Hero of the Rails Tour... yeah right!

We took the girls to meet Thomas the Tank Engine on his Hero of the Rails tour in St. Thomas. What a horrible day! Two and a half hour drive to get there during which Lily's DVD player mysteriously stopped working so she was screaming and trying to get out of her car seat for the last 40 minutes of the trip. The tickets and the website had two different addresses for the event. The last one I looked at was the website so we put that address in the GPS... it was wrong. Jason was, in a word, mad.

When we finally got there, there wasn't enough parking so we were directed to park in the middle of a field.... ever try pushing a double stroller loaded down with 2 kids and all their gear through a wet field? NOT fun. Once we got inside the place was a zoo. It was loud, kids were running all over the place, and they were selling these train whistles that look like Thomas and almost every kid had one and was blowing on it non-stop.

There were a lot of volunteers but most of them were useless. We poked around in some of the exhibits letting Lily lead the way. Then we decided to grab some lunch before our scheduled ride on Thomas. We had just got our food when it was announced our trip was boarding, great, a whole 5 minutes notice. So we packed up the kids quickly and booted it to the other side of the park feeding Lily chicken strips and french fries along the way. We lined up and waited to board. Finally a lady in line said to her grandson "I Hope Grandpa makes it in time for the picture" so I asked her if this was the line to board Thomas and she said "Oh no, this is just for a picture with him, you have to go that way." and she pointed all the way down the train. Ahh! So we grab Lily's Hand and drag her running down the length of the train to almost the very end where they've already pulled the steps away.

We scream to wait and they look at our tickets and ask if we're with someone with a wheelchair, we say no, so they say we have to go down even further to get on. COME ON! So again we run dragging Lily and Emily and finally get on. We're at the very back of the train, whatever. We couldn't sit together cause there weren't any seats let together so Lily and Jason take the only seat with a window (they were on the aisle though) and I sat at the very back with Emily cause what do I care?

The trip starts and it's slow and the scenery is less than exciting, people's backyards and dirty industrial properties. And then the whistle blows, but it was more like an airhorn and it was right outside the rear of the train. It's sooooo freaking loud I go deaf for a minute and Emily starts screaming her little head off. They blow the damn thing twice more and now Emily is inconsolable. Lily is squirming on Jason's lap and wants to run in the aisle of the train.

The train goes down the track for about 10 minutes and then stops, and then goes back. No turns, just backwards. More airhorns, more screaming. The conductor comes by and says "I've told them not to put babies back here." Nice.

We get back, get off the train and decide screw it, we're going home.

$60 some dollars totally wasted. Never again!

(I only took 1 picture cause I thought I had forgotten my camera at home and only found it after we got off Thomas and were headed to the car... not that I really want to remember this trip anyways!)