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SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY IN HOUSTON APRIL 9, 2006

Charlotte and I were visiting my stepmother near Houston, Texas on a beautiful Sunday in April.  On a whim, I called Chuck Blumentritt, President of the Houston Area G Gaugers, to see if there were any nearby layouts we could visit.  "Sure," he says, "In fact, we're having a meeting at John and Jean's today, why don't you stop on by!" So that's exactly what we did.  After a few introductions, our host John took us upstairs to see his 4-tier 4-scale layout.  Here's the view as you come upstairs:

Here's the other side, where all four tracks sweep inward to make an alcove:

Here's our gracious host John with Helen and Charlotte:

At the top of the stairs there's a window with this high-altitude view of the outdoor layout. In Houston it gets very hot in the summer, and John can enjoy the view from inside where it's air conditioned.

John and Jean are excellent gardeners.  Here the battery-powered Dash 9 scoots along next to a flowerbed of Amaryllis while the track in the foreground circles a bed of Iris.  The track rests on brick which has been laid on a levelled-out layer of gravel.

One of the club members likes to be called "Grumpy" but he's anything but.  Here he poses with Charlotte and Helen, trying hard not to smile:

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