A Day at Tweetsie Railroad ~ Part I

With one little boy who just adores anything relating to trains and one little man who loves pretending he is a cowboy or any other hero of his fancy, a trip to this fun little theme park set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is a must.  We are lucky that it is located a relatively short two hour drive from our home and is a really easy drive too.  Tweetsie Railroad has been around a long time, and Eddie and I both remember going as children.  Eddie remembers going when he was about 4 years old before his sister was born, and he remembers wearing his cowboy hat too.  Tweetsie boast two old, refurbished steam locomotives that take you on a wonderful wild west train adventure around the mountain.  It also has the look and feel of an old western mining town with lots of rides suitable for young kids.  Our kids probably enjoyed the chairlift up the mountain the best of any rides.  The pictures show how much fun we all had living our little wild west adventure!

We got an early start and stopped at Chick-fil-a for breakfast.  We didn't realize until we got inside that there was a big group of kids on some kind of field trip waiting in line.  The line moved pretty fast, but the boys took advantage of the time by playing in the play place.  

Brody likes these play places that he can easily climb in.  

Smiling down at me.

This one had a cute little toddler area.

They both liked this board that talked. 

Silly boys.

Down the slide to go eat breakfast.

Little brother wasn't far behind.

After a short two hour drive through some beautiful country, we arrived!

This little cowboy could not wait for his train ride.

And this one wanted to meet some real cowboys.

First, they tried driving a horse drawn wagon.

And riding horses.

Evan was a pro.

They even rode together.

Oops, they must have been doing something bad.

Our ride is here!

Complete with a cowboy escort.

All aboard!

Daddy and Cowboy Evan are ready to ride.

And Cowboy Evan is ready to shoot.

My Brave Brody will protect me from the bandits.

They switched hats because Brody's head is bigger than Evan's.  Haha!

Handsome cowboy

Sometimes Evan plays the part of the bandit.

Beautiful

The cowboys are hanging out by the depot.

Our first stop was this little western town.

The Sheriff and his deputy got surprised by some bandits.

The bandits wanted some gold that was supposedly on the train.

A bandit waited to surprise the Sheriff Deputy when he came out of the outhouse.

He surrendered quickly.

The Sheriff put up a little fight.

A little discussion about the gold.

Brody enjoyed watching the show.

And so did Evan.  He tried to participate.

The next stop was Fort Boone where the Sheriff told the bandits the gold was kept.

The "good" Native Americans arrived to save the Sheriff and Deputy and untie them.  Apparently, the show is more P.C. now so the Native Americans are the good guys.  Eddie remembers when the Native Americans were the bad characters in the show. 

Discussing a plan to stop the bandits inside the Fort.

The Native Americans snuck up behind and surprised the bandits.

We passed a little mining operation on the journey.

The pretty little steam engine.

Brody changed into his engineer hat for a picture with the engine.  

Mommy and her boys with the train

Daddy and his boys

The train is so beautifully refurbished.

The whole park is kept in really great shape.

We watched the train pass by us, and I discovered just how much coal soot comes out of the smoke stack.  Ha!

The boys wanted to go inside the tee pee. 

Brody exploring inside.

Evan found something inside.  

Then, we took a ride on the stage coach.

Cutie

We just love him!

He also had to ride the carousel.

Evan is a pro at riding.  I wish I could get him horseback riding lessons.

What a sweetheart!

"Yee haw!"

Be still my heart!  He is going to break hearts for sure!

Waiting anxiously to drive the cars.

Evan looked like he had been driving for years.  Makes me sad to think in a few years he will really be driving.  

Brody did a good job driving too.

Evan raises his hand in a friendly Native American greeting.

Horseback riding with my boys.

Eating lunch at the Cowboy Cantina.

Evan chose pizza.  The kids meals were $7.50 each but at least they got keepsake cups and lunchboxes.