Turning Stalled Trains Into Lemonade

This past Wednesday evening as I was taking one of Christine’s little friends home from church, we got stopped by a train on the track. This is one of the hazards of living in Harrodsburg; we are surrounded by train tracks. We only had about two more miles to go, but we were stuck. Because of the location of the tracks, there was no easy way to get where we were going.

We were stuck in the middle of the road out in the boonies, waiting on a train to clear the track—not to mention the fact we were right next to a hog farm and believe me, the smell was pure country. The band, Simple Plan, was blaring from my CD player and the girls decided to get out of the car and dance. The girls were having a ball. They were racing each other to the train track and then racing back. At one point they actually reached out and touched the still train.

On a whim, I got out of the car to dance, which caused the girls to become hysterical with laughter as they pointed and sniggered in my direction. By this time we had already been waiting 20 minutes and the train was still making no signs of movement. Christine and I decided to make a bet on which way the train would go when it finally started—east or west. Christine bet me one of her guitar picks that the train would head east. I bet her a blizzard from Diary Queen that it would head west.

As it got darker outside, the girls climbed back into the car and started playing hangman. They were playing it orally instead of writing the letters down; I just don’t know how they do that. It is hard for me to understand a word if it is spelled out loud—I have to see it written down.

After 45 minutes of waiting on the train, we were all starting to get bored and my patience was running thin. Then we saw car lights coming up behind us—I put on my emergency flashers because I didn’t want the car to run up on us. As it turned out, the car was my husband—he had gotten worried because Christine as I weren’t home yet and he had come looking for us. How sweet is that? I guess it’s my fault for not carrying a cell phone, but my life runs more smoothly with the least technology I am involved with..

Almost exactly one hour from the time we reached the train track, we got our first positive signs the train was ready to move. We could hear the engine rumble to life down the track as the cars started to vibrate. With a slow jerk of power, the train cars slowly began to move—headed east. I won the bet, so Christine said I could choose which guitar pick I wanted—as long as it wasn’t one of her autographed ones. I decided to let her make the decision.

After driving less than two miles across the tracks, we dropped the friend off at her house and we were finally headed home. I was getting tired and it was getting late. Christine headed to the shower and I plopped down in my chair.

All in all, our little train delay turned into a great bonding experience for me and my daughter. We both got to act silly and it was fun laughing at each other. So the next time life hands you lemons, just smile, do a little dance and think of all the lemonade you can make. Sometimes interruptions in our normal routine are blessings in disguise, so learn to make the most of what life has to offer.