Running Bear's February 2022 Coffee Shop

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Boris said:
Chick-filet...persists on drive in only service, long after the Governour's mandates expired. I won't jump through hoops for one of their chicken sandwiches...just not worth it.
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This "drive through only" really irks me. Most FF restaurants around here have had dine in since last summer of 2020 or latest Fall 2020 or early 2021. However there are still a few hold outs.

Around here Chick-Fil-A being open for sit down or drive through / pickup only depends on the local franchisee. There were until recently (and may still be) one or two like that but most all the ones around here have opened their dining rooms since last summer/fall. Our closest one closed their dining room for a few weeks in November or December but after I contacted them to complain they told me it was a temporary measure due to staffing issues (every FF and other restaurant around here is crying for workers and many starting $14-$16).

But all the KFC around here are owned by the same franchisee and they refuse to open for dine in. It is so frustrating as my family liked KFC once in a while but I won't go to places that don't support the community and open up. (And I hate drive throughs anyway). The same franchisee of these KFCs also runs a few Taco Bell places (and probably other Yum brand stuff but I don't know -- one of their TB is across the street from their KFC/A&W -- most of the KFC are paired with A&W around here though there are a few stand alone). Though with reduced hours and inability to choose dine-in in the TB app, these TB are open and you can sit down and eat but their KFC, again same owner, across the street is drive-through and pick-up only. Argghhh

We have at least 1 other and I think 2 other franchisees for TB and they are all full hours, sit down, etc. Just the ones owned by the KFC franchisee are reduced hours and weird.

This KFC franchisee opened the first KFC franchisee in the US oh so many years ago. Originally owned by a guy named Pete Harmon, my grandfather was his first customer when he opened a local diner, before he became involved with the Colonel. One of my mom's relatives became their VP of Operations (before he died) and their family always brought KFC to the family reunions of that branch... (Which makes KFC intransigence even more infuriating since my family has/had a distant connection.)

Enough ranting. I am hungry and have not eaten breakfast yet so all this talk of food has me going...
 
Greg@mnrr said:
I vote for Culver's on quality of food and cleanliness. I love Culver's fries. Cathy was at Chick-fil-A yesterday and her order was at best warm. I filled out a customer survey for her and received a free sandwich of our choice.
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We like Culvers and they recently built one about 2 miles from us :(

My daughter usually chooses Culvers for our once-a-month dinner date after her band practice down in Orem. The one thing that frustrates me is that, at least around here, all the Culvers no longer have the "Buffalo Tenders". They have their original and you can get a buffalo sauce, but their actual "Buffalo Tenders" are head and shoulders better than the just "OK" original tenders. They say they don't know if they are coming back and it is related to supply. So frustrating. I like that they have diet Root Beer as well. Though diet drinks are not good for you, in my current low carb state it i what I have to have and later in the evening I try and avoid too much caffeine.

The bacon butter burger double patty is pretty good. And their onion rings and cheese curds are good (though A&W has better curds).

More food talk on an empty stomach
 


Good morning,

Drove home yesterday in a blizzard, best thing was only a few other cars on the road. We did not get a lot of snow, but the WIND was brutal.

Right now plus 13 and not snowing. Wind went from south at 30 mph to north at 30 mph in 12 hours!

Curt - thanks for the comment on the scenery shot.

Willie - I have never refurbished trees, I simply throw them away and make new ones. I will have to reconsider some of my techniques.

Patrick - I hope your shoulder improves,

Bruette, hope the foot feels better

Another shot from the old layout, I use a lot of natural sand and clay materials

a final view 030.JPG


This shot has the powerlines and the Woodland Scenics rusty rails paint stick featured on the track.

Have a great day all,

Dave LASM
 
We've got a small regional chain of Wings Etc places here in NE Indiana. I've seen them as far south as Indianapolis and suburbs, not sure if they've gone into MICH or OHIO yet. Probably some.

Their corporate HQ is about a mile from our condo. The closest restaurant? 7.1 miles away and in a not-so-nice part of town. The better one is almost 20 miles away.... I drive by HQ almost every day, get hungry for wings, then shake it off. No need to drive to the hood to get a mess of wings
 
Ok, finally awake enough from the first set of pills of the day. It's actually a bulging disk in my neck. Almost time for the next round of drowsy.

I'm glad you guys that own a Sonic don't own a Spark...the reason it's named that it... because that what it leaves when you run over one 🤣.

For restaurants, never been west far enough to try an in and out burger, so I have no basis for comparison, but 5 guys locally is one of my favorites. As far as chicken places, we can only get Popeyes as the others have gotten to where we get stomach issues. Chik fil a is usually way too busy and chicken sandwiches aren't usually on our radar when we eat out.
 


I mentioned earlier this week that my wife helped me organize my rolling stock shelves and added more cars to the vehicle shelves.
These pics show as organized as I get.
I don't think the vehicles amount to three boxes full as Espee Fan has.
 

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As Chad said "food is subjective" Personally, I prefer a good Hotdog over steak.
Burgers, never tasted one I did not like.
As a kid living with my Mom I went to bed hungry many nights. Maybe that is why I will eat almost anything.
I once bought a cheap box of frozen burgers from Save a Lot. Turned out the beef included beef hearts. They had an unusual flavor, but I liked them, my family didn't. I thought they were very good on the grill.
I've had all kinds of burgers even one that cost me $24.99, but I still can't decide what is better, McDonald's quarter pounder or Burger King's whopper.
Not a fan of buying any cooked chicken. Although I do like KFC's original recipe.
My favorite food to eat, my wife's home cooking, my cooking is a distant second.
Almost forgot, I do like to buy an occasional New York style pizza.
We eat out about twice a month, maybe three times.
 
Good Morning everyone....nice and mild and the snow from last night is gone. A mix is due later but most cold rain. I was responsible for the snow clear (we removed all the snow) from our 82 acre property for over 39 years and I only know of one winter that came close to this one with the lack of snow. According to the NWS we are 18 inches below normal, but the snow is measured at Mitchell Field which is in South Milwaukee and close to the lake so the annual snowfalls do not equal those of the suburbs or the areas far west of Lake Michigan where it is colder during the start and end of winter.

We removed the snow totally from the property using huge quarry type front end loaders and quarry dump truck. We dumped the snow on vacant city property two miles away. The cost for snow removal was enormous.

Cathy announced this morning that she was going shopping today so my train day is postponed.

TomO: Hope your grandson didn't have any injuries due to his fall.

Lee: That first B & O box car was one of my favorite as a small child and now finally I have an HO version.

Riley was unsettled last night and kept me up for a while. Normally, I fall asleep at 8:00 PM or so and wake up at 10:30 PM and watch TV until 3 or 4 AM in the morning. Some nights not much sleep for me. But, last night tried to fall asleep by Midnight.

I keep looking for the Run Away Train movie.

Looking for my last two locomotives...a Green Bay and Western and a Wisconsin Central. Then that's it...at least for a while.

I like to keep to the fallen and railroads that roamed Wisconsin and upper Illinois. Foreign power I deem as leased and your may see a Southern Pacific loco (Like the color color scheme) and the BNSF ( They run along the Mississippi River.) Surprisingly, the Northern Pacific made it into Northern Wisconsin. The MN&S was a branch of the SOO.

That's about all for now at 39 degrees.

Greg

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Wood Piles and SOO Caboose(2).jpg
This is a busy spot on my CM&N Railroad. The caboose is on a siding which was the old mainline and the gondola is on the passing siding. The consist in the back is slowly going up the grade to the Saxeville Interchange, a less than 2% grade. The (logs) are cut from Red Dogwood branches that were in a flower arrangement that a contractor gave me for our office conference room table. Once air dried they do look like natural 1:1 logs.-Greg

IMG_0240.JPG
One of the CM&N Railroad control panels was made from a custom picture frame, Lexan painted from the rear and mini-toggle switches. The meter at top right is the voltage for the layout's incandescent lamps and the lower meter on the right is a Ramp Meter for DCC amps and voltage. The toggle switch control the buss wiring and special effects. The panel's face is hinged so it drops dwon for easy acess to the interior wiring.-Greg

IMG_0238 (3).JPG
Some of the CM&N Railroad's under layout wiring. The bulk of this wiring is for the grade crossing flashers and warning bell that I can turn on and off. I like using terminal strip which makes it easier to trouble shoot and trace wiring. I have buss wiring for switch machines (9 volts), incandescent lamps (<10 volts), DCC ( 14 Volts) LED lighting and signals (12 volts).-Greg
 
Not to steal Willie's thunder, but today is National Guitar Day. I guess our recent discussions were a bit premature 🤣

My project guitars from Ali Express have not shipped yet :). Chinese Lunar New Year holidays are over. Hopefully they ship soon. One is supposedly shipping Fedex and I am interested in playing with it and having my daughter try it. See what I need to do to whip it into shape.

My daughter did her first band rehearsal with the new Lace pickups I installed last week in her guitar. She sounded pretty good with it through the (fancy) Yamaha amp at her music school. The neck "humbucker" in clean mode sounded really good...
 
Greg@mnrr said:
I love the KFC Original Recipe and I think its better than anyone else's. I yet to have tried Popeye's chicken. You can't beat "Good" chicken cooked on an open grill during the summer. You can keep the other cooked chicken!
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I have yet to have a good Popeye's experience. The food is ok (their sides are nothing to write home about unless you like New Orleans red beans etc) but the service has been atrocious the few times we were there. We went to one in Arizona last Spring as the other places in the shopping area we were at were closed and the soda machine had no ice (not that I usually use ice from soda machines) and unlike most places, the soda itself was warm. The chicken tenders were ok but the lady at the counter hardly understood English and trying to order was a chore.

I'll take KFC any day over Popeye's, personally. The heavy breading on Popeye's is much heavier than KFC.

(I ate breakfast but am still hungry :) )
 


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