Of course, after the gift of a giant pink paper mache flamingo the day could not help but go downhill. After all, how could things have gotten any better? However, given how things DID eventually go - well, they could have been a whole lot worse.

Rob & Theresa, The Hub and I had decided to ride the Western Maryland Scenic Rail Road from Cumberland, where I still have family, to Frostburg and back. It's one of those sort of "train nut" excusions, old fashioned cars being pulled by a restored steam locomotive from the glory days of American rail roading.

It seems like, no matter where I am in life, there is always a train running through it.....

and I have enough distant family who worked - and died - on rail roads that the train is not "romantic" to me. Rather the opposite, I think, though I am by no means down on rail travel. It was my favorite way to get back and forth between Maryland and Massachusetts when I lived up there. The Hub is kind of a "train nut", and he and Theresa were very keen to take photographs. Also, this time of year should have been very scenic.

Rob and Theresa were politely interested, too, to see what I call my family's "homeplace": the house where my great grandfather was born and where he died, the surrounding farm, the land that was sold to the cemetary and all of that: the rail line runs right through it. Indeed Cumberland itself is a charming town if you don't have to live there during one of its frequent economic downturns. It's kind of like a lot of American towns: down but not out.

So. We started off early in the day because it takes about 2 hours to drive up there (not the 3 and half it used to before Rt.68 went in, nor the 6 to 8 hours it used to take when my father first moved away from his home to this area. Back then, the route was The National Highway, Rt. 40)

I had to work on Thursday since my boss is still in the U.K. Thus I didn't get my normal "crash day" and kept falling asleep in the car on the way up.

No sooner did we enter the station than I got a bad feeling. I'd never been there before but it looked very much like a place from a nightmare I once had. It was a weird combination of modern and restored Victorian and strictly made up. Since I have such vivid dreams, stuff like this happens to me a lot, but nevertheless, I was quite content to stand out on the platform and would have been yet more content to leave, on the way back, without passing through the "restored" station ( Hey "Joe Cash" Did somebody die there or something?)

It was raining quite hard and there was a lot of mist. There often is at the higher elevations there in Western Maryland. That had a sort of "time out of mind" charm about it. The Hub and Theresa got some very good photographs, one of which Theresa is entering in a competition. I was of a mind to enjoy the atmosphere as provided and tried to suppliment the tour guide's chatter with the local history I was aware of. ("I heard that same story about lovers leap" I remarked as we went through The Narrows "Dad told it to us when he was filling up the big green plymouth for the ride home, down in that gas station. I asked him if the gas station was haunted. He asked me if I was out of my mind.")

We hadn't bought tickets for the dining car, so we were looking forward to getting something to eat in Frostburg. People were moving about the train, in the observation car or getting snacks from the on-board canteen. "The grade as we'll get to Frostburg is quite steep" I remarked, remembering talk about it.

"I worked with a girl who learned to Drink at Frostburg State." Theresa said, "she could drink grown men under the table."

"Yep. Not much to do in Frostburg." I said. As if on cue the train began to slow down as it tried to make the grade and finally it was barely moving. Presently it stopped. And it stayed stopped.

We heard the noise of the brakes - a sound like chain being let out (how did I know that? Genetic memory?) and we began to get nervous. The tour guide said they were going to try to clear the tracks of wet leaves. We were only about a mile from Frostburg, but we were on about a 20% grade. If those brakes failed it was going to be ugly.

However that didn't seem likely and we made jokes ("think forward thoughts") and wiped the condensation off the windows. But we stayed in our seats and it was a good thing we did.

All of the sudden CRASH! There was a collision. The car rocked. "Whoa!" said Rob. Kids burst into tears. We were all okay, but anyone who had been standing up would have been thrown to the floor and anything on a table would have been thrown off. Somebody's sippy cup wound up halfway accross the car.

The P.A. system stopped working, but when we finally got the Frostburg in the pouring rain, we found out the uncoupled locomotive had somehow slid back into the rest of the train. And there was one ambulance waiting; more were on the way.

The ride back, after a sort of dreary lunch, was very subdued. The conducter came around with sheets and sheets of paper asking anyone who thought they might have been injured to put their name on the list. None of us did, and the conductor said that our car was the one on which the fewest people had injuries. I felt that we were really lucky.

Oh well. At least the photographers of the group got some good pictures. And there are no bad ays....just good material.