Autumn and Insulators, Part 2.

Hello everyone on another very cool October day. Well, today I thought it would be good to continue with the story about Dad and I. Might even be a third part to this one. This was quite the trip. So let’s get going! Dad was still rubbing his head and blaming me that he decided to sit in some wet mud. Amazing. Now, what lay ahead was not such a wonderful sight. A very deep, steep sided ravine. Quite wide too. Only way across to the other side was walking on the tracks. “A long walk with nowhere to go if a train comes,” I said.

“We can see a long distance,” said Dad, “so if a train comes we just move to the other track.” “What if 2 trains come?,” I asked. “Not much chance of that,” he said. I suggested we should go back to the car, after all, we had found quite a few insulators. Dad said, “where is your sense of adventure?” “It went back to the car,” I replied. But off we went. We were not quite half way when we heard a train. “It’s behind us,” I said. “No, it’s in front of us,” said Dad. We were both right, unfortunately.

Two trains. Only way out was over the edge and that’s where we went. It was very steep. Sliding down this steep slope with those trains going by was a strange feeling. I grabbed a small bush as I went by but it didn’t hold me, just pulled it out of the ground. I was sliding on my back. Amazingly Dad was still standing, and running down that steep slope. With a look of terror on his face! Dad finally tripped and started to roll very fast. Not good. Dad used to get dizzy real easy. But he stopped rolling and just slid like me. Right through some bushes at the bottom. I heard a loud yell.

I managed to slow down enough that I didn’t go through the bushes. Poor Dad. He landed in an old beaver pond. Dad was completely wet and muddy. That was too much, I started laughing. Loud and long. Dad didn’t seem to think it was funny, which was kind of strange. “See, we should have gone bottle digging,” I said. Dad just looked at me. “I should have stayed home,” he said. That was an odd thing to say considering this was his idea. “Good thing I’m along though, think what it would be like if I wasn’t here to help you,” I said.

“Hmm, no headache, I wouldn’t be wet or muddy, something to think about for next time,” he said. Not sure what he meant by that. We did find a lot of nice insulators down there. However, we still had to climb back up to the tracks. Dad suggested staying down until we reached the other side. “You go first,” said Dad. Naturally, he usually volunteered me to go first. We each had about 100 lbs of insulators by the time we reached the other side. That made the climb back to the tracks a bit harder. But we made it.

“Good spot for some coffee,” I said, “I’ll get it out while you change into your dry clothes.” The weird look on Dad’s face at that moment. “I forgot them in the car,” he said quietly. That was too much, I started laughing again! Loud and long! “At least it’s warm here in the sun,” I finally managed to say while still laughing. Dad just looked at me and sighed. Well, guess I will stop here and finish up tomorrow or Sunday. I hope you all have a great weekend and God bless!

Steve. ©2026 Steve McLeod.