The Polar Express on the Texas State Railroad

SPOILER ALERT: This post is a very detailed description of the Polar Express experience at The Texas State Railroad, if you’re going and want to be surprised, please stop here. ❤️

All Aboard! It's the Polar Express!! A Journey Beyond Your Imagination!

We were camping at the Texas State Railroad Campground with KD & The Vowels the weekend before Christmas and coordinated a ride to the North Pole on board the Polar Express!  We managed to keep the adventure secret from the kids until we were literally in the parking lot! Not even camping in a campground with train tracks, or watching the Polar Express the night before gave it away!

I highly recommend that you plan your trip and book your tickets as far in advance as you can - because this experience will sell out.  We bought tickets for Presidential Car #42 - perfectly set up with couches on one side and pairs of chairs on the other... but I'm getting ahead of myself!  You'll see that soon enough!

The grounds of the Palestine station are all lit up and festive; you'll pick up your tickets (both the ones you paid for, and the theatrical ones) in the will call tent where they also have plenty of Polar Express branded merchandise for souvenirs. There may have been a few fleece blankets and a miniature crystal lantern purchased by our troop. 

Much like the book, our adventure began with the Conductor and the Hero Boy in a short skit, with the invitation to all of us to join them onboard. Where would we go? To the North Pole, of course! This is the Polar Express!

We boarded our car towards the western end of the train, the excitement in the air was palpable! Everyone was in high spirits as the attendant checked our tickets (the real ones) and showed us to our seats (rows 1-3).  It's assigned seating, and requires evens - so it was perfect for the eight of us.

The couches were perfectly big enough for the family to all sit together with RDB and I on the other side of the aisle.  I felt like we lucked out with the assignments, as we were at the far end of the car and, well, I won't spoil the surprise that was in store for us!

The train pulled out of the station right on time (there is a schedule to keep, of course!) And very quickly the real show began! "Who's ready for refreshments?!" Joyce, our Presidential attendant, merrily asked. We all excitedly raised our hands and the singing and dancing commenced!

You could just sense that our Cocoa Chef and Joyce were smiling behind their masks (Covid protocols still in place this Christmas).  And soon enough, delicious, rich hot chocolate and fresh chocolate chip cookies were placed in our hands to enjoy as we traveled down the track towards our destination.  "O" said the cocoa and the cookies were her favorite part of the Polar Express. 

Since we had purchased the upgraded Presidential Class tickets, we had commemorative mugs to take home with us as well. (All packaged and ready to travel home with us in reusable bags).

As we settled in with our hot chocolate and cookies, our Cocoa Chef and Joyce brought out the (absolute largest I've ever seen) books of the story of the Polar Express.  Turning the pages as the narrator walked us thru the story page by page, all the way to the North Pole and Santa, with his first gift of Christmas. 

Shortly after the story ended, we had the startling surprise of the Conductor coming thru, "Tickets!  Tickets, please!"  He was all business, punching our theatrical tickets with fervor.

The train began to slow, and the lights dimmed, and sure enough - we were there! The North Pole! With dancing elves and Santa hard at work!

As we waved goodbye to Santa's workshop, Joyce encouraged us to wish, really wish, and maybe Santa would be able to join us on the train for our ride back to the station.  

"E" wished hard enough for the all of us, and..... 

SANTA!  

The real Santa! Right here on our train car!  It was so magical - we wished and there he was!  Just like the story, he was looking for someone special to give the first gift of Christmas to.  Who would it be?

"O"!  He chose our little "O" to receive the first gift of Christmas - one of the beautiful silver bells from the harness of his reindeer!  

It was such an incredible treat, to have the seats we did, and be able to have the honor of being the family that received the first gift of Christmas.  Honestly, though? The gift of seeing these girls with all the love and joy on their faces was the first, and best, gift to us.

Santa made his way thru the train car, giving silver bells to everyone, and the beautiful sound of laughter and chiming of bells rang thru the air.  After he said his goodbyes, wishing us all a very merry Christmas, the party continued on with a sing-a-long on our way back to the station. "I" really liked the dancing and singing with Joyce and the Cocoa Chef. 

One final surprise, the Hero Boy and Girl from the story made their way thru the train car, greeting each family and sharing in the adventure.  "A" said the performances by the cast, especially the way they introduced the story before we got on the train, was a big part of what made the trip so special.  For a teenager to say, and I quote: "This was badass" is a pretty big compliment!

We pulled back into the station, bellies full of hot cocoa and cookies, the sweet sound of bells ringing thru the air, with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts. 

It really was a journey beyond your imagination!

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This really was such a treat, to be able to share this time with KD & The Vowels, and see the Christmas spirit really come alive thru their eyes!  A HUGE kudos to Joyce, our attendant, as you could tell that she not only loved the role that she played, but that she really loved the kids (and us big kids) who were on her train.  And yes, it's her train - as I hugged her goodbye and said how much I appreciated her, she said she was 78 years old and had been doing this for 11 years!  I'm pretty sure she was our train attendant on one of our other trips on the Texas State Railroad.  

If you're wavering on this experience because of the price, and it is pricey for just an hour long ride, know that its 100% worth it.  The atmosphere they create, from the moment you drive onto the park property, all the way thru to the 'give-a-ways' - its all high quality and worth it.  I'm still so impressed with the craftsmanship of the bells - I know, this will sound, well, unbelievable, but I've never heard a bell so sweet and so bright as the one that Santa gave me on this trip.

The bell still rings for me. As it does for all who truly believe.

For more pictures of the Polar Express, and our camping trip, go here. 

Park n' Drive: Texas State RailRoad Campground

 Know before you go - a park drive thru video.

Texas State RailRoad Campground

We've stayed here multiple times before in the full hook-ups loop.

Believe, Valentine's Camping, A Gift: Long Weekend, Long Post, Easter Weekend, and Blessed. 

Believe

 

RDB and I were super excited for this weekend - because we're finally getting a chance to camp with KD & the Vowels!  We were so grateful that everything lined up just right for us to be able to camp at one of our favorite campgrounds (the Texas State Campground in Rusk) AND get to share the magic of the Polar Express with them!  K joked at one point: perhaps RDB and I are living vicariously thru them? (Spoiler alert: why yes, yes we are!)

We checked into the campground before sunset on Thursday; for dinner, we took a short trip north into Jacksonville and had dinner at The Jalapeno Tree.  When we checked in, chatting with the office host, she informed us we couldn't' save a spot - the entire park would be full with several 'groups' of camper.  We've never seen this park full, but can certainly understand why: everyone's excited about taking a ride on the Polar Express!!  

To jump straight to my review of our magical experience, go here.

But we purposefully kept it a secret from the Vowels (to explain: the girls' names all start with a vowel: A, E, I, and O!) so that Sunday night, our last night camping, we could truly surprise them with the Christmas trip of a lifetime. (And if you've followed my blog long enough, you'll know how much of a railfan I am, too, so this was the perfect excuse for me to give my inner child the gift of a Polar Express train ride, too!) 

Friday afternoon KD & the Vowels (and their trusty - er well, rusty - steed, Howie) rolled into camp and settled into a spot beside us.  We started up a fire in the fire pit for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, and heating up the cast iron pans to sear the steaks we were sous-viding for the adults for dinner.

With four Girl Scouts, one troop mother, and the daughter of an Eagle Scout in attendance, we got the fire started in no time (and I had the fire hose ready to go, you know, just in case!) 

It was a delicious evening of steaks, s'mores, and hanging out by the campfire, and enjoying the time outside, knowing that most of Saturday it was going to rain, rain, rain.

Perhaps the sweetest moment that evening was when "I" came over and said: "Miss Sarah, you know what I haven't done today?" "What's that," I answered.  "Hug you!"  and then proceeded to give me the sweetest little hug.  My heart melted like a roasted marshmallow at that!

Sure enough on Saturday morning we woke to rain.  

A slow, laid back day ensued.

RDB and I went into town for lunch (back to The Jalapeno Tree again - yes, it was that good!) and then into Rusk to see the Cherokee County courthouse. With the cold front that the rain brought in, we didn't dawdle, just grabbing a few photos and then heading back over to the campground.  Reading the historical placards just now, I realized that I'm drawn to the art-deco styling of this building (and others like it, too).

Back at the campground, I was ready for KD and the Vowels to come over and decorate cookies! I had purchased a few of Color My Cookie's Christmas kits and was incredibly impressed with what arrived: everything we needed to watercolor cookies, including paintbrushes, a cookie "palate" of icing paint, extra liquid icing, sprinkles, even edible silver paint! K warned me not to put out the sprinkles and extra icing unless I wanted to find sprinkles in my camper for months to come... even without those additions, the girls had an absolute blast coloring cookies!

They were such a success! Little to no mess and we LOVED the way they all turned out!

I couldn't help but laugh that both "E" and I had our serious crafting faces on while we were painting our cookies.

Of course, after the girls left, I did break out the extra goodies to put a little more pizazz on mine. ;-)

I would 100% recommend Color My Cookie Decorating Kits because not only were they packaged in a way that you could send it straight from the vendor as a gift to someone, but the cookies themselves were as delicious as they were fun!  "O" totally approves!

Done with our craft for the day, we all grabbed a cookie (or two!) and settled in to watch a movie in the camper - The Polar Express of course!  

By this point,  the oldest of the girls, "A," had figured out that the 'adventure' of this weekend was likely more than just camping ("K" did a great job of throwing the Littles off the trail when they pulled into the campground Friday and immediately saw the "Polar Express" advertisement by saying 'maybe it's just their theme for Christmas?').  "E" cracked us up at the scene where the elf with a very raspy voice tries to reassure the little boy to "just trust me" with his Christmas present when she commented: "I'm not trusting an elf with that kind of voice!" Regardless, we enjoyed one of the themes of the movie:

Saturday evening, with the rain finally behind us, we lit up another fire and enjoyed some true winter weather - it was dropping quickly down to 49*! "I" brought over her game Disney Color Brain and we played a few round in the camper - during which she throughly kicked my butt! Looks like I need to catch up on my Disney shows before our trip to Walt Disney World in March next year! 

Sunday morning we all slept in; well, we slept in,  I have a feeling the Vowels had K and D up at the crack of dawn again - when you're all sleeping in 20 feet of space, when one kid is up, all the kids are up!  All the girls went for a walk, eventually meeting D over at the lake - he had brought along two new RC toys - a couple of small boats.  When I asked him, why two?, he said: "Why get just one when you can have twice the fun for twice the price?"  That - and having four kids means it's easier to share two than just one.  

But the fun didn't stop with just the boats, as RDB had purchased another DJI drone  - the DJI FPV (First Person View).  It's a totally different way to play with remote controlled flight and RDB, D, "A," and me all had a turn flying it.  It was surprisingly easy to operate and lots of fun!

"Please don't break it. Please don't break it."

Not to be outdone, D brought out the mini-drones their family had purchased (this time, four of them, well, because four kids!) These were so cool that I couldn't help but buy two for RDB and me (Merry Christmas, hun!) Getting these two guys together always results in some kind of electronic fun!

RDB and I drove into Palestine for lunch and to 'chase the train' during a one of its other Polar Express runs that afternoon.  Lunch at Giovani's didn't disappoint, but we were a little bummed when we realized that the motive power for the day was one of the TSRR's diesel engines, not the steam engine as we had hoped.  We also took the opportunity to go over to the Anderson County courthouse and snag a few pictures and a geocache. 

Sunday night the big event was finally here!  The Littles still hadn't figured out that we were going on the train ride (we told them I knew a great place to go see Christmas lights and they all piled into the Jeep).

To see the excitement in their faces when we finally told them (standing in the parking lot next to the big steam train!) and their hugs and 'thank yous' all throughout the evening are 100% the reason for the season to me.

I've dedicated an entire post to the experience, because there was so much good and fun and joy (and this post is already so long!). You can read about the Texas State Railroad Polar Express here.

This post, as the whole weekend, was long and stretched out. Its as if time stood still for us to enjoy the magic of everything this trip had in store - from good friends to fun activities, to awesome experiences and great memories. This one was a long time in the making; I think we first wanted to camp with KD and the Vowels over a year ago and it was definitely worth the wait!

We were at the Texas State RailRoad Campground, site, um 12? (it's first come first served, and the sites aren't numbered very clearly, except on the map). We truly love this park - the only downside is the road noise during the day.  First time here with the 5th wheel, and we had no problem finding a large enough site - in fact, there were probably 3-4 other 5'ers in the park this weekend; however, with it being first-come-first-served for sites, you may want to plan to come in on a Thursday (especially in the holiday season) so you can grab one of the larger sites. 

We've been here several times before: Valentine's Camping, A Gift: Long Weekend, Long Post, Easter Weekend, and Blessed. 

For more camping photos, go here.

And for a drive thru of the campground, go here.