Train Whistle Blues

"When a woman gets the blues she hangs her little head and cries

But when a man gets the blues he grabs a train and rides

Every time I see that lonesome railroad train

It makes me wish I was going home again…"

(By Jimmie Rodgers)

Today we drove back to the town of Garibaldi to take the Oregon Coast Scenic Railway train ride up to Rockaway and then back again.  This is a stock photo of the train on the route that I lifted from their website.

We departed the “depot” in Garibaldi at noon, arrived in Rockaway at 12:30 and then departed back to Garibaldi at 1:00 p.m. It’s a short train ride, but it does run along the Tillamook Bay.  We took the dogs with us as dogs are allowed in the open/outdoor cars.  The dogs were doing just fine until the train started moving and blowing its whistle … numerous times!  Sherwood became a quivering mass and Sadie could not leave Gary’s side the whole ride up there.  Gary was starting to question our sanity.  Here’s Sadie sitting happily (well, not so happily really) right next to her daddy.  We called it a father/daughter moment!

These two photos are of the Tillamook Bay and I took them on the return trip from Rockaway to Garibaldi.  The dogs had finally somewhat settled down which meant I was able to use the camera!

 

One good turn deserves another!  Whenever I see families with their camera, I always ask them if they’d like me to take a picture of all of them together.  Since someone has to take the photo, family vacation photos are often missing one person – the one behind the camera!  Knowing that, I always want to give a family the opportunity to be all together in a picture perfect moment.  So at the train station, once I took a family’s photo, I asked if they would take ours … “But, of course,” they said!  Here we are at the Garibaldi “depot” in front of one of their “museum” trains.  The perfect ending to a "Train Whistle Blues" day!