All aboard: My first train ride

After getting an hour less sleep than usual...thanks to daylight savings time...I still got up bright and early to drive to Boulder City, location of the Nevada State Railroad Museum.  I was looking forward to the highlight of weekend visitors...a ride on their excursion train! Now, I've never ridden on a train before, not counting modern mass transit.  Well, that's not entirely true.  When I told my mom about riding a train, she said I did when I was 2 years old.  Of course, I don't remember that, so I'm sticking to my statement.

The excursion train I rode today was powered by a 1963 Union Pacific GP30 locomotive. There were a couple of open-air cars, but I opted to ride one of the Pullman cars.  It was pretty cool to be a 1911 Pullman...it was 100 years old!

The train went on a 3.5 mile trip to the historic Railroad Pass and back again...about a 45-minute ride.  The Pullman car was comfortable, and I didn't even hear the engine, save for the horn at railroad crossings. After that experience, I certainly wouldn't mind riding more trains in the future!

Afterward, I drove back to Las Vegas and had a very nice lunch at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab at Caesar's Palace.  I'm not one to normally go to pricey restaurants, but I decided to treat myself when I found out about their lunch special. Joe's Classic: five stone crab legs, hashed browns, cole slaw and key lime pie.  I had never had stone crab OR key lime pie before, so this was perfect.  The food was great, but I ended up taking most of the hashed browns with me...it was a pretty massive amount of potatoes.

As I was walking through the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops, I noticed a small commotion in front of a sports memorabilia store.  I peeked inside, and recognized a man sitting at a table signing autographs.  It was the legendary Chicago Bears football player, Dick Butkus.  I snapped a couple of photos, just so people would know I really saw him.

While visiting Las Vegas, I was hoping to try out something a little different.  There's a place called The Gun Store, where you can fire all kinds of guns...handguns, shotguns, semi-automatic rifles and fully automatic machine guns.  Unfortunately, when I got there, I found out there was an hour and a half wait before I could try my hand at shooting.  I didn't want to hang around, so I left.  Maybe on my next visit to Vegas.  Tomorrow, I reprise my exhilarating experience at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway!