In August, when my friend, Coral Beach, suggested that we
take a ride on the Texas State Railroad, a train pulled by a steam-powered
locomotive that runs between Palestine and Rusk, my first question was, “Is it
air conditioned?”
The last time I rode this train was in July, more than 30
years ago with my son, who was about 8 at the time. The temperature hovered
around 90 degrees, even with the windows open. That brought in a bit of breeze,
along with a few pesky cinders from the train’s smoke stack.
But Coral assured me that we would not only be riding in the
adult-only, air-conditioned dining car, but we would eat lunch on the way. How
could I refuse?
So in early September, we headed for Palestine, TX, about a
3-hour drive from my home in League City. We checked into a beautiful Victorian
bed and breakfast inn called The Magnolia Street Inn, browsed through a few
quaint retail shops in downtown Palestine, sampled the homemade pies at one of
the bakeries, had dinner at a wonderful downtown restaurant, then fell into
bed, tired, stuffed (that chocolate pecan pie was scrumptious!) and excited
about our train trip the following day.
The photo above shows us standing in front of the locomotive at
the Palestine Train Depot.
After boarding the train, Coral presented our tickets to the
conductor.
We rode in the AIR CONDITIONED dining car while enjoying the
25-mile tour of the scenic piney woods in East Texas. Our tasty lunch was
served by two friendly porters, who also entertained us on the long trip (1-1/2
hours each way, and a 1-1/2 hour layover at the Rusk Train Station) with a tricky
quiz about little-known Texas facts.
What’s more fun than taking a train trip back in time to the
days of the old west? Well, that would be a train trip with a bunch of train robbers (pretend of course).
Shown in the photo below are two of the four
“Wild West” characters who showed up to make our excursion a bit more exciting.
But we escaped, with all our belongings in tow, and headed
back to the cozy B & B, and another delightful dinner.
Thanks, Coral, for a weekend of great fun and great food!
