Out and About

The Western Railway Museum is not too far from where we live – less than an hour, an easy peasey day trip no problem. We arrived later in the day than we had planned but it turned out that was the better time to be there crowd wise. At the museum we bought our tickets for the 5 miles/10 minute train ride out to the private grove. Trains left every half hour. They were the old electric trains from the late 1930’s to early 1940’s. They were kept in great condition and even sported adverts from that time period. Look at these.

They are so funny! Can you see what they say?

Yeah, I can't see it either so from left to right top to bottom:

Expect Runs Unless you LUx your stockings after every wearing

Proposition 20 will cost you plenty:

Land Values Destroyed... VOTE NO

The End of a Perfect Smoke - For more FUN smoking...

a LIFE SAVER after each cigarette!

MEN! For greater comfort change to REIS SCANDALS -

No other underwear has this Patented "Dart" Non-sag Pouch -

Cut to fit to fight fatigue!

The train rickety-rackettied down the track blowing its airhorn. The conductor kept the front door open so the breeze could blow right through the train. Then the ticket collector walked down the aisle and punched our tickets. So nostalgic. It was really a fun ride through the country side. Pass cows, pass sheep, pass windmills old and new. Everyone was crowded in, shoulder to shoulder, bumping along (very bumpy, lots of swayin’), with not a care in the world. We arrived at Gum Grove all too soon. Nicely shaded and not too crowded, we were greeted with bales of hay topped with perfect orange pumpkins and fun handmade scarecrows.
Although the stands were sold out of hot dogs and hamburgers there were still plenty of sweets. Gooey caramel apples, sticky candy floss, and refreshing lemon smoothies. The Hipwaders were still rockin’ out. They were playing Song of the Paleo Pirates when we arrived. Kids were jammin’ right along on stage with the blow up guitars sold at the cd table. There were llamas, and a tractor ride, and family portraits in a pumpkin setting. The biggest hit was the haystack fort. If you ask me it was too scary inside – narrow, dark… eeee. I felt like a hamster crawling around. Do not enter if you’re claustrophobic!


The next best thing was the Pumpkin Chuckin’ – well, depending who you asked this was the first best thing. For $1 you picked out a tiny pumpkin and snuggled it in a sling tied between two posts. Then you pulled back as far as you could at the angle you preferred and *THWOP* let it fly baby! My hubby and daughter did it twice each. There were boxes set up randomly in the field but I don’t think you got prizes for landing pumpkins in them. Boo.

When back at the museum again we visited a few more different types of trains. It was awesome to see the pristine condition they were in. The craftsmanship that went into making them is something you don’t see in much of anything these days. Then there were the interesting innovations like the Lifeguard Fenders and Eclipse Fenders. These were grates put on the front of the train to prevent anyone unlucky enough to be hit by the train from being further run over by the train. How nice, eh?All in all it was a wonderful day. I don’t know if I’d really call the Pumpkin Festival a festival, it was kinda tiny and not very festivalish…maybe more like big family picnic day (which I think is cooler anyway), but for what it was – totally volunteer operated by local rotary clubs and other kind souls – it was great. The trains were the real treat. They really transported us back in time, out there in the middle of no where surrounded by empty fields with the smell of hay and the touch of a gently breeze, children laughing with sticky faces and hay in their hair and stuck to their clothes, good wholesome music and adults shooting pumpkins into the air, it really felt like a simpler era. *sigh*

Well, that's that. I still haven't been crocheting. I'm still working on that knitted cabled scarf. And I've been drawing on the side. Next post I'll share the drawing, ok?

(^_^)v

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