First Night of Train Show

We seem to have started a tradition when it comes to dinners while out of town for the train show and especially so on the first night of our annual train show weekend. It took a few years to get to this point however. Truth be told, we didn't really know what to expect the first year we attended this particular train show.

That first year, Sheila, Adam and I left home at around 6am on Saturday morning... arrived in Springfield when the gates to the show opened... waited in traffic to enter the immense parking lot... waited in more lines to buy tickets and actually enter the first of four buildings housing the show... made our way through the four buildings and walked around the extremely crowded show all day... then drove back home that evening. It was a verryyyy loooonnnnnnggggggg and exhausting day! 

Not only was that a long, exhausting day but we knew that just one day at this show was not nearly enough time to see everything. This show is big... I mean BIG. I've been to a lot of shows over the decades but even I was shocked by the enormity of this annual show. We immediately knew that we wanted to come back to this show and we knew we needed to spend more time at the show next year.

The following year, we made reservations at the Hampton Inn in Chicopee to stay over on Saturday night. This made for a nicer time at the show but it still was a bit grueling for driving to and from Springfield from Vermont. We still had a long morning drive on Saturday morning and then a full day at the show. We decided that our next annual trek to this amazing show would be different... we would also add in Friday night and make that part of the long train show weekend.

That following year we made reservations for Friday through Sunday and we invited close friends of ours... Frank and Christine joined us for this big annual event and have accompanied us every year since. 

For us, this show has grown into a bigger event each year with more and more family and friends joining us for a long weekend out of town. With a larger group comes a bit more planning however.

One of the unwritten traditions has been getting to the hotel as early as possible on Friday so we can enjoy the pool and then enjoy a few drinks and pizza in the lounge that first evening. This makes for a very relaxing arrival day and I think we all look forward to this first gathering.

This first night at the hotel is always a lot of fun and this year was no exception. Looking at these photos included here today, I can clearly see that everyone is happy and full of energy... this is a very stark contrast to how exhausted everyone was on Sunday! (I'm still exhausted!)

There is a platter of pretzels directly from Philadelphia here in this photo...  I could go for some pretzels now!