Breakfast, trains and elk

My brother Bob drove from his home in Brecksville to Mom's last night.  Mom made dinner and sugar cookies and we visited.  It was nice.  Bob and Suzie are going to their time share in Stowe, Vermont via Canada on Wednesday and will be gone almost up until the time we leave Ohio, so I'm glad Bob was able to spend more time with us.

This morning we had breakfast at the Dog Tracks Diner in Wellington.  Dog Tracks is a little restaurant near the railroad tracks (we counted three trains going by during breakfast -- Mom says 70 trains a day go through Wellington.  Wow.)  I had the omelet special -- three eggs with Swiss cheese and mushrooms plus toast and potatoes for under $5 -- and it was seriously the best omelet I've ever had.  Dog Tracks' Lake Erie Perch is also great; Jim and I don't leave Wellington without having some.  

After breakfast, Bob took us on a car tour.  We drove by the railroad underpass Wellington is building for $21 million because of concerns emergency vehicles can't quickly get to both sides of town, since the train tracks run through the middle.  

Then we drove by an elk farm just outside of town.  Called Bonnie Brae, it used to be a famous horse farm.  The owners raised Percherons and later standardbred race horses.  
An article I read in an online journal rustbeltgreen said Bonnie Brae switched to elk in the 1990s as a way to stay in a family business, since so many smaller farms are being bought up by agribusinesses.  (You also see smaller nearby grain/dairy farms becoming vineyards, or herb/flower farms or selling off frontage for new houses  -- no link for  that  last one, but drive down Hawley Road in Wellington.  When I lived here as a kid, the two miles of Hawley Road between Route 18 and Jones Road were lined by crops and 5 houses.  Now there are fewer crops and 20 houses.  Times change.)  

Bonnie Brae sells elk meat, antlers and elk to others starting up elk farms.  Anyone want to start an elk farm? From what we saw at Bonnie Brae, you need a high fence.

Mom and Bob at the Dog Tracks Diner in Wellington. Bob wrote "Help, I'm being kidnapped" on his place mat, but we made him tell the waitress he was kidding.