One last dash of summer

Something's coming!

The kids have been back in school for almost two weeks but this morning the weather reminded us for certain that summer was over. Before summer ended, however, Robert and I reached a goal we have been talking about for almost as long as we've lived in this house.

Our little boy loves trains, has loved trains for as long as he can remember. And while our fourth grader's days of watching Thomas the Tank Engine have been long left behind, there are plenty of other ways to enjoy trains around here.

There are train tracks about six blocks from our house, the perfect distance, in my estimation. They are close enough that you can hear trains blow their horns, but not very loudly. I wouldn't want to live much closer.

I don't remember whether Robert came up with the idea or I did, but at some point one of us heard a train whistle and thought it would be neat to go down to the tracks and watch it go by. And as we were riding bikes one day, it occurred to me that Robert was definitely capable of riding with me to go see one. And it's been our goal ever since, although for more than a year, we hadn't even attempted it.

Cate has started working an early morning shift, so I've been either with the kids all morning while working at home, or lately, making sure they get fed, dressed and out the door to school. In the last week before school started, Robert came downstairs to me in my office and said, "Dad, can we do something today?"

It was right around noon. Normally I would have to say that I couldn't, but the previous day Verizon had let me know that my contract was being cut by a little over two weeks. I'm a very loyal employee but was still reeling from that punch to the gut, so I was a little more open to, say, taking a long lunch. The train goal popped into my head, so we went out to the garage, made sure all of our bikes had enough air in the tires, and set them up, ready to go at a moment's notice near the garage door.

Satisfied we were ready to go, we went inside to wait. We were not waiting long, however. I hadn't even gotten my shoes off when I heard the first whistle of the train. That crossing point is almost two miles away, and the freight trains don't come through the neighborhoods very fast at all. I alerted Robert, who hadn't even heard it yet, and we sprang into action. Open the garage door, water bottle from the fridge, helmets, let Elizabeth know she was in charge of Colleen, and bolt.

Robert is one happy camper as the train goes by.

While we're riding, we get the ultimate reminders of our destination. The train horn sounds at three other crossings before it gets to ours, on Xerxes. Robert is saying, "it's getting closer!" and I'm certainly wishing he had a multi-speed bike so he could go faster, but he is pumping his little legs off. Three quarters of a mile, with a slow, gradual uphill grade and a busy intersection in between takes a 9-year-old a long time with one gear, but we end up making it in plenty of time. The train is still several blocks away when we get there.

We settled in a spot very close to the tracks, much closer than the cars' stop line. The train blew its horn as it approached our crossing and I acknowledged the drivers so they knew we weren't completely oblivious.

As the train went by, Robert marveled at how large it was. He hasn't been this close to a moving freight train in quite a while, and of course, it's bigger than the light rail train we've ridden to the ballgame. The train wasn't very long, and the show was over in a couple of minutes, but he loved it, so it was worth the trip. And the timing couldn't have been better.

Mission complete.