General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSomething I stopped doing returns for today at least
Because some people have nothing better to do than make fun of my family, I stopped posting personal items a little while ago. Today is a small exception. When I was a young I loved trains. I never outgrew it. I used to ride the Peony Park and Omaha Zoo streamliners.
The old Omaha Zoo train looked a lot like this 50 years ago.
The Peony Park train in 1958.
My granddaughter Madison and I today on the Missouri Valley Watson Station streamliner. http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/92521784.html
My father's Day present.
The train:
The steam engine only runs for special events and summer holidays.
We hope to take Madison to Des Moines to ride an actual MTC train like I rode in my youth pictured below.
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Awesome pics! You have a darling grand-daughter! Looks like the weather was perfect for you!
Julie
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)Thanks for sharing!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,843 posts)Aw, those are great pictures! And I love the video......really cute! I always loved riding those little trains.
I think it's a shame that some people make fun of your family. I mean, really. Some people have no hearts.
Thanks for sharing these today.
Happy Father's Day, Steve!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Some people have no life. Great pics Steve- I wish I could take my grandson on that, and don't care what anyone thinks.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)photo montage is great and summoned up many pleasant memories of my own boyhood riding various zoo trains (the one I remember most is the one at the Saint Louis Zoo).
malaise
(269,365 posts)I too love trains. I want to take Amtrak across America but hubby hates trains.
Siwsan
(26,336 posts)And traveled all around the UK by train. By far the best way to travel, if you've got the time. People who take the train are usually much more relaxed personalities. I've loved each and every journey.
malaise
(269,365 posts)but I had a cousin and a sister with me.
Mojorabbit
(16,020 posts)malaise
(269,365 posts)One of these days I'll find a sibling with some time
a kennedy
(29,793 posts)ditto to HAPPY FATHER'S DAY.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)But is she running a spoof website on you behind your back?
Your stalkers may cut you some slack on this one. It's kinda hard to mock a pic of guy taking his granddaughter on a fun outing without appearing like a total jerk.
In any case, the reaction that gets my vote is Madison's.
Happy Father's Day, Steve!
siligut
(12,272 posts)Thank you for sharing the pictures.
handmade34
(22,759 posts)love your photos...
will share my day since the train reminds me... I took my Dad for a real train ride and took him to D.C. to visit the War Memorials (WWII vet and he had never seen them) A good time was had by all!!!!
Omaha Steve
(99,896 posts)zappaman
(20,606 posts)demtenjeep
(31,997 posts)hope you have enjoyed your day!
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)but the train was so much more fun.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)technically a zoo in omaha. been there 3 times. 4 if one counts the fact we did a 2 day visit always wear socks!!! ouch..... no matter how bloody hot it is. Minnesota Zoo is more like a nature reserve...than a zoo, although after the rain, almost had a prairie dog jump in my lap . sneaky.. they still have a train at the zoo though... minus the prairie dogs who escaped their confines in omaha. near the tracks just outside the bird aviary. hey those are supposed to be there.. Usually go when it's cooler and it's way too hot in the dome
keep trying to get my whole family to go there. (for 6 years now) eh. new memories I suppose. they are stuck on old ones.. go to council bluffs ia and terry brandstad is pretty much kicking the tourism out of the state.
Omaha Steve
(99,896 posts)1963
Margaret Hitchcock Doorly donated $750,000 to the Zoo with the stipulation that the Zoo be named after her late husband, Henry Doorly, chairman of the World Publishing Company.
They dumped the old train for this: 1968
With help from Union Pacific, 2 1/2 miles of track was laid through the Zoo. Omahas Zoo Railroad made its inaugural run in July. Eppley Pachyderm Hill was opened in November on the old baseball diamond site.
I forgot to mention that Kiddie Land in Carter Lake Park had a train ride when I was very little too.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120530/NEWS01/120539957
Henry Doorly named top U.S. zoo
Published Thursday May 31, 2012
By Carol Bicak
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium has won a popularity contest.
Reviews by visitors to TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website, have earned the Omaha attraction a No. 1 ranking. The website announced its list of the top 10 zoos in the country Wednesday.
Dennis Pate, CEO and director of the zoo, said he was a little surprised by Wednesday's news but feels the zoo employees deserve it.
It's so nice because the whole staff has worked so hard to keep the zoo at its best, and then this comes out of the blue, he said.
FULL story at link.
http://www.omahazoo.com/
japple
(9,850 posts)those who made fun of your pictures/posts: Sorry your life is so empty and devoid of love and kindness.
tawadi
(2,110 posts)Looks like everybody had a great time.
cordelia
(2,174 posts)Hope you and yours had a great day.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)But felt like a kid with the 1st toot as it took off!
Memories too
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)men never really grow up.
Woody Woodpecker
(562 posts)Fun place to visit and ride their trains too!
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)And so does my grandson. When I go to visit him, I go by train. He and his mother come to meet me. He just cannot take his eyes off the train, the enormous wheels, the size of it, the noise of it. He rides the train in his local zoo -- not much of a train.
One of these days, I am going take my grandson on a real train ride.
It's so great to travel by train. I take a good book and a few sandwiches. It's a few hours away from all the electronic noise in life.
(Although if you wish, you can take your electronic gear and go on-line as you travel. It's just not my choice.)
Love to you and your family. If people ridicule you, it's because they are envious -- jealousy, that's all it is.
oldhippydude
(2,514 posts)got a set of f-3 just like that big yellow one... keep posting don't loose your thought of trains just win!!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Looks like fun. Screw the haters.
Beartracks
(12,845 posts)Is she singing?
====================
nolabear
(42,009 posts)The "engineer" was an old vaudevillian who absolutely played things up, sometimes for better, sometimes not (swear to God he taught the bears to dance for treats, which was NOT in keeping with the "respect for wild animals" tenor of the place). But now and then when no one was around we'd just take a lovely, leisurely ride through the sanctuary, enjoying the day and the train. It was really nice.
I'm sorry people have been disrespectful to your family. It diminishes us all when people can't feel safe to tell their wonderful stories.
Your granddaughter is a beauty, btw.
hue
(4,949 posts)allan01
(1,950 posts)Train nut here . Have been ever since i was 2 years old. Volunteered for a train museum near here . Railtown 1897, many years ago. Dont do it any more. Also rode Amtrak since inception .(2 years ago was my last trip for a while ) Rode the old n de m in Mexico. Live in a 620 square foot apartment and have a small layout w all the popular guages. Ignore the a$$hats. You and your grandaughter look like u are haveing a ball Happy fathers day.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Happy fathers day.
Rhiannon12866
(207,016 posts)When I was in school, I worked summers at an amusement park, just north of here in Lake George, NY. For four years I drove the train that went through the jungle, LOL. It was purple and I loved that train (actually there were two and we ran them both on busy days), kept it polished and shiny, waxed the curves of the track first thing in the morning so it wouldn't squeal on the curves, and took great pride in being able to get it back to the station, no matter what happened with the engine. I was told that it was bought used in 1952, and the train and I made the local papers when it turned over 100,000 miles (though it had probably done so more than once).
Here's the only online pix I could find of it, obviously taken well before my time. It was purple and white.
great white snark
(2,646 posts)Very, very cool Omaha Steve.
Omaha Steve
(99,896 posts)We had lunch at the pizza ranch. Gurney's is the big eating attraction, but wasn't open yet: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gurneys-Lounge/273975699850
The water park is in sight of the train depot. The park is just across the street. We didn't know to take swim suits or tanning lotion.
We have a smaller version lawn dragon than the one Madison is taming here.
FSogol
(45,599 posts)The kids always loved it as did I when I was little. The best ride is around Halloween when they put on a "haunted" forest ride. Great fun.
From the park's website:
"For 38 years, the first miniature Central Pacific Huntington steam engine chugged over the tracks at Burke Lake Park, carrying kids who grew up and returned to bring their own children back for a ride on this community landmark.
In 2005, the little engine that could was retired, and now a new version of the one-third-scale replica C.P.Huntington is making the rounds.
The new locomotive looks the same but technology has made advances in the design of miniature trains. This model gets diagnostic tests performed by laptop computer, it boasts an automatic sander, it's quieter and the improved gas mileage is a driver's dream - 26 runs, almost continuously throughout the day, on just four gallons of gas.
The ride over 1.75 miles of track takes 10 minutes and reaches speeds of 10 to 12 miles per hour. And after the chug-along, there's more old fashioned fun to sample - a spin on the carousel, a hand-dipped cone at the Ice Cream Parlor and a walk on the park trail rated one of the 10 best urban fitness trails in the nation by the American Hiking Society. "
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Fla Dem
(23,905 posts)anyone who makes fun of another DUer's family does not deserve the priviledge of being a DU member. Bear them no mind.