Hooked Rug for David

Back when I was just a wee lad, my mother hooked this rug for me... It has mountains, an Indian watching off in the distance, Buffalo and a Buffalo Hunter...plus a great locomotive hauling a train across the frontier! It is a piece of art and it was a terrific childhood gift..!

Now, properly conserved, it hangs in a place of prominence in our great room! Thanks Mom!

Let Them Eat Cake!!

This is Dubb's Restaurant in Maryville, TN. Many locals refer to it as Dubb's Diner. It's been around for more than 44 years.

It's all about inexpensive homestyle cooking, with chicken-n-dumplings, (Friday night special), and coconut pie high on the favorites list of those who frequently dine here.

Laurie and I have only eaten here once...so I'm not commenting on the food yet, at least not the overall dining experience. Dubb's has been painted and refurbished since we last ate there and it truly needed the work. It's much nicer now...

But we did remember one item on the menu from our first visit!

This is the "Pig Lickin" cake!! This is a moist, rich, pleasure filled creation... It consists of a little cake, pineapple, coconut and a lot of whipped cream! I personally don't care much for cake. This is The Exception!

Dubb's Restaurant is at 1100 Foch Street, right at the NW corner of Foch and US-129 in Maryville, Tennessee. Phone: 865-982-7421

Depots Along the Way...

The fortunes of time can be very upbeat or they can be a bit depressing.

This handsomely preserved and maintained Depot in Eden Center, New York is very far south of the Buffalo Metropolitan area. Note the flowers and the old baggage cart...

Used for a business, the owner has done a great job in maintaining this great little railroad station! The station was built by the Erie Railroad along it's Buffalo & Southwest Line.

FYI...Eden is the home of the Kazoo Company, the only firm in the USA that produces metal Kazoos.


On the other side of the coin, this station in Cherry Creek, New York, about 48 miles south of Mile Marker 0 in Buffalo, seems to be slipping into some hard times. It too was built by the Erie Railroad...about 115 years ago! A few years back, it was carefully preserved and it was in use as a gift shop, specializing in Amish goods and country crafts. Obviously, business has been tough...



Back in the late 1990's, this station was regularly visited by New York & Lake Erie Scenic Excursion Trains running south from Gowanda, New York. The station itself still looks good...and perhaps it will be saved and re-purposed.

Family Oil Paintings & Search

The following four oil paintings were painted by my stepfather, Hugh Thomson. Unfortunately, two of them are lost from the family's collection.

This painting has disappeared from sight. It was obtained by an art dealer in Kansas City...who in turn sold it to a dealer in Iowa. To the best of anyone's knowledge, someone in Florida now owns this painting of an old antique shop from the early 50's in Jackson Michigan.

I will buy this painting if I can locate it...

I had never seen this painting but I have traded emails with the dealer in Kansas City who was able to purchase paintings by both Hugh and Robert Thomson. The dealer sent me this photo and told me that it was one of Hugh's paintings. He has it at home and doesn't plan to sell it.

I own this painting. This too had been purchased by that Kansas City Art Dealer. In this case, he had sold the painting and my wife, Laurie, found it at the McCormick Gallery in Chicago. We made the trip downtown and were able to buy it back.

The painting is of the rear of some old buildings in downtown Jackson Michigan sometime in the late 1940's or early 1950's. Since that time, the Grand River through the downtown area has been paved over.

Another painting by Hugh Thomson. This one is part of our family collection...as it always has been. This scene is of an old dam and bridge in Jackson County. Again, this is from around 1950.

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

As we wandered through northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, we stumbled across this great narrow gauge railroad at it's northern terminus in Antonito CO. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is the highest and longest narrow gauge scenic railroad in the USA. It utilizes 64 miles of twisting, winding tracks stretching from Antonito to Chama New Mexico.





This is a Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado K-36 Narrow Gauge Locomotive pulling out of Antonito CO.



The railroad is owned by a the taxpayers of both Colorado and New Mexico as authorized by Congress back in 1973. When the railroad was purchased by the Commission representing both states, it included the most scenic portion of the line, all related operational & historic structures, 9 steam locomotives and 130 freight and work cars.


This was the San Juan Extension of the Rio Grande Railroad. It was built in 1880 to support the silver mining industry...and starting with WWII, it supported natural gas exploration in the area. Eventually, business fell off and in 1969 the Interstate Commerce Commission granted a request from the Rio Grande Railroad to abandon the line. That marked the last use of steam locomotives in general freight service in the USA.

There is a rail yard at either end of the line. The yard at Antonito was built in the 1970's to support the C&TSRR at that location. However, the yard at Chama was built in 1881 and many of the old buildings remain. For much more information along with great photos and a lot of interesting video clips, check it out at http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/.

Lost River Revisited

On September 10th, I posted a blog about The Lost River Cafe. On that morning, we arrived too late to have breakfast and we'd promised ourselves that the next visit would correct that mistake. So, just a day or so ago, we got up a bit earlier and headed on over to this out of the way cafe.

This time we were disappointed by the fact that Lexi, the chocolate Lab, who serves as the Lost Cafe's 'greeter', (shown in this photo from the last visit), wasn't in her usual spot on the bench.

Despite the lack of cannine hospitality, we ventured inside, pursuing the most elusive basic restaurant meal in East Tennessee, a top notch Breakfast!

Laurie ordered her standard...2 eggs over easy, bacon, hash browns and toast. The eggs were fresh and cooked just right. The bacon was very good, as were the hashbrowns! A great start!

Being the gormand that I am, I ordered a 'light' breakfast. Two eggs over easy, hash browns, sausage patties plus biscuits and sausage gravy. As you can see, the platter of biscuits and sausage gravy was huge...two tasty big biscuits just loaded with sausage gravy! (Pardon the red dots on half of the order...I started putting my Tabasco on before I remembered to ask Laurie to take the photo. (We always carry Tabasco in the car with us...too many restaurants use the low cost, no bite 'hot' sauce) Laurie ate from the other half as Tabasco isn't a breakfast 'food' for her...


Any complaints? My only negative was that the sausage patties had been a bit overcooked. Otherwise, this was definitely the best restaurant breakfast we've had so far in East Tennessee!


The Lost River Cafe has a lot of down home atmosphere, complete with a couple of communal tables used by the locals for food, coffee and conversation. This restaurant is located at 858 Tennessee Highway 360, just 2.1 miles east of US Highway 411 in Vonore, TN. No Credit Cards. No Liquor. Hours are from 7 am to 3 pm, Tuesday through Sunday. Phone: 423-884-2497.

Ships From the Past

I'm definitely into different forms of transportation...both for their power and for the their ability to transport the mind to far away places. This is a 12" x 15" pencil drawing by Bob Thomson, done in ca. 1975. It depicts an old tramp steamer being guided into port by the tugboat Goliath.






This is an old family photo from a marathon family vacation...before expressways...back in 1951 or 1952. These old sailing ships were photographed somewhere along the coast of New Brunswick, Canada.



The trip was from Jackson Michigan up through Brantford Ontario, Montreal, the Gaspe Peninsula, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, then back down through New England and home. In those days, there were few 'motels', mostly cabins.


This is an oil painting by Bob Thomson. This is the 1934 Sidewheel Paddleboat Dredge, the William S. Mitchell...also known as the 'Death Dredge'! This ship had a history of over 112 crewmember deaths over it's years of operation. Legend has it that it all started when the ship dredged up an ancient Indian burial site on its maiden voyage.



Whatever the cause of it's misfortune, it did seem to be a cursed ship. This was a huge riverboat...287 feet long by 77 feet wide with a crew of 66 including officers. The captain of the vessel and others were killed in a incident called "The Massacre on the Mitchell" when the ship broke free from it's moorings in Kansas City and crashed into a series of bridges, totally destroying the pilot house and much of the upper deck. Check this frightening trip out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jJG9r4t7lc.


And yet, despite everything that has happened, or perhaps because of everything that happened, the William S. Mitchell has survived to this day. It is now called the "USS Nightmare" and it's a 'haunted' tourist attraction that is moored in Newport, Kentucky. It's big season...Halloween...is coming up fast.