I took Friday off as a vacation day and left early. Got to Rusk about 0930 and met Ed Stabler and Earl Knoob at the office in the Rusk Depot. Ed was working with one of the shop guys (Steve, I think) and troubleshooting his truck that wouldn’t start. Not a good omen. They were unsuccessful in getting it running, so Ed called the dealer in Jacksonville to come and tow it to the shop.

 

That done, we got down to the business of recording Ed’s opening monologue for the DVD. This was far more difficult than I figured it would be. We did a dozen takes or so until the train arrived from Palestine, making us stop. It was time for lunch anyway. As we were leaving, someone called my name and I turned to see Carole Thronburg, an old friend from my other hobby (Drum & Bugle Corps). My confusion regarding her presence on the train evaporated when I remembered her boyfriend likes trains. It’s a small world.

 

On a recommendation from Earl and Marlene, Ed and I got lunch at All-Star BBQ in Rusk. Great food. Cute wait staff.

 

After lunch, and after the train departed, we got back to business. First up was Earl’s interview. It’s simply amazing the wealth of knowledge he has and can effortlessly pull up. After Earl, I interviewed Janet, the PR Manager.  Then, Ed and I got back to his scenes. We did a few more test runs and then Ed hit his stride. We knocked out both monologues and the preview video in about an hour. MISSION #1: ACCOMPLISHED.

 

About 1530 I went over to the Engine House to interview Steve Butler, the Chief Mechanical Officer. Steve staged himself in, on, or near each of the four locomotives and gave me a report. It'll be a great segment on the DVD.

 

Next order of business: retrieve Ed’s truck. The shop called to report they’d fixed it early. He wasn’t expecting it back until Monday afternoon, so this was a very good thing. We ran up to Jacksonville and got it. Then Ed joined Earl for a concert at a coffee house over in Hendersonville. I was initially going with them, but decided I’d better spend the evening going through the video to make sure that what we shot would work. Michele and I have a baby due in about 8 weeks and I have no time to meet Ed to re-shoot after this weekend. I had to get all of his video work and the narration done this weekend or the project would be postponed until the fall.

 

The next morning I got up early and arrived at the Depot around 0800. By the way, the Rusk Donut Shop on 69 serves Boudin Kolaches and they’re AWESOME! No one was around when I got to the Depot, so I parked in the staff lot to munch on my newly acquired breakfast goodness. It was foggy and quiet... peaceful. The birds were chirping and it was just a tad chilly. In other words, it was perfect.

 

In a last minute SNAFU, Earl had to run to Palestine to replace a sick Fireman. We were planning to use his office for the narration. But, no Earl = no key. So we set up in the common area of the office and did the best we could. Every time the door opened, the fax/printer started, the phone rang, or someone walked through we had to pause and restart. I know of at least one ringing phone that made it into the narration. We both missed it when it happened. Oh well... life goes on...

 

When the eastbound arrived, Earl opened his office for us and we knocked out the remainder of the narration in just a few hours. MISSION #2: ACCOMPLISHED

 

Before he left, I showed Earl the finished opening scenes, including Ed’s monologue. I'd finished this the night before. He was pleased and this made me happy... to say the least...

 

Just before the Palestine train departed after lunch, the skies opened up and it DUMPED on us. We paused our work while the train left and I had a moment to reflect on how absolutely awesome it was to be doing what we were doing and where we were doing it. Ed was sitting at Earl’s desk and I was on the other side running the mic and laptop to record him. It was dark outside, the rain was falling and the train was pulling away from the Depot. It was a perfect moment. I really should’ve gone railroading instead of choosing an IT career.

 

We wrapped things up just after the evening train returned from Palestine and we said our goodbyes. Ed set off on a personal project and I hit the road for home.