Santa Train
Kingsport, TN
November 17, 2007
Review By: Cole
When it was announced at the end of September that Patty was going to be the special guest on the Santa Train on November 17th once again, I immediately planned on going. However, I didn't anticpate that a few weeks prior to the big day my boss would sit me down and tell me that with some of my new responsibilities, she and I would be required to do some things with one of our vendors-- on November 17th. I was big time bummed, and my boss apologized profusely, knowing that I had plans to see Patty. We couldn't come up with anything, so I had no choice but to skip the Santa Train. When the week finally rolled around, I walked into work and my boss had taped a pic of Patty & Santa to my computer and wrote "Don't worry about Saturday. Have fun seeing Patty!" She didn't have to tell me twice. Chris and I immediately made plans to head out Saturday morning to Kingsport.
We hit the road around 8:00 Nashville time. Kingsport is about 4.5 hours from Nashville, but with Knoxville being a serious pain, it ends up being about a 5 hour drive. The train was scheduled to arrive in Kingsport at 3:00, and we were hoping to be there by 2:00 or 2:30 so we could have time to scope everything out. Kingsport is where the train stops, and Patty and Santa step off and throw toys and candy to the kids there on a different platform. Afterwards, Santa goes and joins the Christmas Parade. We weren't sure about what the plans would be for Patty, so we wanted to know about the schedule ahead of time.
When we arrived, we saw the set up was near the Chamber Of Commerce (in front of the tracks where the train stops), and they had a huge platform set up, with nothing but toys and candy on it. There was a path leading up to it that Santa was going to walk once he got off the train. We stopped a police officer to make sure that Patty was also going to walk it, and decided that for the first part, we'd stand to the side of the pathway, then later would move over closer to the toy platform. They kept us updated letting everyone know how close the train was, and telling us when it was slated arrive. The kids were ecstatic about Santa's arrival. When it started to get closer, they swapped the Christmas music they had playing to "Santa Train", which they played on repeat for a little while.
The train arrived, and Santa leaned out the side, waving to all the kids. When he started to make his exit from the train, people ran over to watch Santa walk the path up to the platform. A couple minutes later, up the path walked our girl, with a police escort. She looked amazing, and had a huge smile on her face. She was loving every minute of it. As she walked the path, she saw me and said "OH MY GOODNESS, NICOLE!!" and then commented "You came all the way out here for this!". It was too cute, and the photo Chris took of her face when she saw me was priceless (and now one of my faves!). At that moment I turned to Chris and said "THAT was TOTALLY worth the trip out here!". She went up to the platform with Santa, and he introduced her to everyone. A few minutes later, he gave her the mic to say a few things, and she did a "HO, HO, HO!", which sounded so cute! At that point, they started tossing the candy and toys out to the kids. Patty enjoyed every minute of it-- there wasn't many times you saw the smile escape her face.
We stood over by the path a little bit longer and Emory walked up, and said "Hi Cole! You guys drove all the way out here for this??". Guess they don't know how much she's worth it :) After we talked to Emory, we decided to walk around to the front of the platform to take more photos and videos of her tossing out the candy. She even had a box of cd's and was passing out cds to some of the crowd that was down front. We got pretty caught up in taking photos and videos--- apparently a little too much because I didn't pay attention to where anything was going, and I saw Patty launch out some of the candy, but I didn't watch it any further. That is, until some landed on my head out of nowhere. A guy standing next to Chris said "OUCH! I heard that hit, that had to hurt!". When it conked me, the bags exploded open and the candy went everywhere! Chris looked at me and said "So, uh are you okay?" and I said "Well THAT hurt!" and returned to photo taking. It's quite funny to tell the story now- my sister commented to me today that when I said that Patty conked me with candy, she didn't realize they were tossing out the huge bags of candy! Good story to tell now, I suppose!
After being conked with the candy, we walked over to a sidewalk area so we could see what Patty was doing when she was done. They took her into the Chamber of Commerce to do some stuff, which was where Emory was standing outside waiting for her at. She had two of her siblings with her and her brother in law, and they all went inside the Chamber with her. Emory came outside and hung out for a little bit, so we had some time to talk to him. I've always been vocal about how awesome Emory is, so it was nice to talk to him. He's a super nice guy, I really wish he was on the road with her when she tours. He was so surprised that we drove out there for this and commented about it being quite a drive, and I told him I figured it was most likely the last time we'd see her this year. He agreed and said it very well might be! (Here's hoping for some Opry gigs EARLY next year!) He told us that Patty would be out in a little while, so we hung out and waited for her. For awhile it was just us and then a mother with two of her kids, but after awhile of waiting, the mom decided it was too cold to have her kids outside waiting and they left. By the time Patty and Emory came back out, it was just Chris and I waiting on her. She came out and waved and we went over to get our photos with her. She thanked us for coming and for coming to the Opry gigs, and joked about how many photos I must have with her now. (I don't even think I have a count on that one now!) She wished us a Happy Thanksgiving, and we left her alone to be with her family and head home.
Roundtrip, it was about 10 hours for something that wasn't a show. It was 100% worth it. It's pretty awesome to watch her on the Santa Train first hand, and watch her face light up at all the kids so excited to see her and Santa. To cap the trip off with a hug and another photo was simply the icing on the cake! When they invite her BACK to the train, we will absolutely be heading back out!
View Photos from the Santa Train
View Videos from the Santa Train
