The Caboose 'Experience' Continues...

Yesterday I started telling you about our overnight stay in the caboose. If you missed that and have nothing better to do at the moment, you can read that by clicking here.

The inside of the caboose was almost totally original.

 

The sleeping berths were outfitted with thin mattresses.

 

The battery light fixture cast about a 12 watt glow.

 

The entire thing smelled of diesel.

 

In a very...ummm...train-y kind of way.

 

We put our overnight bag on the back bunk and headed out to explore the train yard.

 

Perhaps we were curious about the historic surroundings.

 

Perhaps we were just in denial.

 

Perhaps we were just afraid to try out the beds.

We walked and walked around the yard.

 

It was so neat.

 

Old cars, old equipment, amazing textures, cool metal.

 

We were having a great time until we realized it was getting really windy and the temperature was dropping.

 

One of our big plans for the caboose was to read up in the cupolas, so we decided to retreat to our luxury accomodations and make that happen before it got dark.

We each climbed the metal rungs carefully.

 

It doesn't seem very high in the pictures, but it seemed like were on top of the world.

 

The train tracks stretched into the distance.

 

We played with the manual windshield wipers and looked out the windows.

 

We read a little bit.

 

We marvelled that we were actually spending the night in a caboose.

 

It started to get darker outside.

 

The wind picked up and seemed to moan and draft through the caboose.

 

Hmmmm.

 

We realized we should head over to the bunkhouse to use the facilities before it got any darker and colder.

 

Getting down was not as easy as getting up.

 

Mr. Jenny accomplished it quickl,y but I ended up with the giggles.

 

Everytime I tried turning around to go down the short ladder I cracked up.

 

Mr. Jenny waited patiently.

 

I giggled some more.

 

And tried turning around to get down.

 

And giggled some more.

 

Mr. Jenny's patience started wearing thin.

 

"Ummm...you need to get down.   We need to go to the bunkhouse," he told me in his most serious voice.

 

That just made me giggle more.

 

It took quite a while for me to get down, but I finally did.

 

The wind was really howling by then.

 

And it was getting darker.

 

And colder.

 

We gathered our toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap and washcloths.

And opened the caboose door.

 

We gasped at how cold it had gotten outside.

 

Dust was blowing down the tracks.

 

The sun had dropped down below the mountains.

 

Uh. Oh.

 

Walking across the tracks we realized how difficult it would be get to the bathroom in the dark.

 

Railroad tracks.   Big gravel.   Railroad ties. 

 

Ummm.

 

Whose idea was this anyway?

 

To be continued tomorrow.

 

Still Aboooooarddddd?!?