"de train! Boss, de train!"

Well lame as that title may be- this was our train day and it was also a day with rain... (so far it had stayed mainly on the plain in Spain I guess because this is the first actually rainy day...) but we buck up and start our day with breakfast at one of the only two (according to them) free standing Howard Johnson's in the USA...

then we headed over to the train station and found two pieces of relevant information- 1. the first train leaves at 10 AM and has a 90 minute layover before returning from Saranac Lake (OK) and 2. today's train is the Clown train!!!!! (AAACCCKKKK - soooo NOT OK- I hate clowns I think they are creepy) However the clown is in only in the club car (yea!)

Since we arrived at the station more than an hour before departure we decided to get TB some coffee (Starbuck's located at the Courtyard right up the hill) and returned for the train photo session in plenty of time before departure-

 

 

 

 

you can see our day was not lovely in terms of weather and by the time we arrived in Saranac Lake it was raining steadily and fairly heavily- making for a less than marvelous layover...but nevertheless- a very interesting one- as you will read later-

 

FYI- Alice Minor (of Chazy fame) invented this coupling and made a fortune -

 

 Penelope the clown's lair - the dining car

our domain- the open air car- damp but with open viewing and not too many of the children who might be attracted to the clown train....

things we spotted along the way-

flooding behind the beaver dam-

the dam itself!

you get a good view of the signal from the open air car!

the depot in Saranac Lake-

apparently on Wednesdays the train is robbed by CATS!

 

the train engine goes around and re couples with the four passenger cars-

the return journey- details about Saranac Lake and the museum follow in the next post-  on the Cure and more...

more to follow-