Train Ride

Last week UTA had a "grand opening" for their new FrontRunner train. It is a high speed train that (right now) runs from SLC to Ogden and a few points in between. They were offering free rides for the first 4 days it was in operation. Jack is a HUGE train lover and so I thought it would be a fun outing to ride the TRAX train from Sandy to the main hub in SLC and then catch the FrontRunner and come back.

Oh, wow, if I only knew what I was getting myself into!

First, we talked my Mom into coming with us since it was her day off . We started our adventure at around 11:30 am and drove to the Trax station (about 20 minutes from my Mom's house). We then rode Trax downtown and stopped and had lunch at the Gateway.

Then we got back on Trax and rode to the main SLC hub. When we got there there were ELEVENTY BILLION people who also thought it would be a great idea to ride the train for free!!

We got on the train and were lucky enough to find a seat.

We decided that since it was now 2:45 pm we would just ride it for a few stops and then get off and ride the next train back to the city. The internet schedule said that it would be about a 15 minute wait between trains. WRONG!!

We got off in Farminigton - - where there is NOTHING except for the train station and a parking lot and then had to wait for 30 minutes for the next train. The nice man at the train station said that the trains were not quite running on schedule since this was their first few days.

Have you ever tried to entertain two Tasmanian devils at a deserted train station - OUTSIDE for 30 minutes?!? This is a character builder, let me tell you!!

We finally got back on the southbound train and were able to find seats on the top deck - much cooler than on the lower level. This kind of made up for the wait, but it would have been better if they were serving Diet Dr. Pepper on the rocks - - I was needing one pretty bad about then!


When we got back to the main SLC station we then had another 35 minute ride on Trax to get back to our car. The good part of this is that both kids slept all the way home on the train (using me for a pillow of course).

I dropped my mom off at 4:45 pm. I definately think that she got more than she bargained for on this adventure!

However, both of my kids have talked non-stop about riding the train and Jack asked the very next day if we could go again that day. I said - - "Um, no, but maybe when I have recovered fully we can ride Trax and have lunch w/ Dad." That seemed to pacify him - for now.