Wednesday Night Adventures

So last Wednesday was the Ward Fall Festival and Trunk-or-Treat. We were all excited to go and S was sooo cute in her little costume. Here she is as a little Dutch girl. No, I didn't make it. I borrowed it from a friend who also gave us an Indian dress which S will wear on Monday to the neighborhood party.


So we're all ready to go, and we pile everyone in the car, head out of the neighborhood, and there looming in front of us is the giant hulk of a train just sitting on the tracks blocking the only way in or out of our neighborhood. Needless to say we weren't too happy. S wanted to go to the party and M was antsy because we weren't moving and he was hungry, which made Mom antsy, which made Dad antsy. So we waited a few minutes and nothing was happening. I was considering just going home and worrying about what on earth I was going to tell S (especially since she was all dressed up and we just forced her to finish her dinner so she could go to the stupid party). N started wondering if he could off-road down this dirt path and get around the train. We knew that eventually that long, dusty expanse was eventually (years maybe?) going to connect to a neighboring road but there was no pretense at preparing it for paving as of yet. Well, I didn't know about this but I did want to get to church. Then a car in front of us pulled out of line and started going down the dirt way. N watched and kept saying, "He's still going....he's still going.... Alright, I'm doing it!" Well, it was quite a bumpy ride but N was right - it connected to the canyon road. When we got to the tracks on that road we could see the end of the train not 50 feet away. That was a close one! N would have been irrate if the train had blocked two roads. So we went to the party, S got candy, and we came home... to find the train still blocking the road!!!!! It had been over two hours at least! There were cars everywhere waiting to get in. So, N being so noble and chivalrous, he ran up and down telling everyone to follow him through the secret entrance to Madera Highlands while I sat in the car with two screaming children. So, N ran back, everyone turned around, and N became the Pied Piper of Madera Highlands! N only lost the path twice on the way back, putting us in sandy washes, but luckily we never get stuck. But I'm sure the truck following us was laughing at the idiot who couldn't drive. But we made it. Yea! And so did all of our neighbors. Stupid train.