James and I had a great New Year's Weekend. As I mentioned in a previous post, we went down to Palestine, TX for dinner aboard the Texas State Railroad on Saturday the 30th. It was a lot of fun even though we brought down the average age by quite a bit and increased the average alcohol consumption. We were allowed one bottle of wine per person (naturally we took two bottles) and it turned out we were paired with a couple from Katy who does not partake in beverages of that sort. We were able to wander the train after dinner and they had some open air cars where everyone was sticking their heads out the windows (much like dogs in cars). It was cold but a lot of fun. Our ride went about a third of the way to Rusk to a Y in the rail where the engine detached from the train and backed up the Y then came down the other side of the Y and hooked on to the other end of the train to take us back. The engine pulling the train was an old steam engine and you could see the fire glowing below as it passed us along the Y. We made it back to the depot around 10:00 so we headed back to our hotel. BUT ... the hotel next to ours had a bar that seemed to be pretty popular judging by the number of trucks in the lot so we walked down the hill to check it out. We actually had to show our ID and get our hands stamped and pay a cover to get into this place and it was a total dive. On one side, there was a live (country) band with people two steppin' on the dance floor and around the other side was full of TVs and pool tables. We were still dressed up from our dinner so we were really out of place, James in a sport coat and me in a sparkly top and strappy shoes, but we loved it. I think that's the first time in several months we've actually been in a bar when 'last call' was announced. We finally stumbled home at 1 am ready to come back for the New Year's Eve party they were having the next night. Live band! Champagne toast! Balloon drop! And all for $20 per person. The next morning we thought better of it and checked out of our hotel after ransacking the breakfast buffet!
So the next day, New Year's Eve, we decided to ride the train again in the daylight so we could see where we had been. Yes, we rode the same train twice in two days. Yes, we're dorks. It was a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a better way to spend it. The train took us all the way to Rusk where we had an hour and a half for a picnic lunch then took us back to Palestine. We left Palestine to head home around 4:00 Sunday afternoon and it's about a three hour drive so we celebrated New Year's Eve with a wonderful dinner at Dairy Queen on the outskirts of Dallas and were asleep by midnight.
James took the whole week off after New Year's to get some projects done around the house but he got sick (a cold) on Wednesday after we finished the attic so most of the time after that was spent watching Season 5 of "24". We have only one disc left and we're just waiting for Netflix to send it to us!! I'm sure we'll see the end before the new episodes next weekend! I can't wait!!
I hope 2007 has started off with nothing but happiness for everyone!
1 comment:
That sounds like so much fun! I am glad you had a good NY weekend and a productive week following it! You aren't dorks, we are planning on taking a train ride or two ourselves while we are here. There are some really neat ones that we are looking into. Trains are cool! ;-) hee hee
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