Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Riding the train

Last week Troy was on fall break and we took Brayden up to Van Buren to ride the train. Troy, Ann, Brayden, and I left Bismarck on Thursday morning and traveled north to Van Buren. We spent the day checking out the park and town.
We walked through the park down from Main Street. There was a nice wide walkway through the park and a mural painted along the wall.

One of Brayden's favorite things right now is railroad crossings. He was very excited to see this one.

Van Buren's Main Street.

Brayden wasn't too sure he wanted up close to the scarecrows but we finally got him to stand up next to one.

The train station.

Waiting for the train. All dressed up with his hat on and his train whistle. The train had a senior tour group there that day and he was a big hit.

First look at the train.

The train pulled into the station getting ready for the trip to Winslow.

We had to get a picture of the caboose. Brayden really wanted to ride in it, but when I found out there was no heat or air conditioning I decided we wanted in the dome car. After we were seated I found out the air conditioning wasn't working up in the dome of the car we were in.

Waiting to depart. We sat up in the dome on the way to Winslow. The air condition wasn't working in this part of the car, but they had a fan up there and the view was great.

Departing the station. Brayden was very excited to be on a real train. He was seriously taking it all in ( at least for the first 5 minutes).



Ann waiting for the train to depart.


About 5 minutes into the train ride Brayden fell asleep. He had worked himself up so much he was exhausted by the time the actual ride began. He slept most of the way to Winslow. He woke up right as we were entering the tunnel outside of Winslow.


Even though we were a little early for the fall colors the mountains were still beautiful.


Getting ready to enter the tunnel. Since we were seated up in the dome there were windows all along the sides and up above us also. The view was great.


On the trip back to Van Buren from Winslow we went down to the lower part of the car where it was much cooler. Here Brayden and Pappa are checking out the second set of tracks.


Our little engineer, he really seemed to enjoy the trip. I know we all did.