The Old Time Train

     Jerry arranged a day trip for Sally, Susie, and me go go to Romney, West Virginia to ride on an old time train, The American Eagle. He reserved our tickets.  This train chugs through the mountains and runs alongside the South Branch of the Potomac River, a great Eagle habitat.

     Susie and I arrived early at Sally's. We hurried and loaded up Jerry's car with our carry on picnic lunch.     I hunkered down in the back seat of Jerry's car, tightened my seat belt and got ready for the ride of my life.  Jerry's a real good driver, only he's a real FAST DRIVER.    We arrived in Romney a little after nine.

     We picked up our tickets at the ticket counter and waited on the platform.  The sound of the idling train engine had a calming and an exciting effect on us.   Finally the conductor came out and shouted, "ALL ABOARD!"

     All of the passengers hurried through the door, some going to the left and others going to the right.  We turned right and went through the concession car and the souvenir car and 2 more cars until we decided on a window seat.  Sally and Jerry turned their seat around so they were facing Susie and me.

     If we had turned left, we would have gone into the dining car and been served a full course meal.  Not today, we chose to picnic.

     We heard the friendly sound of the train whistle blow,  woo, woo.  The train slowly moved out of the station into the West Virginia countryside. 

     We passed by a historical barn, over 200 years old.  It looked like a big puff of wind could blow it over.  I'm sure there has been many big puffs of wind and the old barn is still standing.

     We meandered through the mountains, then came to the South Branch of the Potomac.  There the train followed the river.

     An announcement came over the train p/a system, "The trail will be coming to a stop, everyone that want to go to the open gondola car may do so now.  That was an open car with seats along the walls, with seats in the middle of the car so the passengers could take good pictures of the eagles.

     Sally,  Susie, and I jumped up, cameras in hand and left Jerry sitting there.  He said he would keep our seats.

     What a sight, it was October, the trees all orange and reds and the sky blue and clear.  We took seats along the outside wall and got our cameras ready and waiting for that perfect shot.  The train started moving slowly again.

     We saw some eagles but they were just too high.  The ones we saw close enough to take a picture were partially hidden by the tree leaves and branches.  We just couldn't get a good picture.

    The train came to a stop again. It was time for all the passengers to return to  their original seats.  This was a safety precaution. Along this section of train tracks there was a hazard of falling rocks or branches from the tall trees onto the open gondola car.  We returned to our seats and finished off our picnic.

     When the train returned to the station we had a nice surprise.  Patrick had ridden his motor cycle down from Keyser, his home, to see us and visit a while.

     Susie decided she wanted to become a biker, and hopped on the back of his bike and was raring to go.

     Patrick said his goodbyes to us and rode off into the sunset.  We got into Jerry's car for our trip home. 

     It was a very good day.