Back in October, Dwight and I took a 3 day trip to North Carolina. While we were there, we visited the historic Biltmore Estate. The tour, at one point, led to a huge room in the basement, filled with old pictures. The pictures marked the construction progress of the massive home. There were photos of a railway and cars that must have wound through the Blue Ridge Mountains, right up to what became Mr. Vanderbilt’s front door. What was so amazing was that the mansion actually dwarfed the train!
We currently have a similiar situation in our own living room. Sam’s train tracks are looped creatively past the fireplace, through the mountains of clean laundry, and under the coffee table. His main goal, throughout the construction process, was to build a track through the entire room. Josh was consulted for engineering expertise.
Woody, the cowboy is roping cattle with the help of his team of horses and John Deere tractors at the extreme north end of the landscape. From there; Thomas, Gordon, and Salty chug south, looping through the Clean Laundry Mountains, past Tigger and Winnie the Pooh. Once the train passes the bee farm it heads north, right through a prehistoric dinosaur habitat. These dinosaurs are only slightly bigger than the train cars themselves, and specks compared to Winnie and Tigger. After passing the dinosaurs, the tracks wind under the coffee table and back to Woody and the cows.
Sam put a lot of time into this project and would like to see it stay right smack dab in the middle of the room, whether he’s playing with it or not. If Dwight has his way, this will not happen. Last night, in the middle of baking, packaging, and getting ready for the girls Christmas program, Dwight passed by the living room and noticed Sam’s masterpiece. “Samuel, get down here and pick up this mess!” “What?”, was all Sam could think to say. “Everything, the legos and everything!” came his father’s reply. “Yegos! there aren’t any yegos!”he muttered indignantly.
It’s 9am and the trains are still running through Clean Laundry Mountain…
