Chug-a Chug-a Choo Chooooo!

I have had several people (including a family member and natives to this area) and a website of "things to do and places to go in Iowa" tell us of an annual summer train ride tradition in our area.  I don't know all the details of  "who" and "why", but I did find out the "what", "where" and "when": a budget friendly 70 minute train ride in Moravia this past weekend (our tickets were for after church Sunday afternoon).

Trains are on the list of Caleb's favorite things.  And since Caleb loves them, so does Sarah Rose.  Even though it was 90 degrees or better, with no breeze and heat indexes well over 100, we had a great time.  We just made sure to find the shade and carry our water with us.  Take a look:



Yet another picnic.  We have become pros at packing picnics for Sunday after church.




And a little play time after lunch.  It was very warm so we only played for a very few minutes, but they had fun while we did.




Sarah Rose prefers the swings and will swing for as long as someone will stand behind her to keep her going.  Thankfully, there were no swings at this park so I wasn't stuck standing in the blaring hot sun pushing.  The slide, though, comes into a very close second as her favorite!

 Once at the depot, there were several historical buildings we could visit while waiting for our train ride time.


One of the buildings was an old church, complete with wooden pews.  When we walked into the church, we were immediately grateful for the comfort of our air conditioned AND comfortably seated church. 




Preach it, Brother!




Amen, Sister!




Another building we visited was the homestead.  Again, it was very hot and this time we were running out of time, so we didn't explore too much.  This building was filled with items that a home would have used many, many years ago. 




Ahhh...finally train time!  Except we had to wait in a line while the passengers on the train ride before us deboarded and all the people in front of us got on.  I'm sure the wait wasn't quite as bad as the weather made it seem, but it seemed to take forever (especially since Sarah had decided that it was too hot and bright to walk and Josh had decided it was too hot and bright to carry her and I was given the pleasure of holding and carrying her hot little body by myself...its amazing how much heat a little one can give off!). 





The diesel engine.




The view from our seats.  There was an engine and two passenger cars that held forty passengers each.




More water!




Do we look hot?!?!  We couldn't wait for the train to start so the breeze would start blowing on us.




Finally!  A little air moving made such a difference.



Everything was fine and dandy until the horn blew for the first time.  And then immediately the kids left the view of the windows and climbed on the comfort of our laps.





Sarah napped in and out, but insisted that I keep my hand on her ears in case the horn blew.  If I tried to move my hand, she would use all her mighty little girl strength to keep my arm where it was.




There is an engine repair shop in Albia that train engines from many different train companies from all over the nation come to get repaired.  Here's a little known fact: train engines NEVER shut off their engines unless they are in to get repaired.  They run for hundreds upon hundreds of hours, years and years without shutting their engines off.  Cool, huh?





The train ride ran from Moravia to Albia.  At the end of the journey, the engine disconnected from the front of the train, turned around on the spur and hooked back up to the back of the train which then became the front.




The engine going to the front to rehook up.  The kids have all kinds of train terms up their sleeve they use on me from watching Thomas the Train and could actually tell you what this is called...but they are playing and getting along at the moment so I'm not going to interrupt their game to ask them.  For now, you will have to settle with the not-so-technical term "rehook".




A Father and Son moment. 
(Josh is teaching Caleb to pretend he's trainsick, complete with sound effects and facial expressions.  Lovely.)



There's my men!

 We had a great time!  We decided to take the backroads home and caught a few sights in the way.



We just happened to come across this railroad bridge tussle.  We weren't sure exactly where we were, so I'm not sure we could find it again, but it was a pretty sight.  It you're interested in seeing it for yourself, its somewhere on the gravel roads between Moravia and Blakesburg.




There was a very unfortunate accident in our neighboring town of Blakesburg last week.  A tanker truck exploded, leaving what you see here: just the belly of the tanker and the exhaust of the cab.





Once home, it was yet more family time. 



Pool party!

This is why I so look forward to Sundays.  Sundays are designated family days;  no work, only worship and play.  Sometimes the week can get pretty hard with its early mornings and late nights making for a very busy Daddy.  But I know there is always Sunday and that is what keeps me going through the hardest days of the week.