Going back through some of my photos that I’ve taken this summer I came up with a few modes of transportation. We live in such a fast paced world these days that we always need to “get there fast” so we us the interstate highways. Some days I love to get on the back roads, known as state and county highways and meander around places I haven’t been before or haven’t been in quite a while.
I ventured to Columbus to the Heart of Ohio Tolle Painting convention a couple of months ago and on my way home I decided it was ‘one of those meandering days’, so through the country side it was. I don’t know about you, but when I go ‘meandering’ I have my foot on the brake a lot,the window rolled down, my arm hanging out (so I can wave on the traffic that builds up behind me) and tend to come to sudden stops often. Dean ‘meanders’ with me sometimes and he does the driving, but seems that when I say something about taking a picture we are about a half mile down the road before he says, ‘do ya wanna stop?’ – well, I did, back there about a half mile ago, but that’s OK, we’ll stop the next time. This time I was in control – ha!
I don’t hesitate to pull into a driveway and sit there adjusting my camera so I can take a shot or two of a train parked in the distance. That particular day the kids that live there come wondering out of the house looking like maybe I was their long-lost relative that they hadn’t seen since they were knee-high to a grasshopper and they had this look on the little faces that just maybe I was going to pull a big bag of goodies out of the back seat of my truck. When they saw the camera and found out I was taking pictures of the train they just gave me this “well who needs you” look and turned to go back into the house. I think one of them gave me the raspberry as he turned the corner. These days, that’s a mild gesture compared to some.
Trains have always fascinated me. In the old movies the cowboys would ride along side the train and jump off their horse onto the train and scramble to the top. For the life of me, I could never figure out how they could run on top of the that train as it was rolling down the tracks so fast – I’d like to see them try that on Amtrak!! Heck, I can’t even walk a straight line anymore. I know I’d never pass a sobriety test if I would get stopped, and please, don’t ask me to run on top of a moving train. Then there was the fellow that just escaped from the local prison, there was always a train track close by – how convenient! Run, run, run, run a little faster…..jump, thank goodness the door was open on that train car and that hound dog just missed grabbing his leg by a fraction. Whew, safe at last! Just so happens, they dropped the stock off at the last stop and there was lots of fresh hay and straw still in the train car. Well, I don’t know how fresh the straw was, but I bet there was some other fresh “stuff” in there. Better watch where he lays his head! Back to the subject, I was getting a little ‘off track’ there.
I’ve only been on one train in my life and that was when I was senior in high school and we went to Washington D.C. on our senior trip. What I remember was rocking from side to side from Chillicothe to DC allllll night long. It wasn’t like being rocked in a rocking chair in the arms of your Momma, it was clang, rock, bump, clunkclunkclunk, clang, rock – you get the picture. I think just maybe that’s the same train in these pictures and they just pasted pictures of windows on the side of those cars and told us it was a passenger train. I really believe that! I want to go back to DC, on a train, but it’s Amtrak all the way there and back this time baby!!
Here’s the blimp – I have no, NO intentions of ever riding on one of these things. I just kept waiting for the little yellow Metlife chicken or duck or whatever he is to come flying out of it. Oh, yea, that’s Snoopy in that blimp.
I think I’d better go the chicken coop while the going is good. Good day all!
Sharon-TheEggGatherer
Just Chicken Sittin' 