After our long drive through spectacular scenery yesterday, we chose to stay a bit closer to camp today. But, as we were performing our morning ritual of coffee and breakfast, our long-suffering coffee maker gasped its last and refused to function. Two years of servitude at our house and then three plus years on the road with us and the old Black & Decker crapped out. They just don’t make a good $19 coffee maker anymore.
We were able to overcome the temporary inconvenience but by afternoon, we were on the way to the Centralia Outlets to find a store called Kitchen Wossname and we now possess a $25 Mr. Coffee in white. Peggy also coerced me into going to a DXL store where garments for tall, lardass types can be found. Peggy’s intent was to find some cotton shorts for me but found only a few T-shirts for her uncooperative and recalcitrant husband. Tragic, eh?
Our timing was good because, after the dreadful clothes shopping, we wandered over to the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad and Museum and purchased tickets for a ride on the old steam locomotive powered tourist train. We settled into some seats on the outward-facing wooden benches installed in a long hopper car for the ride to our destination, the whereabouts of which were a bit hazy.
The ride, which costs $17 a head, is a slow trip through some beautiful agricultural land with views that are not available from any road. The tracks pass through heavily wooded corridors of forest and pasture alongside the Chehalis River which, strangely, flows east. It must dump into the Cowlitz before making its way south to the Columbia and the Pacific. I am remarkably ignorant about the local area geography despite spending ample time in this locale.
Our engineer for the trip was a fervent steam whistle blower and it is plainly evident why after hearing it. It was not only terrifyingly loud but also shot out an amazingly impressive cloud of steam which would blast leaves off the branches of the overhanging shade trees. I am sure everyone in the county was aware the train was moving.
Our 5:00 PM train was also a dinner train and, if you paid $50 for the ride, you could have a fancy crystal and white linen dinner served to you in the attached dining car. We did not choose that option so I can’t comment on the food. I took a train ride from San Diego to Eugene, Oregon, a few years ago and I can say for a fact that Amtrak’s food is terrible. The dining car on today’s train was full so I guess the food must be better.
After a couple hours we rolled back into the station in Chehalis and took the 30 mile ride back home to Paradise. The smoke from the fires that have plagued us for the last two weeks is clearing and both Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens were clearly visible. They are very substantial and absolutely gorgeous.
There’s pix. Click here