all aboard!

I’ve been a Newton Railroader almost my whole life. 40+ years and I’ve never been on a train. Never, ever, ever. Until this week.

The BNSF had this very cool public service gig and offered a limited number of free rides on the train from Newton to Sylvia and back to Newton.

So.much fun!

We felt very safe with our local sheriff, T Walton, shooting people as we boarded. His lovely wife, Karen, was quick to work the crowd. We just love these folks!

Many of our local law enforcement and fire personnel were riding the train. I’m sure that was to keep the riff raff to a minimum :)

I learned a few things while riding the train:

1. Abi was highly concerned about a first aid kit being on board with us. She started asking about it almost as soon as we found our seats. She’s a bit of a worry wort and knows how accident prone our family is. During our safety briefing we were told there was a medic on board with us. Funny thing – he was called to our car for a little accident (thank goodness it wasn't one of our kids!). Abi sighed a huge sigh of relief knowing the BNSF had thought of everything. The medic doubled as the hat-putter-together-guy. These freebie hats were mighty tricky for us uneducated train folk. They must teach them a lot in medic school.

2. The bathrooms on the train are way fancier than the bathrooms on planes. I don’t know this from personal experience since I don’t do that kind of thing:) Abi has to check out every bathroom we came across in our adventures. She tried out this potty before we ever left the station and again while we were moving. She was so impressed! (Abi learned lavatory is a Fancy Nancy word for bathroom.) A wise tip from our trained train folk – don’t push the door in while the sign reads “occupied”. If you’re using the potty, make sure you flip the switch so everyone knows it’s occupied otherwise everyone may know your business.

3. If you have high aspirations to be a flight attendant and that doesn’t work out for you, a train porter would be a great 2nd choice. I’m pretty sure that’s what happens if you can’t make it as a flight attendant; you work the train. Here’s the cool thing – the aisles are wider on a train than a plane. That would make it much easier for me to be a train porter than a flight attendant, just sayin.

4. The snacks on the train are so much better than the snacks on a plane. They had more drinks and snacks than Dillon’s ever thought about. That was a major bonus for us! We had goldfish, rice krispy treats, fruit roll-ups and enough drinks to float the train. I’m pretty sure they gave us so much to drink so we could check out the cool potties. It didn’t work for me :)

5. The Kansas landscape is just so gorgeous from a train. The windows are huge and you can see so far. We would love to take the train through Colorado and enjoy their landscape. Things are just prettier from the train, I’m tellin ya.

6. Hannah is a total {little} boy magnet!

We loved our adventure on the train! I know we’re easily impressed but this was very cool. It gave us a new love for the train whistles and the kids loved it that someone else was waiting on us at the railroad crossings.

Thank you to our dear friends from church who gave us this fun family night. We’re doing trains, planes and automobiles this week. Our plane is taking us to Florida (woo hoo!). Who knows what kind of adventures are around the corner for us.