The Winding River Project

[canyonjumper]

Get better soon Fred, have a quick recovery.

           Your friend,
                          Jordan

[mrbisonm]

Thank You all for being concerned. 
I'm back, somewhat tired but not too bad. I still will have to go back and take more tests since they (health department) didn't find out why I had that severe pancreatitis.
Now I'm more or less ok, just have to watch what and how much I am eating.
Hey thanks for all the nice wishes to get better, that surely must have helped. Ready to go on with the story ?


Update 77

Regions of Simland...Part 1             


Monday, June 12th, 1967
                           Today on this date ... then:

-
- 1665 – England installs a municipal government in New York City.
- 1898 – Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines' independence from Spain.
- 1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
- 1994 – The Boeing 777, the world's largest twinjet, makes its first flight.
- Born: 1924 – George H. W. Bush, 41st President of the United States
- Died: 2003 – Gregory Peck, American actor (b. 1916)

[/size]

John Gabber meets Terry Slye on the mainstreet in downtown Access.
««" Geeez, where the heck were you in the last two weeks, haven't seen you around?" John asked his younger friend Slye.
" Well, I told you a month ago that I would be going to Montreal-Canada to see the 1967 Expo, and I liked it so much and decided to stay two weeks instead of one."
" So how was it?" John replied curiously.
" Great, just great, I saw a lot of things there. The world is getting smaller with these Expos, I even met some people from a country that I never heard of before. - Have I been missing something here?" Terry asked looking all around him.
" Nah, nothing happened here lately, we're all getting ready for the summer vacation with all that heat coming toward us in the next 6 weeks. Will you come to the pub on friday?"
" Yap, I missed those friday afternoons."
" Well, see you then, gotta find Alex now, where the hell could he be now..." John mumbled and turned away to go on with his quest of searching Alex Puto.»»

June 12th already, and it is true that summer is on the doorsteps with its heat. Rivers and lakes are already low and the Ganoga Boys have no problem to travel through the last few miles of their journey around the swamps. We will get back to them in the next update.

Today I would like to start with the first Part of a new series that I will show once in awhile and in between regular updates of the story. It is the introduction of all the regions that are included in this story, the regions of Simland.
As we can see below on the General Simland Map, we have 13 different regions that appear sometimes within the story, all in white rectangulars on the map. They are:

- Reverant
- Frampton and Beecherfalls
- Halo and Roy
- The Winding River, where the mainstory is told
- The Winding River Outlet or Radler's Islands
- Chadelaine Island
- Lakestead County (Capitol City)
- Milby Station
- Sandom
- Goosebay
- Bluebay
- Snake River
- Nardician Islands

77.00
[http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/9998/7700largesimlandmap2.png[/IMG]

Some of these regions aren't completely finished yet, but with the time off the doctor told me to take, I will be able to do so before I get to the last one.
Today we will get to know Bluebay a little better, before we go on with the story of the Winding River Project next week.

Bluebay was discovered in early and founded in late 1712, by a Naval Captain Abraham Hewitt, who at the time was ordered by the King of the Simnation to gain more land of the continent. In these waters protected from heavy waves and winds by the Bergen Island, Capt Hewitt landed near the Eal river (near today's downtown) in the bay to establish a small camp for a few days, just enough time to punish four of his fellow shipmates that have stolen some of his favourite whiskey from his personal barrel. He named this place Bluebay because of the clear dark blue waters and which was later also officially named so, when a small Trading Post was established.
Bluebay soon became to be an important Exchange Post between the Aborigins and the new Sim Settlers and which later grew into a city of almost one million citizens. The city is known in our story because of the birthplace of the Gabber family, such as John and his brother Gary and of course the father, Henry Gabber, which still owns most of the Bergen Island. The Gabbers arrived here in the mid 17 hundreds and always stayed in the region, being active within the community, from Mayor to Cityplanner and Roadconstruction. Henry started the road construction Company when cars became available in the beginning of the 20th century and today it is divided into two parts which both of his sons, John and Gary, lead. Henry was the fist to build roads along the rivers to reach Elsewhere and Smuggler's Notch. Highway 15 was also one of his projects right after the second World War.

77.01


Bluebay is a 4x4 medium tile region with only the maincity (upper left part) being on a large tile. It has 5 individual municipalities:....

- Bluebay City
- Dition
- Smuggler's Notch
- Ripton County
- St-Elsewhere

....and 3 Mayor Offices:

- Dition/Hewitt (Bluebay).....Mayor Johanna Riesling since 1962
- Elsewhere.....Mayor Nurabi Mentar since 1966
- Smuggler's Notch.....Mayor Barry White since 1967

77.02


All five municipalities are governed by the Regional Office of Dition County on Bergen Island and 3 Mayor's Offices. The regional population in 1967 is 846,022 and slowly growing.
Industries are mostly made of manufacturers of daily uses, such as clothing, home appliances, general decorations, furniture, bicycles and tools. Bluebay is the only city that has an experimental Windpower station, producing approximately 3% of the city's total needed energy with 2 turbines situated in the windy bay of Bluebay. These were introduced in 1965 by a danish Company that is starting to experiment seriously with them to produce clean energy. The rest of the city's power is produced by a large coalpower plant, which is situated in the industrial part of the city's east. The coal comes mainly from the Reverant area, where most of the mines are, they are transported by train, but since a year they found some in and near the Stoke Mountains in the Winding River Region and this might become interesting since the Winding River region is only half as far from Bluebay and Lakefield as Reverant.
Bluebay doesn't actually have a harbour, however ferries and other ships are available for the crossing to Bergen Island and other smaller islands offshore. One ferry even goes twice daily to the Nardician Islands which are a little over 60 miles south-east into the Revera sea.
Here is a transportational map of the region:

77.03


Characters of the story that came from Bluebay are:

John Gabber and his family from Dition
Gary Gabber and his family from Dition
Henry Gabber and his wife Marlene are from Dition
Terry S. Slye was born in Bluebay in 1939
Barby White's family is from Smuggler's Notch
Mike Allheimer was raised in Ripton
Gregory Badger, our soldier that growns veggies comes from Bluebay
and Nethaniel Wellington was raised in Bluebay.[/b]

Surprisingly quite a few members of today's Access Center came from the Bluebay region. Let's have a more detailed look now at the Bluebay's Region interest points. First we will go to the Maincity and also the largest of the region, Bluebay. The downtown is divided by the small Eal River that combines the Denzon and the Trinity river and ends its journey in the Revera Sea through this bay. Here is where Captain Abraham Hewitt landed in 1712 and took posession of the land in the name of the King. The city stayed small as a trading post with the United States and Canada for a very long time and started to grow bigger only in the late 19th century. So, buildings aren't that old around here, rather new, modern and clean.
Since a few years, Bluebay is having slight problems with the environment, which people though do not really care for yet at the moment. Street, and commercial wastes are still guided directly into the small river, which has slightly changed colour in some areas. But Bluebay in general is very beautiful and clean, the Bay's waters are clear, because the sea current takes everything out of the bay. The surrounding mountains are largely forested and logging has been fairly quiet here.
We can easily see one of the two Windturbines in Simland on the next picture, situated almost on the public beach of downtown. Highway 15, which ends up north into the Winding River Region and which is still under construction, also heads south down passed Snake River to the US. This highway will be the longest in Simland, once it will be finished near Access Center and connect the south with the very north. Living in the city of Bluebay is a bit expensive. Taxes are the highest in the country, towering a little over 14%. To keep the city alive, it was necessary to raise the taxes that much in the late fifties when a lot of the youth left Bluebay for other more productive cities up north and the city was about to die off. Today the city is stable, growing very slowly though.

77.04


The two downtown bridges can become very busy during certain hours of the day. The city has planned to build another one just a few hundred yards upriver in the next three or four years. Gabber Inc will be responsable for the job. Plans are done and a few residential buildings will definively disappear with the construction, which does not please everyone.

77.05


A nice place to live, right beside downtown and on the beach of the bay. A few residential towers for the slightly higher class of sims, became Bluebay's Landmark in the early sixties, only about 5 years ago. With private beaches on the bayside and access to downtown within 10 minutes by the local train, these appartments are some of the most expensive ones in the region. But unfortunetly the coast is mostly rocks and gravel in this part of the bay and nice beaches are almost inexistant in the Bluebay area anyways.

77.06


Crystal clear waters surround the home of John Gabber. Once belonging to his father Henry, the small land (only about 1 acre/ ½ Ha) on this point on the Bergen Island became the wedding present to John and Mary in 1937. John always wanted a very futuristic home and he was one of the first to have him designed such a home.
The home was build on solid rock on the point reaching a few hundred yards right into the bay with a natural wave barrier. It is just beside the only bridge to the mainland where also a small marina has been installed a few years ago.
John seems to be home at the moment, his new hydroplane is there. Usually he travels with it wherever and whenever he can, like to his office in Frampton or Grasslake and Access to his weekend home or to the Capitol City of Lakestead where he can land right in downtown on Marble lake.
We remember of course that he crashed his first plane that he called proudly "Rusty Rover" into the Valmore lake a few years back. It is still there, somewhere resting on the bottom of it.

77.07


Here we see the bay from a different angle. Downtown is on the left, while Bergen Island is on the right, The residential tower we see on the point of Bergen Island is one of Rundi Sterling's High-class appartment buildings. This one was built only 3 years ago. Sterling says to own 2 dozen or more of those buildings anywhere in the country.
We also see the second Windturbine which has been built for experimenting wind energy.
As I mentioned before, most of the mountain range of the Bergen Island still belongs to Henry Gabber. Everything that seems to be overgrown with forest is his land. He and his wife live on the mountain also, having a view of the city that many admire. They built their home in 1957, when Henry decided to slow down his presence at the Gabber Company.
People like John Gabber, Gary Gabber, his brother and his father Henry Gabber were all born in Bluebay. Bergen Island was once called Gabber Island. Also the soldier Gregory Badger and the Clubfood King in Access, Nethaniel Wellington came from Bluebay. The Wellington family is still around in these parts of Simland, mostly implicated in buisnesses such as Nethaniel. Badger's family originally came from the USA though, but Greg was born in Bluebay during the second World War in 1942. Another of our well known "Celebrities" is Terry Slye, the sawmill owner of Phlox, who was born right here in downtown Bluebay. His father worked for the railroad in the city's maintenance station, when Slye developped his love for rails and trains at an early age. He left home at the age of 17, about the time we met him when he was approached by John Gabber and then both started the small sawmill in Access in the late fifities. Today he is the sole owner of the massive and productive mill in Phlox, the fourth biggest in Simland.

77.08


The coalpower plant that supplies the city with its energy is right in the middle of the industrial park, it was built in the late thirties, when more power for the city was needed and the area was still undevelopped. With time the surrounding area was built on. Today the Energy Plant is running at "full speed" and capacity to keep up with the demand from downtown. Power lines are being built to the Grand Waterfalls in the Milby area, where the Simland Administration Office has plans to build a massive hydrodam starting in 1969, big enough to supply 90 % of the electrical energy needed in all Simland. This will be the biggest and greatest construction site ever seen in this country. We will get to this enormous construction site one day and I'll show you around where already more than 2000 sims work only to prepare the area. In Canada, in the Province of Quebec, they have started such a project also, up in the great north on the La Grande River.

77.09


After Bluebay we will now move eastward to Ripton. Ripton belongs to Bluebay's administration since 1936, since it became impossible to pay their debts after the depression. Lately Bluebay has been thinking to expand its suburbs to Ripton one day, the lands are flat and dry.  One of the two existing ferry connections to the Nardician Islands is here in Ripton, travelling some 60 miles out into the Revera Sea to reach the southern isles. If you want to go to the Nardician Islands, you have three choices only, two by ferries from either Bluebay (Ripton) and Snake River to three different islands, including the main island, or by plane from Lakefield only to the town of Nardis on the main island.
The village of Ripton, as some still call it, has one of the seven man-made Simland wonders, the Uni-Glassbuilding. Entirely made out of glass connected to a steelframe, the building was designed and constructed in 1957 by architectural students all around the country. Uni Tower, as it is called now, belongs to the University of Lakestead and is the technology, architecture and science section of the Great University of the Capitol City. It was built here close to Bluebay because the city is one of the newest and most intersting futuristic city of Simland and therefor just perfect to teach these three interesting subjects. It was constructed in 1962.
Mike Allheimer, John Gabber's best friend, was born here, not far from where the ferry is today. His birthhome gave away to the busstation. Mike's parents died in a carcrash when he was only 3 years old and he was taken care of and raised by his aunt who lived just below the Gabbers and which he became friends with ever since. Mike started working for the Gabber family when he turned 15 years old and today is the Project Manager of Gabber's Road Constructions Department. When John took over the Company's department from his father, Mike became automatically his right hand.


77.10


Totally on the side of the region in the west is a little place that time has forgotten, called St-Elsewhere. Nothing here than peace and quietness and some farms and little local logging industries. The biggest event in this village is when the yearly community dinner is held in October in the municipal building's basement. Although it is only 6 miles from Bluebay, the road leading to the villages is very small and narrow and almost undrivable during the 2 severe months of winter. St-Elsewhere's Mayor, the Native Nurabi Mentar, has been trying to draw interest to the village with different ideas to lure some jobcreating buissnesses into moving in. No big success yet, but he is hardheaded and will not give up that easily. The village was founded in 1884, when the Simland Railbaron Arthur McNorman needed a watertower and woodsupply before entering Bluebay. The village thrived in those days and even a Grand Hotel with 150 rooms was built in 1899, but when the hotel burned down in 1921, the village almost died with it, leaving behind a small ghosttown which is struggling to stay alive.

77.11


On the southern border of Bluebay is an area not yet quite discovered. Here the roads end on the lake of Trinity. Founded only 4 years later than Bluebay, Smuggler's Notch was first named St-Trinity, then in 1837 it became Martin's Town and while the United States border wasn't too far south from here, it became one of the most important alcohol production facilty and smuggling route to the States during the years of Al Capone. In 1940, it was renamed to Smuggler's Notch and still is called so today. The small town has a population of almost 3,000 today and is the most american looking town in Simland. It has the railroad that connects with the States, a lot of farms and some small industry just outside of town. Only 6 years ago, silver was found in the eastern mountains and more and more small mines have appeared in the area eversince. The town slowly but steadily grows every year by a hundred or so citizens.
This is where Barby White from Valmore, former owner of Barby's Biergarten in Access Center, is from. Here her ancestors built the smuggler's route through the mountains south to the US. These trails can still be seen today, mostly overgrown though. Barby was born out here in 1912 and her parents moved to Bluebay when Barby was only 7 years old.

77.12




So hopefully you liked the first visit to the other regions of our Story. I will come back with an update of the Ganoga Boys and some news around the towns of Access and Phlox very soon. Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.
Which region would you like to visit next time? (Winding River Outlet isn't ready yet)

Fred


Detailed Reference Map of Bluebay.

77.13

[Cyclone1001]

Its good to see that you're back. I hope everything goes well. A nice update, I hope to see more of Bluebay in the future.

[bat]

Fantastic new update there!

[FrankU]

Hi Fred,

Good to see you are back. Did the help?

Really incredible how much work you can do on SC4. It must take you many hours for every update. Sometimes I feel a bit jealous, having not so much time for playing the game. Maybe I should stop lotting and start building cities? 

[Ol.S / Benoit]

Great update ! 77.06 & 77.7 are my favorites

[KoV Liberty]

I quite like that update Fred. Glad to see that you are back as well.

Alex

[lak47]

Good update, and good to see The Bison back 

[Gringamuyloca]

  Yes MrB! Good to see you back, and with eye candy to boot! 

77.07 really catches my eye. The underwater detailing is so realistic and natural looking, one can forget that it is all 'pieced' detail by painstaking detail. 

77.09 Is there something in 'laying' in the murky waters... or a reflection gone bad.?  

It was great to learn some more history, and the bonus is the detailed pictorial views. 

Which region would you like to visit next time?

The Snake River region looks a likely place for this fisher. 

[Kergelen]

I love 77.07 underwater details! Very inspiring.

And i like the region shot and 77.06 too. 

[Will12]

OMG I've read all 68 pages in 2 sittings its that good! Can u PM me with the details for a new character? Thanks. I hope this MD will rise to the top of the All Time List of Best MD in the SimUniverse Lol. In all seriousness this is a great MD with an interesting storyline. May I tell u that u should check every now and then that ur RHW-4's haven't changed back to RHW-2's accidentally. Anyway awesome MD
(the size font is the amount of pages at the time of this reply)

[mrbisonm]

Thanks folks for all the comments, great to be back and having lotsa time to make some goody updates. (...and continue to render all those farmprops I made this summer)
Oufff!, this will be a big one. 31 pictures and a lot to say. There is so much happening in the region this year. Anyways, have fun and I hope it won't be toooo long.

@Will12, glad you like the story enough to participate. I will pm you the detailed "rules" to get a character into this project in a short time.

77.09 Is there something in 'laying' in the murky waters... or a reflection gone bad.?  

....hmmmm.......I don't know, but somehow it looks strange, you're right!

Good to see you are back. Did the help?

I guess so, I am back!




Update 78

Here and There and Everywhere             


Wednesday, June 14th, 1967
                           Today on this date ... then:

-
- 1775 – American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army is established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army.
- 1800 – The French Army of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquers Italy.
- 1900 – Hawaii becomes a United States territory.
- 1940 – World War II: Paris falls under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.
- 1967 – Mariner program: Mariner 5 is launched toward Venus.

- Born: 1946 – Donald Trump, American businessman and entrepreneur
        1961 – Boy George, British singer (Culture Club)

- Died: 1161 – Emperor Qinzong of China (b. 1100)

[/size]


This will be an update of a little of everything and everywhere. We will have a look at different places in the region of the Winding River and talk about some of our characters which take part of the story. In the next update we will talk about all the other characters that we haven't mentioned today.

First let's go to Grasslake, where we haven't been for awhile and things are picking up. Of course we remember that Grasslake is now independant of Lakefield's administration since earlier this year, and it has become an offcial municipality as the eastern neighbor to Access Center. We also know that it has started with some weekend homes around the lake only in the late fifties when the Access Road from Sandom to the highway was built and with time a small village formed. Today it has become a bigger village and it is steadily growing, although not zoned a lot of residentials.
Many of our folks have a weekend house here or even a permanent home. Gabber lives here on weekends, Racsan is here all year around, so is Allheimer and some others and even Alex Puto has rented a home around the area lately. (...and psssst, rumours are that his girlfriend Katie Panskyy spends more nights here than in her own home in Phlox)

On the picture below we see most of the village as it is today, June 14th, 1967. Also we can see that the lake has become quite busy with watertraffic in the last years. It seems that everyone that has a home on the lake owns a boat. It is even worse on weekends. The farms on the upper left and right have been sold to the municipality lately and opened tio zone for residential building. Roads to access the terrain will soon be build and drains, plumbing and electricity will follow. The lots have altready been separated and registered.
Only John Gabber refused to sell parts of his 30 acre land for future residential construction, probably to keep his total privacy.

78.01


Counting about a population of 4,300, including the weekend homes around the lake, Grasslake is about half the size of Phlox now. At it's growing rate of the moment, the village should join Phlox equally in about 5 years, which of course is only a speculation for the moment.
Since the village has not yet finished the municipal access to the lake,(public access and beach) boats of the villagers are parked everywhere they can, as we see on the bottom right of the picture below.

78.02


Quite a surprise to everyone in the town of Access Center, the buissness man Nethaniel Wellington, has bought a hundred acres of land near the Grasslake touching the banks of the mighty Winding River. And he was very quick about it too, since John Gabber had plans to do so also, but only came in late to sign the deal. The farm was owned by two brothers, friends of Johnny B. Badd, which had one of his best and biggest mari plantation on the hidden banks of the river on these lands (as we have seen in an earlier update some time ago). The brothers were unable to keep the land, because production wasn't too high in the last years and debts started to pile up. Either the bank seizes the land or they were forced to sell, which they did and announced on Monday morning. This morning, on Wednesday, the deal was signed with Wellington.
Exactly why Wellington invested in the farmland in the middle of nowhere, no one seems to understand, since everybody knows that Wellington is into food marketing and not farming nor land owning. Will he grow his own foods now, some wonder? Hard to believe, because he just signed a big deal with Badger, which we get to about later in this update.

78.03


Ok now, let's go west from here and see what's up in the Maintown of the Region, Access Center. The biggest news around the town is that the Kohler Buslines and Schoolbus services have been sold to Guy Racsan, the owner of Racsan Motors and KECO.(airplane jet engines). This of course is another surprize and again, people are wondering why Racsan bought the transportation means of Access. Does he have too much money which he is scared to loose to the government as income taxes?
As we remember Kohler buslines just opened its terminal in Access and another one in Frampton and Bluebay, which he now connected together. Once highway 15 will be ready and opened, the connection to Beecher Falls and Lakefield were supposed to be made also. Racsan spent a lot of money in this. The schoolbus  service was only bought earlier this year by Tom.
About Kohler, the reason to have sold was quite eminent, he was diagnosed with general cancer. His wife, Jessica Parker, kept the taxi buissness in town, but both, including his 3 year old son John, moved to Beecherfalls where they both originally come from, for better health service in the University hospital of this city. Kohler was told that he might have 12 to 18 months to live, his doctors estimated.

78.04


It is now official, the shopping Center in the middle of Access Center, built less than 10 years ago, is being soon torn down to make room for more office buildings. Some say that these will be the first skyscrapers in town, bringing a big shadow down on Wellington's office building, which stands just accross. Included in the leveling will be the Co-op on the right on the picture below, which moved to the other side of the highway, the bank, which will move southward, and several other small and older offices, stores and buildings in the same block. Johnny B.Badd's Cleaning service across the street of the block will stay intact.
The demolishing is supposed to start later this year, as soon as the new shopping mall in Valmore is ready to open.

78.05


Another one of our well known characters had to be hospitalized. Barby White, the owner of the Vacation Center on Valmore lake, was brought to the local hospital in Access by ambulance two days ago with a severe case of a heart attack. the Vacation center was left in the hands of her trusty friend to take care of during this beginning of a the big summer season. Barby will be operated in the days or weeks to come, as soon as she stabilizes.
Her resort is in the beginning of becoming the best known Vacational Center of the region and surroundings, having been given a 5 star note lately. It is considered as one of the best places to relax in Simland.

78.06


One last note from the Access and Valmore area, one of the Westwood twins, George, was nominated as the Assistant Director of the AHCA (Access Historical Conservation Association) in the National Museum of the Winding River on highway 15. George Westwood was already the responsable of the repairing and renovating project of Access's first church on Mainstreet, just opposite of Wellington's first Bake n' Sale. His brother is part of the Ganoga boys at the moment, enjoying the adventurous outdoors. George's office will be here in the museum where the base of the organisation is. He will soon move to the area, looking for a suitable appartment nearby.

78.07


In the Ganoga Wilderness, misfortune happened. Only three or four days before the end of the journey, Jorden Meaden broke his ankle on the right foot while crossing the river that comes down from the Venus Wetlands and the Gibson Lake. (see large detailed Winding River Map here: http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2638/1965windingrivervalleyn.png )

Although the accident happened late in the evening, it was only possible to reach Allheimer the next morning to report the incident. Once Mike received the news, he immediatly informed the army and explained the location of the campment, where they didn't hesitate to send an emergency helicopter right away from the base in West River.
For Jordan the journey was shortened. He was delivered to the Access hospital where Charlie Johnson, the Access Tribune journalist was eagerly waiting already to get the latest story and news about the boys. Jordan, before leaving by helicopter had to promiss to his friends not to say anything about the ruins and walls they found in the beginning of their trip.

78.08


After the accident the boys decided to stay for the whole day in the same place and look around while they're here and found a strange looking foundation or something which was partially under water. Now that the mapmaker (Jordan) was gone , everyone thought, things couldn't be worse to pinpoint the exact location of this on their handrawn map. A picture was taken by Pat, who holds the camera. It was without any doubt a simcreation, which nature was impossible to do by itself. The wallike structure was heavily overgrown and much of it destroyed and decayed, hardly recognizable, but it was something worth mentioning in their report. Maybe something to do with the ruins some miles back on the bottom of the Stoke mountain.

78.09


<< "I still don't believe this is real. In all the Simland's places to go that are still to be discovered, and you come here where we are." said Diarmuid to the stranger from Winding River Outlet that landed on the shore with a small outboard motorboat. "We honestly thought that we were the first ones here."
The stranger smiled and answered:" Well, I am surprized as much as you folks, we just wanted to find a good spot to fish some bass, which are excellent in these swamps, then we found this little channel that lead us here this morning, so....we came in through and found you.....">>

Strange indeed, that two anglers from downriver came up here to fish. It takes more than 4 hours of boat riding to reach the Ganoga wilderness, while having passed hundreds of excellent bassfishing spots on the way up.
<< Diarmuid and Charly looked at each other wantning to say out loud a lot of their impressions of this coincidence, but instead Diarmuid asked, " Want to stay to have a tea?"
Totally shocked, Pat said right away," I don't think that they have the time if they want to go back home before the night falls, the outlet must be an afternoon away, right?, looking at the strangers who were still in their landed boat.

<<"I guess you're right", said the older fellow in the boat and looked at his partner, "we have to go now, still quite a ways to go as you said, Mister. Nice meeting you guys and good luck on your trip back." they said while turning around the boat and slowly gearing it away from the shore.
Waving at them while they headed out of the creekentrance, Pat seriously looked at the other two. "Are you guys nuts to invite them onshore? Imagine if they were bad fellows?" "Oh come on Pat, they didn't look that bad," said Charly with a smile, "we were just curious what they were doing here so far from their village in the middle of nowhere."
"I don't care, it is too freaking dangerous to invite total strangers in the middle of nowhere, as you say. And that is what I find a little suspicous, what are they doing here anyways?", and Pat walked back to the campment to light the fire and prepare lunch while mumbling, "now let's eat those trouts we caught earlier before they turn bad on us.">>

During lunch all four discussed the situation they just lived more intensively, realizing that the strangers didn't seem to have any fishing equipment onboard and that the coincidence was indeed to strange. Strange indeed! The boys decided that they will be moving on and spend the night a little deeper in the forest that night, away from the shores of the swampy lake. So they brought down the camp, killed the fire and hiked eastward into the woods away from the swamps for a mile or so before spending the night.

78.10


Now let's go to Phlox and see some changes and action there. First of all we go to the new downtown, where the first higher officebuildings have been built in the last fall. Downtown has changed from some fields mixed with commercial structures to a more official looking downtown. Phlox now has almost 8,000 citizens and its growing faster than Access, if we look at it for the last two years, but approximatly half the speed of Grasslake.

78.11


The more commercial service stores are on the paralel Mainstreet, closer to the Highway Junction. Here commerces of all kinds and restaurants can be found, even the Kohler buslines stop....ouppps, I meant Racsan Buslines, as it is called now. More and more, Phlox becomes independant from Access, but with the new shopping center that should be finished before the end of the year, Access will be back on top again.

78.12


On the other side of the highway junction are the residentials. Designed by the late Riichirou Takahaschi as his last work for the city, the residential area now clearly starts to look like the plans Riichirou made. Almost every lot has been sold sofar and constructions are everywhere. The town of Phlox is seriously thinking of clearing more land for the residential invasions. The construction is so fast that the town doesn't even find the time and finance to pave every street yet.
Mayor William B. Sharp is experiencing the panic that comes to every mayor if their village grows from 3,000 to 8,000 within two years only and he is often seen in the Access' Mayor office, probably asking the experienced mayor knowledge of Bartlett for advice. They don't even have a townhall yet in Phlox and the administration structure is totally unplanned and unorganized. They even have to depend on Access' Police, schools and fire department.

78.13


Growing so fast, the Phlox's suburbs have a construction on every 6 to 8 lots, making a lot of construction noise within each street. People from everywhere, mostly from the bigger cities such as Lakestead and Beecherfalls, come here to either live a more relaxed life, find a new job in the area or enjoy the lower taxes. From here it is a 1.5 hr drive down to Lakestead and a good 2 hr drive north to Beecherfalls.

78.14


Like I said, the mayor's office did not yet have the financial possibility to pave their streets, maybe as a result of the low taxes and as Mayor Sharp mentioned lately in a public appearance, let them finish all the construction first before making the place more goodlooking. Very big family homes is what seems to rule here in Phlox's suburbs, not like in Access, where appartment blocks seem to have taken over. The only place where Access has homes like this is near the beautiful Fingerlake's new Suburban development.

78.15


Even farms just outside the town are different looking in Phlox, mostly seeming to be bigger in size and with higher productions. The lands are more flat here, being situated right in the middle of the valley and probably are more fertile too. Below is a very big Turkeyfarm, producing several thousand turkeys a year. Strange that it is only 5 minutes away from downtown Phlox. They have the largest cornfields in the Winding River Valley overhere. Farms like this, and bigger ones, are a regular sight around the town, which are slowly getting build on with residentials.

78.16


Anne Bradley, the truckdriver from Goosebay and Dirk Kujit, from the Nardician Isles, that we met the last time for the first time, have both finally found a place a stay and what's funny is that they almost live now opposite of each other, although that they haven't met.
Annie probably found the perfect place for herself, renting it with the option to be able to buy later. The man that owned this small 8 acre farm just beside highway 35 going to Lakestead, died a few months ago and his daughter wanted to sell the place, but it seemed hard because of it's small size. Farms need to be big in the area to be able to make a living from it. Then came Annie, she doesn't need a big farm to survive, but a place to live and big enough to park her truck and the house and barn seemed to fill her needs. Coming from a small town south, Anne doesn't like the bigger town nor the city and she always dreamed for a place out in the country.
For Dirk it is different, he needed a place quickly, some place to stay first before settling down, and the small home on a big farm that was built for the hired help and which wasn't needed anymore , came in just handy for Kujit, while he is looking for a job in the area.

78.17


Bradley didn't take time to move in into her new place, she brought her truck, her pick-up and her small fishing boat along from Goosebay. She loves the small home, which has an original countrylook, and the barn is just perfect for her truckrepairs, although the tractor itself does not quite fit through the door. Annie came to Phlox for the reason that she found a job at Slye's sawmill, hauling logs from the logging fields to the mill, not far from here. Not that she likes it that much and was looking for more of a long-distance runs, but for the moment being, the pay is good and work is plentifull. The logtrailer she got from Slye, who seems to have quite a few spare ones hanging around on the mill's grounds and rents them for little or nothing.
The option to buy the place is an excellent way to settle in slowly for Annie without going broke. She should be able to do so within the next 10 years, she figured. Being only 25 years old at the moment, she will own her place free of debts at the age of 35.

78.18


Almost opposite of Bradley's place lives now Dirk Kujit in a very small house that is owned by the neighboring farm and which used to house the farmhelpers. Kujit found the place through an add. It was rented for a small amount and just perfect for him, because he needed a place to stay very quickly while he can scan the area for a suitable job in peace and quiet. Being 24 years old, Dirk likes the countryside also, just as Anne Bradley and this place seems good enough for now. As for a job, Dirk is looking for anything that pays well enough to make a living on his own. Of course since he is from a fisherman's family, he would like to find a job such as, maybe he will have a look around at the Phlox waterfront this week, where some professional fishermen have started fishing commercially the waters of the Winding River downstream, close to the sea.

78.19


On the river banks of Phlox, Slye is buying out all his neighbors, needing a lot of space for the railport that he is planning to build. A new line of rails towards the bigger cities is also on his mind, now that his finances have trippled in the last two years. Slye's lumber products are well demanded for, his quality is hard to beat and more and more wood and building supply companies are signing longlasting contracts with the Shadow Mountain Mill that Slye is calling it today.
His neighbor, the outfitter Richard Welder, is moving to the Willow Ponds, because the rented land from the government will soon be drained and filled with gravel to make room for an industrial park for Phlox. Slye bought a small strip from the administration office in Lakestead to make room for more logstorage and maybe one or more buildings he needs. The yellow oulines indicate his land that he already owned and the the blue the land that he bought and is buying at this very moment.

78.20


If we actually think back of Terry Slye, he climbed the "ladder" of success quite fast, being only 30 years old at the moment. But he is still the bachelor that Gabber met in the beginning of his career, having no time whatsoever for women in his life. Being one of the best bosses one could have, he is quite loved by most of his workers, which is close to 600 by now on the sawmill only, not counting the loggers and transporters. He always took care of his working group, making sure that they are well first. That is probably why the mill is producing so much quality lumber. The mill is busy, more than ever and no bare lots are in sight, the logs come in and go out as planks and sized lumber as soon as an empty space is created.

78.21


Wherever you look, logs and ready to go lumber can be found. This is a busy place, because more than 100 truckloads a day come in and out of the mill, making it the busiest road in the area. A lot of wood goes to the trainstation in Phlox, only a mile away, but trucks will haul full charges and loads to cities like Access (Donovan's Materials), Lakestead, Frampton, Halo and Roy. But Slye wants his own rails now, not being obliged to always wait for the trains to come and leave whenever he needs them to. One day, he says, the finished wood will get to the cities faster and exactly ontime when he wants them to arrive.

78.22


Welder, who rented this small bass paradise for the last 5 years from the government, is now being expulsed more or less, while they decided to drain and open the new industrial park on top of the pond. His cottage will be torn down and make room for a parking place to begin with. Richard found a better place on the Willow ponds, this time he will buy the land surrounding one of the ponds and re-open his fishing outfitter Company. He is also thinking about renting some of the land of Sterling on Stoke Mountain to open up the possibility of guiding a few hunters of moose, deer and bear, which seem to be a little overpopulated there.
What a shame that the pond will be filled out, one of a few just beautiful and natural places around Phlox. When Adrien McCoy, the environmentalist heard about this, he just freaked out and made a solid complaint to the government, but who is he for them. And nothing is being done to change the situation. Mad like a fiery bull, he wants to complaint to the Governor, once he gets enough citizen's signatures to become somewhat important.
He also went to the local Radio station of Access, WEZM, where he outspoke publically what he thinks about the situation of all the wilderness being either filled, bulldozed and killed off around the Access area. What a waste that can never be reversed again, McCoy feels.

78.23


Out on the Mighty Winding River's bridge, the final works are being executed under the commands and supervision of Alex Puto, who is running from one place to another these days. Seeing to it that everything is well done on the big bridge in Phlox and then turning back to the Ganoga bridges, where they almost reached the other side with another network of several bridges. All this does not leave much time for Alex to see and meet with his new girlfriend that he fell in love with, Katie Panskyy, who owns the boating club on the island.
On the other side of the bridge, the town has started to build the new pumps for the town.
78.24


Now that the future pumping site is accessible with a road, the town rushed in to get their new waterpumps build. The area will soon be secured on the waterside with some sort of a wall that will protect from erosion and waves. The galvenized steelbeams have already arrived and the filling of the banks with rocks have started. Even the foundation of the Pumpingstation are done. This place is another busy spot around Phlox, waiting for the concrete trucks now.
78.25


Here's a closer look of this construction site.

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Just on the other side of the bridge, the eastern mainland, there is also a riverwall being built and later a small harbour for fishing boats is planned. It is a big Harbour Company from Frampton who had the idea to buy the land beside the bridge and create a small harbour, which is somewhat needed in Phlox. The wood for the casings already arrived, now they wait for the workers and then to fill the casings with solid concrete to form the heavy-duty walls of the future harbour.
Construction on top of construction is what you see all over Phlox these days. The working force is missing people at the moment.

78.27


One more of our members to visit is Gregory Badger, our reserve soldier from West River. As we know already, he bought a small place on the Sterling island last year and seriously started to grow vegetables and small fruits. Then he took out a loan and bought some more land just on the other side of his small place, to be able to enlargen his productivity. A good thing, because he just signed a five year contract with Nethaniel Wellington to supply his store and supermarkets with veggies and fruits. Greg had to hire a helper for this, not being able to run the whole place by himself anymore. Besides, now that he met the local waitress in Barby's Biergarten, Jennifer, he is out to see his beauty most of the evenings.
Just before the deal with Wellington was signed, he built himself another shed and a salestand to sell his crop on the roadside.

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Here is a picture of the whole Badger Farm.

78.29


His new veggiestand by the road didn't take time to draw a lot of private new customers that enjoy the homegrown and fresh vegetables and small fruits from Badger's gardens. To take care of the stand, he had to hire another helper, a young local girl from the island, named Emily.
Greg's big season is the summer and fall, but now he is planning to do some greenhouse production also, to be able to supply Wellington's markets with fresh vegetables during the colder months.
He even bought two cows that he keeps to mow the lawn between the buildings. Attached to a solid metal driven into ground, he doesn't need fences.
Another thing that Greg has now got around to, is that he is one of the ambulance helpers of the island, an emergency male nurse, something he learned in the army. Since the island is quite far from the mainland, but still holds a population of more than 700 citizens all year around, his knowledge of emergency handling was quite appreciated when he applied for the job at the local clinic. He will be working with the local fire department on the island. But Greg is still a soldier, part-time on some weekends, on the reserve list.
78.30



A last picture to end this update is a little shocking to many of us. So, a warning is been mentioned for those who have weak hearts and souls. Jake Monarch, or Big Jake as many call him, a man in his late thirties, 6ft3 (188cm) and 325 lbs (145 kg) says that one can get very rich with recycling. But sofar, as he has been doing this for the last twelve years in Frampton and other areas, but had no success, and he owns a few places like this all over Simland. This dirty mess that ends up even into the waters of the river has been reported, but Phlox seems to ignore it, because there is actually no law against unorganized recycling yet. No one seems to like this big and dirty arrogant fellow who is married since he was 18 and has 13 kids, some are afraid that he is moving to the region with his family and install themselves for good. At least that is what was heard.

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I hope that you enjoyed this huge update of the region. The next time we will make a smaller one, again talking about different places around the area and some of the other characters. Only after that we visit another region of Simland. Still looking for a suggestion, we got one sofar, mentioning Snake River.....how about it?

Have a nice week now

Fred

[lak47]

Great update! Nice to catch up on most of the region. Pity the broken ankle though!! 

[Will12]

Nice Update Fred looking forward to my character!

[KoV Liberty]

That update took me the good part of an hour to read. Very very nice. Hope to see the next one very soon!

Alex

[FrankU]

Hi Fred,

Astounding detail!
And some very nice crop props (say that aloud ten times quickly!) you show in the Badger farm. Where did you get them?

Your friend Frank

[KoV Liberty]

Frank, I think thy are part of Pegasus' Agriculture mod. That is availiable at simpeg.com. I think that's the site.

Alex

[jmyers2043]

.... I think thy are part of Pegasus' Agriculture mod....

Badger Fram? Don't think so. There is a SimGoober crop to the left. The pumpkins, corn, orange flowers, and grape vines are by Couchpotato. Looks like Fred's been making lots again because the purple flowers are maxis.  I'm not sure who did the lime trees ... but they're not Peg's. And the green rows of weeds on the left side of the dirt road could be?    No idea. 

let's not leave Peg out - the big turkey farm has Peg's switch grass fields.

- Jim

[threestooges]

You're at it again Fred, and not shorting us on either detail or breadth of the story and pictures. It's taken a me a while to catch up. Got a couple updates behind, and that's a lot of ground to cover, but it was an enjoyable time doing it. Looking forward to what's to come, and what the purchase of land near the mill will yield.

Also, any recent news on the airport's development?
-Matt

[Terring7]

Lot's of details, I can't believe that this is Simcity 4!