We’ve been in Columbia, MD for the last week or so making arrangements for the care of Anne’s ailing mother. It doesn’t take long to remember why we moved to Wythe County in the first place. The DC metropolitan area is maddening enough to make a Baptist preacher take up drinkin’ and cussin’. Thank goodness we’re headed home later today. I did have one really great day though.  Sunday I went with the Heir Apparent and his dad to the model train show at the Dulles Convention Center. I’m here to tell you it was fun with a capital F!

Billed as the “World’s Greatest Hobby,” model trains have changed a great deal since I was a kid. Some of the layouts were almost unbelievable. In addition to the trains, there were working miniature carnivals replete with lighted carousels, roller coasters, and bumper cars. There were tableaux of European villages, turn of the century mountain towns, and New York City in the 1940s. One of the largest displays had dozens of trains circling the tracks (one train contained an aquarium car with live goldfish.) There were aficionados of all make and manner dressed as engineers, conductors, and porters.

Ultimately, this was a family day. Grandparents, parents and children of all ages coming together to enjoy what just might be the world’s greatest hobby.