Railroads are tremendous gift

It was the first night of spring break. There they sat, Mikayla and her Dada (a name for a grandpa) watching the Channel 3 TV special on scenic railroads. What a way to transition from winter into spring!

Plans for warmer weather began to form in my mind. I have been fortunate enough to ride on two scenic railroads, the Pike's Peak cog railroad in 2001 and the Cumbres Toltec railroad in the late 1980s. I have been able to be around, and see, other such wonders in action.

I never knew until we watched this show, though I have been to the Grand Canyon, that a scenic railroad runs through that amazing place. Perhaps I knew this at the time we visited, but we were more preoccupied realizing that we were not going to be able to ride the canyon mules on short notice, as there is usually a waiting list of about a month.

This column, however, is not primarily focused on the Grand Canyon, but on the fantastic gift of steam and otherwise historic railroads, and in a broader sense, warm weather activities. During an earlier time in my life, I had a home where I could set up a large board with a model railroad on it; I still have all of the pieces but they don't generally emerge at the same time due to space constrictions.

Being a railroad fan, either in small scale or riding full-sized ones, takes far more expendable income than we have, but the show put the bug in my mind to imagine warmer weather activities, since we may as well close the door on snow for this winter. Some of these activities, of course, will not cost nearly as much as traveling the country seeking our historical steam trains.

For example, there is the possibility of white water rafting. How old does one have to be to ride the river? Mikayla will be 9 this summer, while Jason turns 13. Maybe they will be old enough to go white water rafting on the Rio Grande, one of the coolest rides I have ever taken on water.

Another amazing and relatively reasonable activity which we can enjoy, perhaps, as weather warms, is horseback riding. I will certainly never forget the time we went horseback through the mountains outside Ruidoso, for we saw a baby bear crossing the path a relatively few yards in front of us. Come to think of it, we had a penchant that summer for seeing bears near Ruidoso.

Amazingly, the railroad show opened up my imagination to begin thinking in different directions, taking me to places as varied as those explored by steam trains.

Clyde Davis is a Presbyterian pastor and teacher at Clovis Christian High School. He can be contacted at:

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