Tuesday, May 1, 2012

What a Good Dad

National Train Day will be celebrated in Toledo on Saturday, May 5th.  DD lives for this day, the highlight of traindom for him.  Two years ago, he hopped the Amtrak train that visited while they switched the engines to pull out for the evening.  Nothing like have a hobo for a son.



Lately, he's been glued to several train-cams around the country.  One of them is in Chesterton, Indiana and on the line that runs through Swanton, the town just north of us. Both the Capitol Limited and the Lake Shore Limited use this track.

One night during his spring break, he comes barreling into our room around 8 p.m. yelling that the "Bloody Nose" just went through Chesterton!  What the..... ?    

For Amtrak's 40th Anniversary, they re-released several "heritage locomotives," including the Phase I engine, aka the Bloody Nose, due to the red paint on the front of the engine.  Some folks loved the paint job, some hated it, but they all called it the same thing. 


That's the Bloody Nose, on the left, then 4 more heritage units, and the current Amtrak locomotive. Scary that I know this.

Back to our story.  If an Amtrak train goes through Chesterton around 8 p.m. it can only mean it's east bound, and headed to Swanton and Toledo.  DH and I glanced at each other, and we knew there was a trip out to see trains in our future.  Luckily for me, the Good Dad was willing to get out and take DD all the way to the Toledo Union Terminal to see it.

It arrived in Toledo about 20 minutes late, or around 11:30 p.m., but DD was elated.  He snapped a few pictures, yakked with some riders, and came home a very, very happy young man.

If we could all be so easily entertained and amazed.

1 comment:

  1. Yup... a very good dad! I wish I coulda gone with them...

    :)

    ReplyDelete