Jack and Coke

Copyright JGS / email: night.day.studio@gmail.com

If you had invested $10,000 in Coca-Cola 50 years ago, you'd be sitting on a 6200% gain
 without reinvesting your dividends.

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When originally created,

Coca-Cola's two key ingredients were cocaine and caffeine.

Coca-Cola now uses a cocaine-free coca leaf extract prepared at a Stepan Company plant in Maywood, New Jersey.

In the United States, the Stepan Company is the only manufacturing plant authorized by the Federal Government to import and process the coca plant, which it obtains mainly from Peru and, to a lesser extent, Bolivia. Besides producing the coca flavoring agent for Coca-Cola, the Stepan Company extracts cocaine from the coca leaves, which it sells to Mallinckrodt, a St. Louis, Missouri, pharmaceutical manufacturer that is the only company in the United States licensed to purify cocaine for medicinal use.

(If you do not drink Coca-Cola on a regular basis, it is still a good headache medicine)

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Jack Daniels' signature whiskey is the Old No. 7 brand. There were not 6 previous incarnations, and the secret of the 7's real meaning died with the original Mr. Jack Daniels.

Moore County, Tennessee, where Jack is distilled, is still a dry county. However, the distillery is exempt from the law and sells Gentlemen Jack in its gift shop.

Amtrak

Choo.....Choo.....

For many years we would travel from Chicago to Denver on Amtrak.  It was the easy, stress-free way to travel to visit our daughter during the winter.  No worries about driving during the snowy, white-out conditions on I-80 or I-70. 

Christmas 2006, the Denver Airport was closed down, stranding passengers for days. Parts of I-70, I-80, I-25 and I-76 were closed. Looking out the train windows, we saw abandoned trucks and cars all along the route, but the train made it through to Denver.

Chicago Union Station

Chicago railyards

I love traveling on the train, but it is not for everyone. You need to have the time to travel by train, its 15 hours from Chicago to Denver about the same as driving. You have to be able to relax and not worry about schedules or delays. Hopefully, you can sleep through the rocking and rolling, the trains travel faster during the night. Most trains show a movie or two each evening in the Lounge Car. Three meals a day are available in the Dining Car or at the Snack Bar.

Omaha, NE

more than halfway to Denver

sometime after Midnight

Omaha Station

sleeper car

The first long train ride we did was in 1989 from Chicago to Las Vegas. At that time the train station was behind one of the Casinos. Now you have to get off the train in Salt Lake City and take a bus 7.5 hours to Las Vegas.

Between 1999-2009, we rode the California Zephyr between Chicago and Denver more than a dozen times. A few times, for a change of scenery, we would ride on the Southwest Chief, from Chicago to Trinidad, CO or Albuquerque, NM. I actually prefer this route, but it was not as convenient as the California Zephyr into Denver.

In 2001, we rode from Chicago to Washington D.C. and  from there we boarded another train to Orlando, FL.  There was a layover of several hours in D.C. so we toured some of the "Mall" while we were waiting.

 In April 2011, when I purchased my RV from a dealer in Seffner, FL, I took this same route from Chicago to Orlando and then rented a car to go pick up the RV.

The train is not a perfect way to travel, the trains and tracks need to be updated, but I hope to still travel occasionally on the train. I'm thinking if I go back to Illinois to visit family and friends I may take the train and leave the RV in storage somewhere. I think it would be cheaper than the cost of fuel and RV sites to travel from the western states to Illinois and back again. I have a lot of Amtrak "miles-points" for free travel, similar to air travel miles and I should use them up before they expire.

Lost your marbles?

  "Marblescape"

marbles
Slang - normal rational faculties; sanity; wits; common sense;

to have all one's marbles; to lose one's marbles

“Common sense is not so common.” 

- Voltaire

 

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are,

 first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense.” 

-Thomas A. Edison

Good Morning Sunshine

When you arise in the morning,
think of
 what a precious privilege it is
 to be alive
to breathe
to think
to enjoy
to Love
-Marcus Aurelius

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Yesterday's Mystery Photo is a paper towel tube.

Mystery Photo

What is this?

Still sorting through all of the digital photos and some scanned photos that were not digital. My hard drive is too full and I need to copy photos to an external drive. I've also uploaded some to Picasa Web Albums.

For the next few weeks I will be posting some of my husbands photography.

Unique

I was sorting and organizing photos on my hard drive and came across this photo that Stump created, probably in 2008 or 2009. I was thinking that I wanted to use it on the blog and was trying to come up with a blog post.

"There's always one in the crowd"

I found this quote to go along with the picture.

FREAK

A person who is envied because
 they are a fabulously unique individual
 that can kick a**
and has no need or desire
to follow the flock.