Author Archives: Dave Oney

Unknown's avatar

About Dave Oney

Dave Oney was born mid last century in Middlebury, Vermont. He received his BS in Chemistry and worked as a polymer chemist in Massachusetts and New Jersey. He became a microscopist (someone who studies little bitty things using a microscope) and photomicrographer (someone who photographs little bitty things) before settling into a 35-year career in technical sales of scientific imaging equipment (the science of digitally recording itty bitty things, sending the image to a computer for analysis.) He designed and created a number of products contributing to this field. He is (was) proficient in several computer languages and is currently working on mastering English. After making a few more paradigm shift career changes Dave and his wife, Fran, retired and moved closer to their children and granddaughters and now live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas.

Spookomotive Train Ride

Posted on by

October 13, 2018

There are alway fun events in Oldtown Sacramento (OldSac.) Today it was the 2E749F5A-947E-4787-A157-314825E8CB6ASpookomotive Train Ride for Halloween. Kids were encouraged to dress up as pirates and princesses. Ours decided princessi (My plural of princess. I can’t help it, I am a scientist after all.) would be the most fun. (Pirates can be scary.) We boarded the Spookomotive at the rail yards at the Railroad Museum in OldSac. (By the way, if you haven’t been there, this is a fantastic museum, more than worth the price of admission.)

Frances had purchased tickets online so we could bypass the ticket office and go directly to wait in line to board, once properly dressed and coiffed, of course. You know, those old steam engines were really, really big. We, however, boarded a Diesel powered train,  as was pointed out by a 3 year old pirate in front of us in line.

We were able to find eight seats together and after a short delay were on our way. During our ride, we were accosted by one bad pirate and saved by one good one. Ultimately, the good pirate was able to convince the bad one to mend his ways and near the end of the trip he came through each car and apologized for his boorish (my word, not his) behavior. The damage was done for Princess Grace, however. If she had Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak, she would have used it for the return trip.

The Princessi Grace and Vivian held court in our end of the railroad car and enjoyed the sights as we travelled along the Sacramento River. There were plenty of boats and a few large yachts on the river for an unusually warm October outing. Grace was regal and enjoyed the attention with aplomb. Vivian was, well, ummm, sorry but unperturbed and plump.3F8F15A0-5189-4C2A-B628-57C0F29DB6CE

BUT everyone, pirates, princessi, moms, dads and greats all gots cookies!!

The Spookomotive train ride is a wonderful family adventure. After being assured there would be no pirates present, Grace said she would love to to on the Polar Express around Christmas time. Can’t wait!