Casey Jones...in the house!

Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey Jones you better watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.
-Grateful Dead-


I couldn't get the Gratefuld Dead's Casey Jones lyrics out of my head last night, as we attended a "pep rally" in Huron to get people to get excited for the DM&E railroad's potential 300 mile rail improvement project, that is if the "A-Team" of politicians (which one is Murdoch??) can get the government to approve the $2.3 bill it is going to take. This would be one of the biggest rail construction projects since the Civil War, and in ways it has generated Civil Wars.

The whole thing was kind of ironic, because for the last 9 years we have all been taught to welcome the trains to Huron, just ask Dr. Hohm, I wonder if he takes the 9 year old home-made billboard out of his yard when this thing passes. So I'm pretty sure everyone at the event was already supporting the project.

Gov. Mike Rounds, Sen. Tim Johnson and Sen. Jon Thune all spoke from the political horses they ride...Rounds did his usual roll up the sleeves and carve a mountain speech, Johnson talked to us like we were all from Washington...just a hint Tim, we are all pretty proud to live in SD, you don't have to take a 20 minute speech to tell us to be...tell us what you are doing, and Thune talked about his Grandpa...AGAIN.

The guy that I think did the best job was DM&E Prez and CEO Kevin Schieffer, although after the 3rd round of politician banter, most of us were ready to get home and cheer for the Detroit Tigers. Kevin is not your typical Prez/CEO, he is an open-collared, whispy-haired man's man, who looks like he would be at home in a duck blind or on a pheasant hunt, and last night behind a podium. Just a tell it like it is kind of guy...solid...a lot like Rounds.

Anyway if they get the $2.3 billion they can start fixing the railroad, so we can start hauling MORE coal out of the Powder River Basin to power MORE generation plants.

Most of you know I work for the Electricity Factory, and the increased mobility of coal and ethanol will help keep down electricity prices, but the visionary in me thinks we should also be pumping $2.3 billion into wind energy development.

God hauls the wind for us...free of charge, and Mayo Clinic, MN can't do anything to stop it...we just have to harness it. Or have to need to want to harness it. If you can understand that.

For more info on the rail thing look at www.gotrac.org

For more info on our lake house check back here Thursday...I just ranted today...felt good though.