Somehow Prince ALWAYS knows when we’re going to head out for a day or so.
Kristen and I got married on October 21st, 2017. We were together for 9 years before that so, after 18 years we’re not always good about observing our anniversary with anything more than a good dinner, but I made a point of buying us at least a SHORT getaway back at the Red Caboose Inn in Strasburg, PA – where we’d done our post-wedding run-the-Hell-away-from-the-world-for-a-day-since-we-can’t-afford-a-honeymoon. I Love this place and it’s an easy enough drive.
Somewhere I spotted an ad for a DIFFERENT train and figured we’d drive a little further and ride that before returning back to Strasburg, bought tickets for that, and hence we found ourselves driving to Jim Thorpe, PA to ride the Lehigh Valley Scenic Railroad.
The drive was beautiful – though perhaps longer than I’d have liked. I found myself doing plenty of second guessing on the Pennsylvania highways – worrying that I was going to spend more time driving than riding, more time focused on the road than on my wife. But I guess it’s good for me to be finally getting used to the Subaru as that’s truly looking to be “my” car for the immediate future. So strange to go down hills without being able to downshift. So strange to have a car that wants to answer my phone while it’s on do-not-disturb.
The beauty of knowing that I’ve told people I’m NOT going to be answering the phone and sticking to it though, that was quite Lovely.
Cloudless and cool. Happy 9 years!
Kristen wrote the following:
Rob also found a fall foliage train in Jim Thorpe, PA (about 3 hours north of Baltimore, in the Poconos) – so we drove up there first. It’s a short (45 min) train ride, but beautiful scenery – probably the most scenic of the train rides we’ve done. However, it was absolutely MOBBED on a Tuesday (a day many of the downtown shops are closed). If you do this, be warned: navigating the parking, driving and walking through town, and the train ticket lines are kind of insane. I personally wouldn’t even attempt it on a weekend. We barely grabbed one of the last parking spots at the very end of the huge lot, about a 1/2 mile walk to the station.
The demographic differences of who rides these two charming rural PA trains was kind of fascinating. Strasburg is firmly 60+, white, and some parents with young kids. Jim Thorpe was incredibly diverse: lots of international folks speaking different languages, lots of 20/30-somethings. Some kids and seniors as well, but there were a bunch of “influencers” trying to get the perfect selfies or clearly having their partners take posed photos. Many selfie sticks and people focused on trying to get the perfect Instagram moment. It was weird. We heard some conversations about where people found out about Jim Thorpe, and the answer was largely Instagram. Sounds like the town has done a whole lot of marketing that way. Well, hopefully people are spending a lot of money there – usually a good thing for a small town, although I don’t think I’d want to be a local during this time.
We enjoyed the ride, but the experience was a little much for us. We did the Strasburg ride the next day and it was so much more relaxed, friendly and far less people-y.
Jim Thorpe also has a FASCINATING history of the town name, which I’m going to post about separately. Wild piece of American history I had no idea about.
Overall, a lovely fall trip with idyllic weather. We don’t want to dive back into real life, but it’s good to get at least a short respite. I really need to use Do Not Disturb on my phone more often.
The initial hope would be that we’d roll into Jim Thorpe with about an hour to explore what looked to be an absolutely beautiful little Pennsylvania town, but between it taking forever to park and the lines to pick up our tickets being absolutely mobbed, we only had about 20 minutes to run around. We at least found an awesome donut shop and this blueberry cheesecake donut was STUNNING.The ceiling of our train car, the Autumn Breeze, surprised us by being painted like a beautiful sky.He didn’t look the type but our conductor had absolutely beautifully painted nails with a couple of little trees on some of his fingers.Rolling into Strasburg after the last train just as the sun goes down. It is CRIMINAL that they don’t do golden hour trains. Our mail car room isn’t a caboose, but with two bathrooms, it’s even better. Plus! Secret bed!After we were settled and well-fed we came back and pet the goats and the alpacas. The old barn next to all the cabooses is now a $7k+ wedding / event space.Okay, the next morning we went back for more goat and alpaca time.Kristen found a quarter and I put it to use. This goat knew what I was up to and beat me to it.Nose even fuzzier than it appears!After petting the lamas and the goats and the alpacas and the donkey, Kristen guided us to the Speckled Hen for a wonderful breakfast. Awesome coffee. It’s numerous references to the celebration of art and diversity and even a little bit of gaming made me feel like this could be a good home away from home.We spent some time just walking around Strasburg / Ronks PA. Had a good breakfast, explored. I Love whoever this person is knitting little hats and scarves for everything on their porch. Yeah, this is how all Trump signs should look by now.I didn’t really feel like getting on another train after how stressful Lehigh Valley was, but I definitely wanted to at least SNIFF a real steam locomotive. However, as it got closer I couldn’t resist and ran to go get tickets.Riding Old Engine 90 again! Great Western 90 is 102 years old and still mighty. As I’m reading a bit more about her history I get to feel more tightly connected: she spent most of her days running out of Loveland, CO – and her last job before her current role at Strasburg was helping another locomotive over the mountainous terrain of Jim Thorpe on the Lehigh Valley line. She has a history of helping others and was used to haul 3 other locomotives out of a burning roundhouse.She’s apparently been struck by two trucks over the years, but has been repaired and returned to service each time.A much more relaxed ride today, but it always makes me a little afraid for my beloved Strasburg Railroad.After riding the train, we went back down the road to the National Toy Train Museum. I’m PRETTY sure I’ve been here before and I went looking through old photos as proof – but the photos that I THOUGHT were of me at the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, PA in 1987 turned out to be photos of me at the Shempp Model Train Collection at the Thomas T. Taber Museum in Williamsport, PA! Go fig. Anywho – here is a toy version of Engine 90 at the Toy Train Museum in Strasburg, PA.I’d JUST seen an Instagram post about the “most dangerous toys ever” and had seen this article about a home metal casting kit (for boys!) and sort of … didn’t believe it? But here it is immortalized in the Toy Train Museum (which also had other toys…)Most of the National Toy Train Museum’s initial collection came from one engineer / enthusiast’s hoard – all meticulously labeled, often restored, sometimes modified.I had no idea the museum used to be an actual toy factory and strangely there is almost NO information about the museum or it’s history online, however, looking up “The Ives Factory” reveals that this plaque has NOTHING to do with THIS building and is on loan… from someone? The actual factory was in Bridgeport, CT and was demolished in 2009.What toy train museum would be complete without Legos?The drive home was also beautiful, but the moment we crossed the Maryland line, the idea of getting back to 695 (clearly badly congested, even early in the hours of rush hour) was… not exciting. Instead of heading straight home we wandered over to an orchard and nabbed apples and donuts. And THEN got stuck in the traffic on the way home. Apparently there was a cow on 695. Weird.And then we wrapped it all out with dinner at La Palapas. Yesssss. Home again, home again. I even found a good parking spot!
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