Thomas Goes to DC

We tried a new Thomas adventure this weekend---Thomas goes to Washington DC. For this adventure, we pulled out Daddy's lovely big, giant atlas and decided to run the trains across the pages of it to get from California to Washington, DC. Initially, just Thomas was going to make the trip, but he found that climbing up the Sierra was very hard work. By the time he got to Donner Pass, he called for Gordon and the others to help. They all pushed down to Lake Tahoe where they enjoyed dipping their funnels into the water. Next, it was off across Nevada. It was very dry and very hilly in Nevada. But these hills weren't so high as the Sierra. Then it came time to climb the foothills of the Wasatch range and head into Utah. Gordon thought the Great Salt Lake was the ocean, but Thomas pointed out to him that it was only a lake. Then it was on to Colorado. The Rockies are very high in Colorado. Somehow, we got a bit north of where we were planning to go and had to pass through a gap in the Laramie Range through Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was very neat to be in the snow-covered mountains. We had to get out our plows. Beyond this, it was a lot less hilly. We crossed the Platte River and headed into Nebraska. At first, Gordon liked all the farms but by the time we came into Iowa, he was pretty sick of them.

When are these farms going to end?

Asked Gordon. Thomas told him we would have to wait until we were almost through Illinois. Somehow, we ended up taking a rest in Chicago. Everyone liked all the big buildings and, especially, the El train. As you know, I've ridden a version of the El in the Smithsonian, so I told all the trains about this adventure. Next, we cut across southern Michigan to Ohio and then on to Pennsylvania. Since we were nearby, Thomas suggested that we visit Grammy and Nainnie in Wilkes-Barre. It took a little time for us to find this on the map---plus we had to cross the Allegheny mountains---but we made it. We found a nice warm engine shed and settled there for the night.

After that, we turned south to Philadelphia, were we saw the University of Pennsylvania, where Mommy, Daddy, and my grandfather, who is in heaven, went to school. After that, it was on to Baltimore and finally Washington, DC.

Hooray, we made it. All the trains wanted to stay in DC for a long time---72 days in fact. We saw all the tall buildings and Thomas helped pull the barge on the Chesapeake & Ohio canal since the mules were tired.

It was a great adventure.

We also made a trip from California to Albuquerque. It was sort of a race. Gordon started off from Los Angeles and took the southerly route along the Rio Grande while Thomas took the northern route from San Francisco. We saw lots of neat things there. Mommy said that Daddy was "Mr. Geography" in offering us detailed descriptions of all the things was saw along the way. Gordon's favorite with the Saguaro National Forest---an entire forest consisting only of big cactus. Both Thomas and Gordon pulled into Albuquerque at the same time. It was a tie.

Driving trains on maps is almost as much fun as riding on the wooden tracks.