Rail Fest

I never thought I would say that we would take a family vacation to North Platte, Nebraska. We discovered that North Platte has an event called Rail Fest.It's a weekend all about trains, the things you do for your kids. So we made a mini family vacation out of it. We took off Friday from work to pick up Papa in Sterling and make our way to North Platte. We got there late afternoon, in time to visit the Golden Spike.

The Golden Spike is a tower that over looks the Bailey train yard. Trains as far as the eye could see.

Cooper and Papa enjoying the view.

Look at all those trains in the round house.

The size of the trains were just amazing. Cooper was walking on the rails under the train. I learned a new word to describe my son, ferroequinologist, someone who is crazy about trains.

Enjoying the pool before bed time.

That evening I learned of a Meyer family tradition, Fort Cody. The Meyers would always stop at Fort Cody in North Platte on their way to visit family back in Missouri. Jake and Zach would always leave with some sort of "new" (tourist trap) toy. So we had to carry on the tradition and take Cooper to visit Fort Cody first thing the next day.

Leave it to Cooper to find a train at Fort Cody.

Jake says it brought back memories just stepping into the store. He says the store looks just the same some 20 years later. Of course Cooper left with a "new" toy.

So Friday was perfect weather, in the 80s. Guess what the weather was like on Saturday.................in the low 40s. It was a good thing we checked the weather before the trip and packed rain gear. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, at least there was stuff inside so we could dry off and get warm. The rain held to just a drizzle all day, so we were able to see all the trains.

We hit the mini train show first. Cooper loves watching the trains come out of the tunnels.

The perfect spot to see all the action.

We then made our way to the train rides. I think our total round trips on the train was about 5 times.

Bailey Yard is only open to the public during Rail Fest weekend, so we took full advantage and took a bus tour of the yard. Cooper loved touching the trains and seeing them up close.

Cooper having the time of his life.

The bus tour took us around the 8 mile yard, we were able to see tracks and trains being worked on. Cooper loved it so much that he made a song of it. He would sing about everything he saw, mainly trains going down tracks. It was a good thing we were in the back of the bus so he didn't interrupt the tour guide talking.

I believe this was Cooper's highlight of the whole trip, a real train and knobs that moved. He loved sitting in the engine and moving everything. He even got the whistle to blow.

The little girl in the background showed him how to use the radio. They played for a good half hour, they were convinced that they could get the train to move if they pulled the break and pushed just the right buttons. They tried everything and left disappointed that the train was still in the same spot.

There is Cooper up in the window working as hard as he can to get the engine to move.

The Meyer boys.

This was a great family trip and who knows we may come back next year if Cooper is still into trains and the weather is just a little nicer.

Cooper singing his song about what he saw on the bus tour.