Mystery Train

We had a wonderful evening on the mystery train out of Charlotte, Michigan. The brief attached video is just a snippet in time.

The weather was perfect, cool and sunny most of the day, and the drive over to Charlotte was pleasant. It's a tiny town east of us, with lots of historical period charm. We arrived in plenty of time, boarded, and were seated at a dining table for four in the dining car. The other couple, the Lindseys, never showed up, so we had the table to ourselves, which was nice.

The acting was good (three young people), the food was excellent, and the only flaw in the evening was the bathrooms. In the women's bathroom, the toilet bowl was so full of cold water that one had to nearly sit in it in order to do her business, and then when it was flushed, it became a geyser. There was a tiny lav inside the cubicle, but only one faucet worked. In the men's bathroom, there was no water at all in the faucets, which my poor husband discovered AFTER he'd soaped up his hands. There was a bottle of hand sanitizer, but he couldn't rinse the soap off.

We hope to go back at another time to eat at the Depot, an adorable restaurant next to the train station.

The couple across the aisle from us were there supposedly celebrating her birthday, but she had a sour expression on her face the whole time. The husband appeared to be trying to enjoy himself, but she was not having it. That was a lot of money to spend to celebrate if all she wanted to do was sit there and look like she'd been sucking on lemons. Life is short, lady. Enjoy it. They had originally been tabled with another couple, but the birthday couple asked the hostess to seat the other couple elsewhere so they could be alone. I'm not sure why. They didn't talk to each other. They didn't look at each other. She never smiled. Maybe they just didn't want to share their misery with the other couple.

One older group (people in their sixties and seventies, I would assume) drank a lot. One of the men was having a birthday. He wanted one of the actresses to sing Happy Birthday to him, but he refused to give her his name so she sang (beautifully, operatically) "Happy Birthday, dear Drunk Guy, Happy Birthday to you!" It was hilarious.

Another table near us had another well-oiled group. One of the women began singing "God Bless America" (at least a line or two). No reason why. Apparently her group shushed her quickly.

It was a wonderful, beautiful evening, and I hope we'll be able to do it again on another day. I'm glad now that we went yesterday rather than going on our "real" anniversary on the 23rd since the weather forecast looks horrible for next weekend. I've already decided on what we're going to do next week: go see the Where the Wild Things Are movie. It's getting great reviews.