Train Tracks And Wild Flowers

Last week I was in an area of Tucson looking for a business that wasn’t what I thought it was. I noticed that we were really close to the train tracks and on a whim I said, “Let’s put pennies on the tracks!”. CJ was thrilled and Kaity was sure I was breaking the law or was going to get us all killed. I knew a train would be by soon for a few reasons. I saw one way off in the distance, and, there are always trains coming and going so we wouldn’t have a long wait. I parked the van in an empty lot as close to the rails as I could, gathered all my eight pennies, and persuaded Kaity we’d be fine as I hiked with the CJ the rest of the way to where the tracks were. There were two sets of tracks so we put four pennies on each set, marked where we put them then headed back to the van to watch and wait. Eventually, the train I originally saw slowly made it’s way to the crossing then stopped. Some men got out and were looking at or doing something to the train so we just waited. Five or ten minutes later, a train from the other direction zoomed by (the noise is shocking) and we were thrilled! As soon as it was gone we hopped out with camera in tow and scrambled up to see what was left of our pennies. We found two of the four within a foot of where we’d left them. As we began walking back to the van, the stopped train turned it’s lights on so I waved and they blew the whistle, twice! When we were back at the van, they whizzed by and waved! We waved back, waited until they were gone, then ran back up to retrieve our remaining coins. This time we found three of our four. CJ kept saying “This is the best day ever!”. I loved his excitement! We were definitely having a blast!

So you will notice in the above picture that there is a piece of pottery in CJ’s hand. That is because as we were leaving CJ found this awesome piece of Indian pottery near the tracks on our way back to the car. I was so excited!

What a treasure!

Today (February 21, 2012) I surprised the kids with a trip into the monument to look at the wildflowers. I have been wanting to stop for a week or so and knew if we didn’t do it soon, they’d be gone.