A Day at the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad

Today was one of the best Saturdays, ever. Both Thea and Micah slept until about 9 am, which borders on miraculous. Since we had no particular agenda we could spend time hanging out with them in our pjs, being lazy and watching what Micah calls "Blue, Blue Puppy Dog" (Blues Clues for the uninitiated.)

Since Steve wanted time at work, and Micah has been either begging for a horse ride or a train ride (or better still, riding a horse while on a train), I checked out the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad website last night. It's close, it many not be quite as train-filled as going to Strasburg, PA, but it would save a bundle in gas alone.

Trains leave on the hour for the nine-mile trip to Lahaska, so we timed it just right by arriving 15 minutes prior to departure. Time for the 3-Ps, parking, potty and purchasing tickets, not necessarily in that order.

The train pulled in to the station, detached from the passenger cars and went to the water tower. Later during the trip, the conductor said that the fireman has to shovel 1/2 ton of coal for the round trip (it's uphill to Lahaska). Amazing, especially since the guy didn't look like he was particularly muscular.

As we waited on the platform to board the train, there was this group of people, one of whom had a large video camera and tripod, another in the group with a nice still camera - it seemed odd, but some people are insanely in love with their technology, so I didn't really pay much attention. Micah was thrilled; Thea's been on trains at the Strasburg Railroad, so she wasn't quite as impressed, but once the train started moving both were reallly having fun. So much so that the three of us were sitting on the same seat and the two of them weren't trying to kill each other, squeeze the other out of space or otherwise trying to provoke me.

The conductor on this trip was great - he definitely had a patter of facts and figures, but he delivered it without it coming out like a pre-programmed schtick, and he was nice enough to sit with the children and have his picture taken.

And all the while that group with the cameras is filming, hanging out of the windows.

In Lahaska the train paused so the engine could uncouple and come around to the end to pull the train back to New Hope. Also another NH&I train, the fall foliage train, passed us by - all of which was just thrilling to Micah, who was waving and shouting and just otherwise acting like this was the fulfillment of a major dream.

Once we were back in motion, I flipped the seat in front of us so we had a little seating group. Thea spent the return trip singing to herself in Chinese and looking at the leaves (it helps that she thinks the leaves change color just because of her birthday), Micah continued his waving. The whole trip took about 45 minutes, but it didn't really seem that long since we were having so much fun.

Back in New Hope we got off the train and were walking down the platform to stroll into town and find somewhere for a bite to eat. As I was walking down the stairs to the lower portion of the platform, holding hands with the kids, holding Bunny Bear, juggling my purse, the brochures Thea no longer wanted to carry, a guy got a little in front of me, stopped and said, "Excuse me..."

He was part of the group with the cameras, but since he wasn't toting any equipment, he didn't register on my radar. The group was putting together a travel piece on eastern Pennsylvania for broadcast in Asia (what a cliche, pick on the chick with the two Chinese kids), and could they ask us a few questions? And can you sign this release? Yikes.

They said they noticed the kids on the train, and how much fun Micah was having (at the top of his lungs), so that's why they stopped us.

It was three questions: Was this our first trip on the train in New Hope? (Yes). What did we like about it? (45 minutes of not having to actively entertain my children, what's not to like? The real answer was more appropriate.) And something else along those lines.

Pretend the camera isn't there. Let me clip the microphone to your sweater (fortunately those years working in prison, I'm not that fussy about personal space.) One retake because the fall foliage train pulled out and drowned me out.

Then it was Thea's turn, with a little persuasion from me - and usually I'd be the first one to say, if she doesn't want to do it, so be it. But I think her initial balking was more due to me going first.
The woman miked her up, the camera man asks her to do a sound check by counting from one to five, and she volunteers to do it in English and in Chinese. The interviewer was really nice, he got down on her level and they started talking - Thea was much more at ease and natural than I was. Brainless Mommy should have had her camera out, but I also had Micah in my arms to keep him from playing with the equipment or running back onto the train. Meanwhile the camerman is standing there filming and saying how wonderful Thea's doing. . . .

Once our five minutes in the spotlight was over, we followed the next train out as it departed the station, and went walking around New Hope. We had lunch at an Italian restaurant with a patio area where we could see a bit of the train tracks and watch the train arrive and depart one more time.

So three years after her debut on the pages of the Quest Diagnostics 2004 Annual Report, Thea once again gets to be famous, at least in her own mind (and mine.)