So this was the look on Jack's face when he realized we were in a real train depot for his big birthday surprise - a ride on a real railroad train! We were signed up for the 3 hour excursion out of Van Buren, AR to Winslow, and back. 
We were on the Arkansas & Missouri line, an engine, caboose and two 1928 passenger cars. 
About 40 minutes into the ride, we came to an abrupt halt just short of Chester, AR. Smoke was filling the car, and the engineer was outside looking under our passenger car. Evidently, on railroads, every few miles, there are safety sensors that count the number of axles and take a temperature reading. Well, the temperature alarm went off, and sure enough, one of our wheel bearings blew out and was glowing bright red. They said had we traveled 5 more minutes at the speed we were going we could have derailed. Yikes. 
So, they squeezed 3/4 of our car onto the other passenger car, and put the last 1/4 of us on the caboose, with no air conditioning. We were on the caboose. They unhooked the bad car and hooked the train back up together at the switchtrack. It turned out to be pretty interesting, but long and hot. We did get to sit up high in the cupolo of the caboose, and we got as many cold drinks and snacks as we wanted. And they comped us another 4 ticket free ride in the future. 
The kids passed the time with the video camera, and this was their failed attempt to get Pete to actually smile in a photo. Those are Jack's fingers. Countdown to state swim meet....D
1 comment:
Waiting to hear more about "Robert".
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