I have been on many trains in my life. Trains through the Cascade Mountains and trains up and down the Eastern Seaboard. But I have never rode a train on front of the lead engine. Literally as the tater team rode the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad through the BEAUTIFUL scenery of Western North Carolina, I was standing on the front of the lead train that was pulling all of these cars. I leaned over to the conductor that was standing up there with me and said “Kurt, never in a million years did I ever think I would stand on the front of the train while we moved,” Kurt responded “I bet you get that a lot with your job!” I never realized how true that was.
Kurt brought a reminder and a different perspective to this job that I had never really thought about before. Before this tour there are so many thinks that “I would never get to do this in a million years!” the first of which would be traveling around the country with the Big Idaho Potato! As we just passed the halfway mark of our tour I look back on it with a new perspective, the front of the train perspective. From up there I felt invigorated and thankful. Even when this job doesn’t bring a once in a lifetime moment, the energy that I wake up with continues to reach new levels each and every day. Knowing that when the tour is done, many of these opportunities will go back into the “I’ll never get to that in a million years” bin, so the next three and a half months I want to wake up every day with the attitude and energy I had at the front of the train. So as we bring each of you a once in a million years moment seeing the Big Idaho Potato, the tater team hopes to join you in checking off great adventures along the tour!
Tyler
