Cowboy Weekend in Jefferson

07.28.12

I thought it would be fun to see the cowboys in Jefferson today since Beck's school focused on cowboys this past week but our adventure turned out to be a disaster!  It's a really funny story to tell now but we were not happy at the time.  First of all, it was hot, Hot, HOT!!!  And, the first train ride was at 2:30pm.  I would have given anything if they had offered a morning ride!

Since I had just been in Jefferson five days ago, I knew where to go so we first started in the train store that Beck loves so much.  The man that operates the trains was busy with the cowboy stuff so no trains were running.  We were all very bummed.  This was the first red flag that this would not be a good day.  Then, we went in the antique store that does not have air conditioning.  Kinsey picked out a baby carriage that she liked and pushed it all through the store, Daddy found a cash register that he liked and a room full of TOOLS and I found old soda pop bottles and a darling picture of a little girl.

There are two funny things to note in the picture below...the chair Kinsey is sitting in is the smallest chair I've ever seen and she looks like a giant rocking in it.  And, the sucker she has in her mouth was found in the stroller which means she stole it from a store on Monday!

This is my attempt of taking a picture of the cowboys shooting each other in the street.  I totally jumped when the gun fired which is why this picture is so bad!! I am such a dork!  I thought the fake bullet was going to hit me!  Brent sure got a good laugh at me and I'm sure many others did too.  Beck held his ears saying it was too loud and Kinsey immediately started crying.  The loud gunfire scared her to death!  This was our second red flag of us having a bad day.

Anyway, the cowboys did their fight in front of the General Store which is the store that has very unique things.  We showed Daddy all of the things we found that we like and he got in on the hat action like we did on Monday.

By now, it was time to eat lunch and we had packed lunch since our picky kids hardly eat the food we buy at a restaurant and the food in this town is a little pricey.  So, we ate lunch in Daddy's cool truck.  The air conditioner felt GREAT!  Beck enjoyed his sandwich and the Cheetos were finger lickin' good!

We were gearing up for our big train ride and found this very old train on display.  You have to buy a ticket to tour the inside of it.

We thought about doing the carriage ride but it was going to be close to boarding the train by the time the horse ride was finished.  Next time we go back to Jefferson, it will be later in the year when it's cooler and we will definitely do the carriage ride.

Next to the train depot is a brand new boat dock and Brent drove down it and asked Beck if we should drive in the water.  Daddy is so silly!  We got out of the truck just in time to see a boat whizz by us and Beck took a much needed potty break.  I told Beck that the Whos from Whoville live on the pink flower.  I guess Mommy is silly too!  There's a boat tour of this bayou and I would love to do that too the next time we come back to Jefferson.

Let me explain the picture below...the train in the top left corner is the steam engine that is broken and it will take a year to rebuild the broken part.  The colorful train is what we rode today.  The broken train should have been another red flag because the train we rode was a gas operated engine.

Did I mention that it was hot?  We were all profusely sweating!

The scenery on the train ride was really pretty but there were also parts that weren't so pretty because they had loggers out there cutting down the dead trees from the drought last year.  I don't think anybody saw the first cowboy shoot out because our train was bumping up and down.  It felt like we had run over a branch.  I saw a lady get off the train and run back to that spot to check it out.  We saw her later so I assumed that all was well.

The cowboys robbed the train and our kids could care less about it because they were so hot and so tired.

On our way back to the train station, I wanted to get a picture of Kinsey sitting my lap and she could see herself on the phone screen and she kept making these very sad faces.  I couldn't believe it!  She's never done that before.  She usually says, "Cheese" when I hold the camera up.  Again, she was SO tired!

Poor Beck fell asleep right before the bad spot in the tracks.  Brent started bracing down and warned me that we were about to hit that bad spot again.  I thought he was over reacting because it really felt like we ran over a branch and I couldn't imagine us running over a branch again but I was SO wrong!!!  The train bounced then derailed!  We were hot, tired and stuck out in the woods!  Then, I saw a bee buzzing around and I watched it to make sure it didn't land on Beck or Kinsey.  All of a sudden there were a swarm of bees on our train!  We were getting off before the lady announcer told us to exit to the right!  She also told us to walk a little ways and pick-up trucks would be coming to take us back.  Brent veered off towards the woods with Kinsey on his shoulders and tried to talk me into following him but I was so afraid of getting into poison ivy.  I would rather get stung by a bee than get poison ivy since I am highly allergic to it!  I've already had it once this year and it took four weeks to go away!  Now you understand my fear of the woods.

As we were walking, Beck stopped and told me he couldn't walk anymore and I said, "Ok, I'll carry you."  I picked him up and thought, I am for sure getting 'Mom of the Year' for this!  This very sweet man that sat in front of us on the train saw me carrying Beck and handed his drink to his wife then he told me that he would carry Beck.  That was the sweetest gesture I've encountered in a long time.  However, I don't think he realized how heavy Beck is because he struggled getting Beck on his shoulders.

I am grateful that nobody got hurt and I learned a big lesson on this trip.  Wait until it's cool outside to do anything!!!  We got a refund for the train ride that we'll never forget and found out they think the loggers drove over the tracks and bent the rail.  Stay tuned for the next Big Adventure!