By Rail Across the Country

Our first train pulls into the station in Albuquerque, ready for us to climb aboard. We were so excited!

A week or so ago I took a little break from blogging, ostensibly  to work on some fiber projects. While I was knitting, Beez and I took a train trip across the country. We had many adventures: We visited America's most beloved ballpark, we ate (always with the eating, I know, I know!) at America's "oldest restaurant in continuous service," we met up with friends and family, and we met people from all over the U.S.--we even dined (eating again!) on the train with a couple from Australia.

At our destination, we stayed in a historic and elegant hotel ("one of the five greenest luxury hotels" in America). If you know us at all, you will notice that the luxury hotel part is very out of character. We are way more Motel Six kind of people, because we often travel with our dogs and we have to choose places where we are all welcome. However, this trip was in celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary and that called for something special. My good husband, Beez, put the whole thing together and I am still thanking him for planning such an amazing and special trip, where the journey was as much fun as the destination. 

Our sweet Auntie Bucksnort stayed home with our animals and hers all mashed up into one great big dog/cat/chicken pack-flock. We couldn't have done it without her! Here is one of her emails to us while we were gadding about:

This is a full time job with all these digestive systems churning away. There's always something going in one end and coming out the other, every minute of the day. It's like a factory around here. Cody is still being a great big little piglet. He never touches his special dry food. Skimpy spent the night outside last night. I couldn't find her anywhere. She finally showed up this morning. Chickens are fat and happy, getting lots of scraps and scratch. Petey is everyone's favorite toy, he just rolls around on his back waving his arms in the air while the wild bunch snarls and puts his head in one mouth or another and fights over their squiggly little toy. He just lies there grinning. The mosquitoes are REALLY really really bad, inside and out. I have to put on repellant before I go to sleep! And that's the news from Lake Poop-Be-Gone.

In the next few days, I'll share the details of the trip with you. Just think, it will be like watching some friend's never-ending vacation slideshow, only you can opt out with the click of a button.