Train Ride!

First picture is Chimney Rock Fire lookout

The next is the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway, pulled up the pass by a "double header"

We just got back from a week camping in our Coleman popup down along the Colorado/New Mexico Border. We even went for a train ride last week on the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad. We made an 11 minute video of our trip, too, but haven't been able to get it posted here. You can hear as the two steam engines work hard to pull us up the steep grade. ( One of these engines, #484, was repainted and used in the movie Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade!) Near the end of the video, you can watch as our train car became a "gospel train" as some new friends from Louisiana lead us in some old fashioned gospel songs. It was a lot of fun, and the first time we rode a train since we lost dad. (It was kind of our Father's day tradition to take him along with our kids and go ride a train each year.) He would have especially enjoyed this trip because of the scenery and the company. The people in the rail car we were riding in after lunch included a youth group and their leaders from a small Baptist church in northern Louisiana, who had come to Colorado on a missions trip, doing work on the Indian reservation. The rest of the people in that car, (except us) were from a somewhat charismatic church here in Colorado Springs. The last hour of the ride turned into a gospel sing along, with the pastor and some seniors from the Louisiana church (who were along as chaperones for their youth) leading us all in some good old fashioned gospel songs. It was quite memorable, and a lot of the music I recognized as stuff Dad loved. Photos of the trip are on my facebook page and I am posting the video here.