and No Play

Last weekend I got the new iPhone 5s and in the process of reloading the pictures from my old phone I realized that there were quite a few taken while on business trips. 
 
I've been fortunate to be able to travel to some interesting cities and see a bit of the country while traveling for work.
 
This was taken on a trip to visit the CSXT in Jacksonville, FL.  This yacht was rumored to belong to the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  On this trip we took a drive to St. Augustine the oldest city in Florida and toured the lighthouse museum.  While we were there, a thunderstorm passed through and they had to close the lighthouse down but we were able to continue the museum tour.
This was taken on a trip to San Diego for an Association of Car Accounting and Car Service Officers (ACACSO) meeting. On this trip we had dinner in a nice waterside restaurant and then walked to a nearby hotel to catch a cab, the hotel was hosting a Marine Corps birthday ball that night and it was fun to see all the young men in formal uniforms and their dates in beautiful dresses. 
 
On a trip to visit Greenbrier we made a stop at Voodoo donuts in Portland, OR.  Later that evening as we passed through airport security the TSA worker let us know that our Voodoo signature pink box was the 62nd one he had see that day!
 
One more shot of the Voodoo exterior.

 The next picture was taken in Atlanta where I attended the American Shortline Railroad Association (ASLRRA) convention.  This shot was taken from the balcony of the hotel looking down at the Red Hat Society ladies who were also having a convention at the same hotel.  This night they were gathering for their formal banquet, some of the women wore southern style hoop dresses which looked like they could have been in Gone With the Wind.  It was fun sharing the hotel with these spirited ladies, they were EVERYWHERE!  Two of them were in the room next to mine and they parked their motorized scooters in the hallway, both scooters were decked out with lots of red and purple bling!  Someone from our group was at the business center of the hotel and overheard one of the ladies mailing her fancy hat back home and insuring it for $1,000. 
 
On this same trip one of the women had pre-arranged a ladies only dinner. 
It was a fun time at a local brew pub.
 
This picture is a tray full of delicious chocolate treats that was delivered to my room by the Las Vegas hotel where we were having our May ACACSO meeting (one of the perks of serving as the ACACSO president, chocolate and a nice suite!).

 Took this picture while on an after dinner stroll overlooking the Venetian's canal.  Amazing how even a phone picture can look like a postcard from Vegas.
Spent some time at the Fashion Show mall on the last day in Vegas and was lucky enough to catch one of the fashion shows. 

This one from the hotel window in Dallas where BNSF was hosting their
annual Shortline convention.

There was a street festival going on outside of the hotel the Saturday evening I arrived.  Steel Magnolia was peforming and I caught the last few songs of their performance. 
Sunday afternoon I walked over to take pictures of the Las Colinas mustangs. 
They are very life like.
This time back to Atlanta for the November ACACSO meeting.
One of our members is gracious enough to bring his extensive model railroad setup which is used to illustrate different car hire scenarios during the three breakout sessions. 
It's a fun and unique way to learn!

And this final picture was taken just last week on a road trip to Pittsburg, KS to visit Watco Companies.  Early morning, sun coming up, and a train full of covered hoppers.

 
So that's my little stroll down memory lane remembering some of the non-work moments that happened while on work trips during the last couple of years!