Peep! Peep! Here comes Thomas!

I finally got around to scanning some photos from our Day out with Thomas. Can I just say, my scanner at work is the pits? Ugh. So sad. But nonetheless, on with the show!

Things start out at The Red Caboose Motel. As mentioned in a previous post, all the rooms here are in old railroad cabooses. I was a little worried about staying here, just because I'd heard some good and not-so-good things about the place. Fortunately, there is a new owner and he's working hard to update the place. You can tell where some of the stuff still needs work, but it seems to be coming along. The caboose we stayed in happened to be newly renovated. We were the first people to stay in it since it was renovated. It even still smelled like paint (but not too much). It was a nice enough place, I suppose, but rather plain on the inside for something so neat on the outside.

Here is the exterior:


And the interior - the "Skylight" was a neat, with no curtains, it made sure we got up on time!


Here is a shot of some of the other cabooses from inside of our caboose. It's a neat variety of different types of cars.


So, after taking our showers and getting dressed, we headed to "The Dining Car" which is a real train car (not sure if it was an actual dining car when it was originally used or not). We could see the Strasburg Railroad grounds from here, and all the tents and trains getting ready for the throngs of Thomas fans.


While we were eating there, we could see Thomas giving rides, which only heightened the excitement of little boy. Alas, even the threat of Thomas not allowing him to ride didn't make little man eat any faster than normal. ;-) He's slooooooooooowww. But after he finally finished, we headed out to the car, and who should happen to be chugging down the track? Everyone's #1 blue engine, Thomas!


Little boy couldn't have been more thrilled to ride on Thomas' coaches (he decided we were riding on Clarabel, just so you know). I really felt like I was doing my job as a parent right that day. He was just beaming through the whole thing.

Here is a little closer look at Thomas, he's much bigger in person than on TV!


Here's a look inside the coach Thomas pulled (and pushed), somehow, saying "Here'a a look inside Clarabel just sounded dirty. ;-)


I thought that this would be something that would take 2, maybe 3 hours to do at best. Boy was I wrong. We were there and really busy from 10 am til 5 pm. It gave us time to do everything we wanted to do, though. The only disappointing part was that when it was time for the long train ride (not on Thomas, but an equally neat train), we were in line to get on this neat old coach that you could tell has been lovingly restored, and the crowd just kept inching in on the sides and while we started out maybe 4th in line, we couldn't get a seat on the coach because the people in front of us just kept letting everyone else go ahead. We did get on the train, but it was in a lounge car and we had to sit in ordinary parlor chairs. It was still neat, but after being in the coach, we would rather have sat up there. But that's a pretty minor complaint in the realm of things.

I didn't have time to scan the photos of some of the other stuff, but this gives you a pretty good idea of what was happening there. Little Boy also got to meet and take a picture with Sir Topham Hatt. Little Boy has absolutely no fear of large characters. You would have thought he and STH had been friends for years. Little Boy threw and arm around him and smiled like he was the happiest kid in the world. We were a little surprise (and it probably had to do with little boy's energy level) that he wasn't excited to get to see Thomas close up, not to say he didn't like it. But, we probably were out of the parking lot all of 5 minutes before little boy fell fast asleep. I think that's the sign of having a really great day. We couldn't even rouse him to get some ice cream, and that's saying something!

So, if you have a youngster and are wondering if this is worth going to, I can only speak about the Strasburg Railroad location, but it is absolutely a great experience. I'm very glad we went. Worth every penny (and by the time we left, we spent a lot of pennies at the clothing and toy store - yikes!) Go. Have a great time with the little one in your life!

Dave