KCS Vicksburg Sub – 7 June 2008

[Jimbaux is expecting just a little bit too much from the wounded, but he sees, sees through it all, sees through, sees you.]

Yeah, so, as you saw yesterday, I was in Monroe along the KCS’s Meridian Speedway the first weekend of June 2008 for the KCSHS convention.  The Stroe Man and I foamed together that morning, and we found the MNSSH – a solid Norfolk Southern to Shreveport westbound manifest train – waiting in the siding at Calhoun.

That’s one of my favorite-ever train shots, and if you can’t see the greatness of it, take about five steps back from wherever you are sitting or standing or lying down, and then take a look into the image.  What do you see?

The NSSH was waiting on the eastbound Z-train.  The Stroe Man and I went to Choudrant to catch the Z-train.

Before the train showed up, a local showed up in a pickup truck and talked to us, concluding with “I hope you enjoy your visit to Choudrant.”  Well, we’re not really going to “visit” much here, amigo.

Let’s go back to Monroe.  So, that’s what we did, and this is what we saw.

This location is called West Magenta.

Now, it’s time for lunch.  We met at some park somewhere, and we see The Shadow Warrior driving up to the park.

This was the last time that I would ever see him.  Less than five years later, he would be dead of pancreatic cancer.  The Mid-City Marine last saw him with me on Rich Mountain in 2007.

After lunch, during high sun time, one of the attendees and I headed to the theater in West Monroe to check out Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Oh, that reminds me of something that I learned on the way up to Monroe: you really should not listen the “Desert Chase” track of the soundtrack of Raiders of The Lost Ark while driving.  Gosh, I was on I-10, and I kept wanting to jump onto moving vehicles next to me.  That would have been really, really bad.

Oh, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had a really good message, despite many people being distracted by the “aliens” part and therefore not understanding the message; “their treasure was knowledge,” Jones said at the end, and that is what you see here on Jimbaux’s Journal.  This knowledge, this form of education, is entertainment; it’s not education to achieve some monetary end so that we can then afford something “entertaining.”  No, the education is the entertainment.  It is the quest for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom that makes life entertaining and worth living; does that make sense?

After the movie, I was back trackside before the banquet, and I seem to remember that I was alone.

I had never been to Ruston.  Now, I’m here.

For our last shot of the day, we see a view that I often used to teach to students about sunlight angles at different times of the year, how this shot could not have possibly been taken in fall or winter, how one can tell that with the knowledge that this track runs essentially due east-west and that we are on the northern side of the track.  Yes, Indiana Jones, our treasure is indeed knowledge.

That’s the SHNS, the eastbound counterpart of the NSSH, and that’s all the time that we have for today.  I hope that you have enjoyed it all.

Merci,

Jimbaux