Darla and Elyse Ride Amtrack for a Visit

Above, Elyse and Darla wait for the Amtrack train at Picayune, Mississippi. They boarded the train at about 7:30am. They had a roomette with two small beds, so Elyse spent a good bit of time on the top bed where she could see out the window.

The picture at left was taken at 5:16 pm, so they had covered most of the journey. We picked them up at about 8:50pm, the train having arrived an hour after its scheduled time. We had notice of the delay, so we drove to Peachtree Station to arrive about 8:30pm so we didn't have to wait long.

Elyse was keen on exploring the creek behind the house, so she and Rod headed out. The first time we were run back home by strong rolling thunder and the fear that we would be drenched. But at about noon on Tuesday we made it to the creek and traveled downstream (westward). It had many washed out spots and fallen trees, but Elyse enjoyed climbing on the logs. We proceeded until we could come back into the end of South Dillon Rd. and talked with Sean, our new neighbor in the White's house which they had bought a couple of months ago.

Brenda fixed a nice lunch of ribs and we were sitting down to it. Mark couldn't make it for lunch because of his truck work, but came out later. Brenda was tired of having her picture taken, so I got armtwisted into this one.

Mark did make it out for supper, so we were pleased that he got to visit with Elyse and Darla more.

On Wednesday, Elyse was again keen on exploring the creek, so this time we headed eastward, upstream. As we found yesterday, there were a lot of downed trees and other tree debris. Sometimes we followed the cleared right-of-way parallel to the creek and sometimes followed the creek. The waterfall had been about as far as I had gone before, 40-50 years ago with Mark and Jeff. We came to some houses that had been built since that, and talked with a couple of ladies who had moved from Louisiana a few months ago.

I enjoyed poking around and appreciated this white mushroom growing out of dense moss and this red flower beside the stream.

With all the fallen and damaged trees, Elyse found plenty of logs to walk across. We continued to follow the right-of-way and creek, extending into an area where I had never been. On the left, there were a lot of fairly new houses.

As we continued we found a wooden bridge across the creek and an interesting house, isolated in the woods. We followed the two-track private road for probably a half mile before coming out on Laura Lane. When we reached Emily Lane, I thought it would give us a connection to Songwood, but I was wrong. We walked down to end and returned, turned left on Laura Lane, found Songwood Dr. and used it to return to our house, having walked close to an hour.

Mark came out after supper and visited with us while we had another round of Monopoly.

We had a nice conversation around the Monopoly game. We were pleased that Mark could come and just visit with us.

Elyse took this picture of all the older folks.

We left home at 7:20am to take Darla and Elyse to Peachtree Station in Atlanta for their return trip to Louisiana. Darla's bags may be small, but they are heavy because she is taking 2 10-lb weights and 2 5-lb for Ashleigh since they have been unable to buy any in New Orleans.

We entered the station in full Covid masks. Everyone was maintaining reasonable separation. We walked through the generations-old waiting room of what we called Brookwood Station with its heavy wooden benches. Brenda and I had been here only once before to pick up Jeff on a return from a New York trip.

We proceeded to the waiting area, but the train was already at the station, so almost immediately they were given clearance to board. This flight of stairs went down to the tracks, but because of their heavy bags, they took the elevator.

The tracks at this point are beside the north I-75/I-85 expressway. This view is toward the downtown Atlanta area. The scheduled departure was 8:30 and we had reached the station about 8am.

They walked under the protective cover to the point of entry to the train. We went outside and walked along the fence to see the door where they were getting on, but they were already on the train when we got there.

From this point we could see over the fence and get a view of the engine and the front of the train. The cart marks the place where they boarded. Deering Road runs alongside the tracks and the station.

This was our view back toward the station from our point alongside the train. We had learned a lot about the station, which we have been seeing from Peachtree Road for more than 50 years.

Darla sent this image of Elyse in their roomette at 8:33, about the time they left.

Below are pictures of Austell as they went through our town. Darla sent those at 9:11, and we had made it home from the station at about 8:50, in time for our 9:00 devotional group with Pastor Ian. So they were just about 20 minutes behind us.