Throw Mama from the Train

With t-minus two weeks left before the arrival of the newest Little Harris, I planned a final Hudson & Mama day on the town for Friday. Our big adventure? Going for a real train ride on the no-frills, all historic CSK railroad. Hudson was so excited! Of course, I made the mistake of telling him the day before what our plans were, so naturally he woke up at 5:30 a.m. and started talking about leaving for the "big black engine" which was not scheduled to depart until 11:00. Ugh! But I appreciated his enthusiasm.

Our engine was actually blue.

Like I said, this is a no-frills experience. Unlike the Day out with Thomas (also known as American Commercialism at its Best) this ride cost us literally one-forth the total cost even after you factor in the abundance of snacks I purchased to enhance the bumpy 12 mile, one hour ride. And, unlike the previously mentioned named train, we had this entire train to ourselves! In addition to my girlfriend Liz and her son Tommy, the only other paying customers were two bored and scantily clad teenage girls (there to flirt with our teenage boy conductors). A photography client went to the DowT on the same day and told me it was shoulder to shoulder packed and she was out over $45 just to ride in such discomfort. Yeah for being authentic!

Now, for the best part. After waking at 5:30 a.m. with grand anticipation for this magical adventure, who do you think fell asleep on the first leg of the trip? Yep, Little Man. True I loaded him up on carbs and the swaying of the coach car was pretty soothing. At first I thought he was getting motion sick, but as soon as I had him crawl up onto my "lap," he was out. Love it.



 But it was a quick siesta, as we arrived at our midpoint and the engine had to be hitched (is that the word?) to the caboose to take us back. Our return trip to the station was a bit exhilarating as we stayed on the "patio" of the open air car nearly hanging on for our dear lives.

I did my best to keep Hudson awake the entire ride home. At one point when I put the car windows down he said, "No wind, Mama! I am trying to take a nap!" Regardless, when we did finally get back home, I lugged him into bed and we took the biggest nap in recent memory. A perfect Hudson & Mama day indeed.