I Went for the Train

I have loved trains for just about as long as I can remember, so when I saw that Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 was coming to Chester, Illinois, home of Popeye the Sailor Man, that got my attention in a hurry.

I was laying in bed that morning, soaking up the cool air from the AC while the summer heat was already gearing up outside, when I saw the posting. I talked my wife into going, and before long that was the plan. We were headed to Chester to see Big Boy for ourselves.

It was hot as all get out that day. Not just hot, but that thick Illinois heat and humidity that feels like the air itself is against you. The kind of breeze that does not cool you off at all, but instead feels like somebody breathing down the back of your neck. Miserable. By the time we got done seeing the train and taking pictures, we were about cooked. No kidding, it felt like heat exhaustion was not too far off. Still, it was worth every bit of it.

I got to see Big Boy 4014, a train that had been on my wish list for a long time. We also got to see the Popeye statue and take a few pictures there too. After the train was long gone and we had gotten ourselves something cold to drink, we started heading home.

On the way back, we stopped at a few places and took some pictures. A few of them were barns, and this was one of them. At the time, I just thought it was a cool old barn and left it at that.

Later on, my daughter told me a lady wanted me to take pictures of barns for her and was willing to pay me for them. That turned into my first paying customer, and these barn pictures were already sitting there waiting on me before I even knew I would need them. That still makes me smile.

At the time, it was just a barn picture. Nothing more than that. Later on, it turned into a whole lot more. Now when I look at it, I think about Big Boy, that awful heat, riding around with my wife, and the way that whole day just kept on giving. Then to top it off, one of those barn shots even turned into my first paying customer.

But truth be told, when I look back on that day, the part that means the most to me is not the train or the barn or even the fact that the pictures ended up mattering later. It is the time I got to spend with my wife.

That is what I think about when I look at this picture. I do not just see an old barn sitting in a field. I see the whole day behind it. Seeing Big Boy, nearly melting in that heat, riding around with my wife, and coming home with more out of the day than I ever expected.

That is why this is more than just a barn picture to me.

Time has moved on, but this moment hasn’t.
That’s enough.