Sunday, June 2, 2013

I have always had a fascination with trains...

Robert Louis Stevenson shares this love, I suspect.
 
The words of his poetry are forever in my memory...

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!

I hear a train whistle and I am transported...

I am magically on that train and traveling somewhere other than where I am.  In fact, I've written about train whistles before on my blog...
 
...and if you're feeling in a train type mood you can click here to read my previous post.
 
On our road trip to Boise, we stopped at a historic train station.
 
As usual, we were entranced by the cabooses on display.
 
Mr. Jenny and I, in fact, tried to get clearance from our city to allow a caboose in our backyard.   Alas, it was not granted but that did little to deter us from our desire to one day have a caboose to call our very own.
 
So when we found out we could actually STAY in one of the cabooses in the museum overnight we jumped at the chance!
 
"There's no electricity," the smiling docent told us.
 
"We don't care!" We replied.
 
"There's no heat!" She continued.
 
"We don't care!" We replied.
 
"There's no bathroom," she concluded hesitantly, "You need to walk across the tracks to the bunkhouse."
 
"We don't care!" We replied.
 
And we cancelled our reservation at our nice, clean, modern, bathroomized hotel room and booked the caboose for our trip home.
 
After a fun visit with kids, grandson and friends in Boise we headed south toward Arizona again.
 
We were excited but a bit nervous about our stay.
 
"There's no electricity!" We said.  "We can manage!"
 
"There's no heat!"  We continued.   "It'll be just fine!"
 
"There's no bathroom!" We concluded.   "We'll not drink anything after 2 pm.   "It'll be great!"
 
We got to the museum.
 
Nobody was there.
 
Mr. Jenny started digging through the truck looking for the after hours phone number and the museum curator walked around the corner.
 
"Hey!" said Mr. Jenny.   "I saw you on TV.   Weren't you on Rick's Restorations with some railroad equipment?"
 
The bearded gentlemen, Mark,  replied, "Yes!" and struck up a lively conversation with us.
 
We talked for quite a while and finally Mark told us that someone would be there with a key to the caboose shortly.
 
He started to walk away and then he turned around.
 
"You know there's no electricity, heat or bathroom in that caboose, don't you?"
 
We both assured him we would be fine.
 
He started to walk away and then he turned around again.
 
"You know it might freeze tonight, right?"
 
Freeze.   Schmeeze.  "We'll be fine!" we told him and we parted ways.
 
A few minutes later a young man showed up with the keys to the caboose and passes for the railyard.
 
"Just sign this release," he told us and then showed us an extra key.
 
"This key is to the bunkhouse.  You can use the bathroom in there and go in there to sleep if you get too cold."
 
We signed the releases.
 
We looked at each other with big eyes.
 
And then we went inside the caboose.

 
I apologize for this method of sharing pictures.  Blogger is being difficult.   I believe you can click on each small picture and enlarge it.
 
To be continued tomorrow.
 
All Aboard!
post signature

26 comments:

Viki said...

Looks really neat. I bet there is going to be a story about that bed. It doesn't look that comfy, hah!

Linda @ A La Carte said...

You two are quite the adventurers! Can't wait for the rest of the story!

GranthamLynn said...

Wow how fun. Very neat post. Thanks for sharing. And thanks for visiting me.
Have a great week. I have a great "C" post planned.
Blessings,
Sherry

Ms. A said...

Don't think I could've, or would've done it without electricity, or a bathroom! That would be a little too much like camping in a tent and I'm not a big fan of that in my older years... I need a potty... close, close enough that I don't need to be fully awake to go.

H said...

I learned that poem when I was little and I can still remember it all these years later!!

Melinda said...

Oh, this is going to be good.
I can't wait!

:o)

Theresa said...

You TWO are having entirely too much fun! That looks like an AWESOME adventure:) Have a blessed week, can't wait to hear more! HUGS!

pasqueflower said...

Anxious to hear "the rest of the story" as the late Paul Harvey would have said.

I love Robert Louis Stevenson. One of my favorite books as a child was, A Child's Garden of Verse.

My youngest grandson, Garrison (5), LOVES trains! Not just Thomas -- all kinds of trains.

Granny-Guru said...

What a fun adventure! About 20 years ago, my husband took the train from our home in Northern Virginia to his parents' home, south of Atlanta, taking the Crescent, which goes all the way to New Orleans. When the train stopped at a beautiful, historical train station in Manassas, Virginia he thought, "What a pretty little town. I'd like to live in a town like this one day." We moved here in 2000.

Anonymous said...

All aboard indeed. Can we ALL fit in there?

Can't wait for Part II.

Rocky Mountain Woman said...

Hah! Reminds me of the days I lived in the trailer while I was building the house.

ADVENTURE!

"Alone again.... naturally!" said...

Ha, a dream come true for you! Did nooo warning bells go off when they said no this, no that! Can't wait for rest of the story! Cathy

Leovi said...

Yes, I like that poem by Robert Louis Stevenson!

Pam Beers. said...

When I hear the train whistle, I know all is right with the world.

The Quintessential Magpie said...

Oh, how exciting! I love that you got to stay in a caboose.

Have you seen the caboose birdhouse on my sidebar? It's one of my favorite things, and I always, ALWAYS waved at the man in the caboose. I guess that would be Mr. Jenny!

XO,

Sheila

Susan Anderson said...

You guys rock. In fact, you are my new heroes. Can't wait to hear more.

=)

Janie Junebug said...

I couldn't handle the no bathroom part. I hope the story has a happy ending.

Love,
Janie

Terra said...

This is turning out to be an adventure.

Splendid Little Stars said...

That's fascinating!
hmmmm....I wonder how this adventure will turn out.

Pat Tillett said...

My question is answered. One of my best friends lives in Boise. I just decided that I'm going to have to get up there to see him. My main priority is to go to this place. Of course you will have to let me know where it is, umkay?

Rita said...

OMG! Talk about needing to snuggle! What we won't do for our bucket lists--LOL! Can hardly wait to hear what happened. :)

Amy said...

How fun! I am excited to read part 2!

Sue said...

No way...not me...nope, nada, wouldn't happen. Can't wait to keep reading.

Busy Bee Suz said...

How exciting for you both!!!!

Anita said...

Oh My, You are obsessed with trains! And why not! :) I enjoy riding the train, seeing them, counting the cars as I wait in my car to cross the track... Hmmm... I might even sleep in a caboose as you did. :)

You must find the IMAX film Rocky Mountain Express and see it on the huge IMAX theater screen! You'll love seeing the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first transcontinental railway.

Or have you already seen it?

Moore Minutes said...

Freeze. Schmeeze....we don't care!

haha...love reading your tangents!

Off to read the rest.