Steam Trains and Mine Cars

Six hours on a train sounds like heaven to Arthur. Unfortunately, six hours with six kids - not so much.  So, we did not take the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge steam train.  However, we did drive to Silverton and saw it there!

On our way, we stopped at this cute little place called "Honeyville" and watched how bees made honey - something we have been studying in science.  Grace could have stayed at the display all day searching for the Queen Bee and just observing the worker bees crawling around.  We finally bribed her away with a  honey stick.

We hit the road to Silverton after our brief stop and spent the long and winding road enjoying the beautiful scenery and the beginnings of fall foliage.  They were doing roadwork on the way into town and so we were stopped long enough that people were exiting their vehicles.  Arthur was able to zoom way in and snap a picture of the train - ant size - in the distance.

We pulled into town just as the train was turning around in the Y to pick up passengers.  

It was loud and neat!  Joseph was so upset when we went back to the car, he wanted us to follow the train around so he could watch it.

Will passed out some of the cheese sandwiches on olive bread he had made for us to snack on and we headed out to the Old Hundred Mine for a tour.

When we got there, we finished our picnic at the tables and then donned our hard hats and bright yellow rain coats for a ride deep into the bowels of the mine.  As soon as Grace realized what we were going to do, she melted down.  She refused to go and begged me not to go.  I was settling in to sit behind with her, when Heather offered to stay so that I could go in.  I asked Grace one more time and she reminded me of the terrible mine collapse that we had watched on a TV show on Netflix (thanks, Auntie Sarah).  I let her know that I would be safe and gave her a big hug and sent her off to pan for ore in the sluice they had set up.  As soon as Joseph saw me coming, he dissolved into hysterics, too.  He did NOT want to "go in tunnel!"  So, we handed him over the side of the mine car to Heather, too.  Everyone else made it, though, even Mom!

It was a couple of minutes through the dark and drizzly tunnel until we reached our first stop which was lit.  Rosalie had begun to have second thoughts about this venture, too, but once she was able to hop out and look around, she was happy.

 

Once we got in, a former miner now on a breathing apparatus showed us around.  He turned on some of the really noisy mining equipment which was neat, but too much for Charlotte and Rosalie. Interesting things I learned:

1. In "Oh, Susanna" the line about the banjo on his knee was referring to his shovel.  The shovel that is shaped like a shield is a "banjo" and the square shovel is a "muck stick."

2. Miners get their lunches in a pie can which was made to hold there water on the bottom and there pasties on top.  The tin miners from Cornwall brought this idea over. Their wives would make them shepherds pie - with one corner reserved for fruit for dessert - and they would need a container that was the right shape to keep it from getting crushed. Miners still use these tins for their lunches.

3. Dynamite is the same consistency as sawdust and you tamp it to make it expand in the hole.

4. Tommyknockers are little people in the mine who are either good or bad.  The good ones will knock on timber to warn you that danger is coming. The bad ones will blow out your light.  And here I thought it was just a horror movie which I will never watch. The guide had Charlotte and Rosalie look for the tommyknockers at the end of the tour, and pointed his light up at a crevice where they had hidden some little garden gnomes.

That's Rosalie hiding on the way back out.

After the mine tour, we headed back through town with the thought that we would drive up to Velocity Basin and see some of the vistas.  Unfortunately, a lightning storm hit so we figured the better bet was to head home.  We had finished our audiobook, Flora & Ulysses, so popped on The Great Brain.

By the time we got home it was nearly bedtime, so we heated some leftover spaghetti and sent the kids up to bed.  It had been a long and strenuous drive, so Zach shared some of his honey bourbon he'd purchased in Honeyville. Pretty gross, but it did the trick.