I hear the train a'comin.......

it's rollin' round the bend.

Mom, dad, John and I had such a great time on the train ride! If possible, I think mom might just have enjoyed it more than dad. She said the smell reminded her of the coal trains she rode when she was a child in Japan. She sat there on the bench and just smiled! Course dad, John and I were all up and down the train! It consisted of the steam engine which is over 100 years old and lovingly rebuilt and cared for by a local man. Two cars were old equipment hauling cars that have been modified to carry people. They took the center metal divider that ran the length of the cars out and put in a single long bench for the passengers to sit on. The also put an aluminum roof over the top of the car to help keep the rain and blazing FL sun off the passengers. Two cars were actual passenger cars that they pretty much left as is. They did have to replace some of the seat covers. And finally was the caboose. They would not let us in either the caboose or the engine. They do allow you to ride in the caboose, but charge extra for that.

After our train ride, we stopped for "linner" at Cracker Barrel. I figure that if brunch is breakfast/lunch combined, then linner is lunch/dinner combined! My own new made-up word! It was too late for lunch, but too early for dinner, so, linner!! Mom and dad both had a BLT and a cup of chicken and rice soup. John had chicken fried steak and I had country ham ( the salty one!) We were all stuffed to the gills when we finished!

Mom loved her miso soup and both of their eyes lit up when they saw the asparagus! I also picked a box full of white seedeless grapefruit off our tree and took to them. She was very excited about that since the fruit we get in the stores is pretty crappy. Sad since we live in FL and should have the best citrus there is, but most of our citrus gets shipped overseas and we get the crap from California. My Grandfather is rolling in his grave.

I get to sit home and wait for the Sears repairman to come today. He'll be here sometime between 8 and 5. Boy, that narrows it down!! I loaded the dishwasher Sat night and it would. not. start. Grrreat! John came in and looked at it and he couldn't figure what was wrong, so I unloaded it and did my dishes by hand. Which really sucks because I don't own a dish drainer. And I'm not drying them! They're just lucky I still remember how to wash them by hand!! So hopefully he can fix it and we won't have to go buy a new one. Have no idea how old this one is. We've been in the house 13 years the end of this month and it was here when we bought the house. So I figure we're on borrowed time with it. Just hope it lasts a little while longer! It still does a great job, so there's not been any need to go buy a new one.