For the love of baseball!

Most of you know that I love the St. Louis Cardinals and I stumbled across this unique picture.... and story. A guy was selling this picture to help pay some bills and said he bought it (print only) and had it framed. It was stamped and signed "Arteaga". The guy told to me that in 1980 he called the Arteaga Photography in St. Louis and talked to the guy that actually took this picture. Upon my own investigation I further found that the man who took this picutre was the grandfather of the guy that is running the studio and died in 1982. His grandfather was the St. Louis team photographer from 1930-1946. The image was taken at Sportsman Park on July 24, 1938. The interesting thing is that Babe Ruth (center) was hardly ever known as wearing a Dodgers uniform. The story is....

His only official association with any club following his 1935 retirement as a player came on June 19, 1938, when he was hired as the Brooklyn Dodgers' first-base coach by general manager Larry MacPhail. Ruth took the job with the explicit understanding that he would be given an opportunity to eventually take over for then-manager Burleigh Grimes. Unfortunately, the Dodgers were less than truthful with him. Whereas Ruth thought he was being groomed for the manager's job, the Dodgers looked upon him strictly as a drawing card. Right from the start Ruth was ordered by management to put on pregame "home run displays" and stay late to sign autographs for fans. To his chagrin, Ruth quickly realized that he had been duped once again. (The Braves, in 1935, also signed Ruth with the false promise of a future managerial position.) Ruth had no interest in being a sideshow attraction; he wanted to be manager. Disgusted with the situation, he left the Dodgers at season's end. Unfortunately, his dream of becoming a manager never came to fruition; thus his Major League career came to an official close with the Dodgers at the end of the 1938 season.

Brad Arteaga has the original negative and one original photo from this photo shoot as well as many other rare photos captured by his grandfather. I am going to make time to stop by his shop to see what other unique items I can find. I like the more "interesting" pieces and this has started many great conversations already!

The Columbia Star Dinner Train

Friday July 15, 2011 ~ Tonight was the first night for the Columbia Star Dinner Train! We have been waiting month's for this new adventure to get here and didn't want to miss the first opportunity to be a part of the madien voyage!

Our evening started at the Colt Railroad at 6501 N Brown Station Road just behind Catfish Corner and it was great to see a wonderful turnout of guests.

It was fun to visit with others about attending and once you made it to the enterance you were greeted by wonderful staff who gave you your boarding passes and welcomed you aboard.

We were surprised to see Mark & Lori (some of our Grumpy's friends) celebrating their 11th Anniversary!

They were having dinner with some more of our Grumpy's friends, Gene & Annabelle! How fun!

We found our way to the first train car (113 a&b) and found our seat! This evening they only had 2 train cars with people with 150+ people in attendance! (Normal operation would be 224 guests not including the additional car that would come that would be handicap accessable)

Brandon and I!

My momma and I!

It was a fun evening that my momma, hubby and I got to share together! We have flown, rode in a car, and now rode a train together!

It was so fun to see all the people along the way waving at all of us! They would pull over on the side of the road just to let their kids wave. It was really cool!

They served an appetizer first (sorry I forgot to take a picture!) which was a cheese bread with little bit of onion, dried tomatoes (little) and pepperoni (I think). They they brought a bread basket and cute dishes of butter, sour cream and horseradish (for the prime rib).

Next up was the shrimp cocktail (this was additional if you wanted it) and since I don't eat seafood (many of you know I don't eat anything that stays in the water longer than I take a shower) Brandon and momma said it was really good.

More people enjoying the train going by!

Howdy y'all!

These people were having a great time and when we came back through they were still there having a good time!

Although the scenery was mostly woods the experience was really cool. To do something different than the "normal" is always fun! I wanted to catch the beautiful sunset but it went down before we got to a clearing so I got this one. Very pretty sky!

Dinner is served! The prime rib was so good! It was melt in your mouth good! Brandon had his done medium and mine was medium well and it was perfect! Fork tender! The horseradish was excellent too!

More people waving and checking out the train!

They had some romatic lighting to add to the experience too! There was one wedding proposal on the train, several anniversaries, a young man who it was his 88th birthday and he had retired from the railroad, and several birthdays and one man dressed in uniform.

Picture from our train car.

I found our very own Kat Cunningham who was on board with her hubby and sons! (One of her son's was helping on our train car)

The final piece to the trip.... dessert! This cake was so moist and had a pudding style center that was so good! Our overall experience was great! The food was excellent, the service was excellent, (Amando took great care of us) and being on a train that was so old and a part of history was really cool! When you make reservations you are required to pay in advance but honestly I liked that. Your beverages (we had sweet tea) was not part of the meal and the tip was not included when they charged your credit card when you made reservations but the personal service that the men and women gave to everyone was top notch! Tonight was just the madien voyage... I know it will get better and it is something I think you should give a try at least once. I respect the people representing the handicap community for being there to voice their opinion. I believe that the Columbia Star Dinner Train is and will do everything in their power to get appropriate accomodations allowing everyone that wants to be a part of the dinner train to do so.  I hear what they are saying and it's not being ignored and they even said last night on the train as we were coming back that they hope that in the near future they will have accomations for handicap to make it accessable. Hang in there guys and gals.... tonight was the first trip of many. :)



Miranda Lambert!

I got a nice little (ok it's 29" tall x 24.5" wide) surprise from the Fed Ex man this morning... My Miranda Lambert "The House That Built Me" signed lyrics!!!! I won this from The Recording Academy Nashville Chapter FANtasy Auction! I love Miranda Lambert and when I saw this I just had to have it! What's really cool is that originally it was only going to be a print of the song writers signature on the print. When I was talking to the lady from the Grammy's about winning this auction she told me that I got a smoking good deal as it was personally signed by the 2 guys that wrote "The House That Built Me", Tom Douglas & Allen Shamblin, as well as Miranda Lambert herself! So I have 3 authentic signatures on this great picture that is framed and ready to be hung on my wall! I was so excited to get this piece as Miranda has won awards for this song as well as ACM and CMA  female vocalist of the year! I love, love, love this picture!

(Proceeds from the FANtasy Auction help fund the chapter's yearly programming. Known for it's continuing professional education and industry networking efforts, the Nashville Chapter produces an expansive program of professional services to meet the needs of the local music industry.)

Welcome to Columbia!

Me, Mike Matthes (City Manager) & Don Laird (President of the Chamber)

Wednesday July 6, 2011~ Last night our amazing Chamber of Commerce held a reception to welcome our new City manager, Mike Matthes to Columbia! Mike previously worked with the City of Des Moines, Iowa starting as an intern in the City Manager's office in 1996. I love how our Chamber always makes people that move to Columbia feel so welcome! I am glad to be a part of this wonderful organization and there was a wonderful turn out of guests! I think Mike has a tough job ahead of him but I am confident that he will handle each situation with honesty, integrity, and pride. I feel he will always include the public in situations, and although we can't please everyone all the time I think he will have the best interest in mind for the City of Columbia. Welcome to Columbia Mike and let's cut a ribbon! :)

Wall of Honor

What a wonderful start to my Ambassador term! We had a ribbon cutting for Boone Landing to dedicate their "Wall of Honor". This wall pays tribute to the veterans who live or who are survived by spouses that live at Boone Landing. What an amazing ribbon cutting! Each of the veterans came up to help cut this ribbon and were so proud to be apart of this event! It warms my heart that Boone Landing would come up with this great idea to recognize the men and women that fought for our freedom. Anyone who has, currently serving or will serve our country should have a "Wall of Honor" as big as the sky. Often times the younger generation forgets about the older folks... not me. I am so appreciative of what they have done. These men and women lived away from their families for months and even years, slept in the cold or heat, laid on the ground when they went to bed, stayed in wet clothing for extended periods of time and always slept with one eye open. They missed many birthday's, holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas and just waited on one piece of mail from home to keep them in touch. Thank you to the men and women who gave the ultimate by signing a blank check to our country that might have taken their life. I will always remember.