Again with that over exaggerating. I can’t help it. It’s a seriously built in response to everything I see in life. I have absolutely no desire to change it either.

Now I have hinted about it for quite some time now but on day5 of the cruise the boat docked in Skagway, Alaska and I has no idea what horror lay ahead of me.

I was booked to go on a pleasant three-hour train ride through the mountains to see the beautiful scenery of Alaska.

All was well. The train would go up the mountain, stop at the border of Canada and come back down the mountain. No biggy.

Ok, it was a little biggy when a 1/2 hour into the train ride the train began edging along the mountain ledge with a sharp 1500 foot drop on one side and a rock wall an inch away from the train on the other side. Not much room for error, I’ll say.

This wasn’t that big of a deal. I stayed on the side of the train where I didn’t have to observe that (minimum) 1500 foot sharp drop off the side of the train and told myself that this train runs a billion and one times and there is nothing to worry about.

Then everybody on the train looks over and sees a train that has fallen over the edge a few years back

It’s ok. I’m ok. I can get through this.

Yay! The top! We have reached the border and there is solid land on both sides of us now.

The two engines then detached and made there way to the opposite side of the train so we could make our way down. Down that step ledge again. Over the crickity bridge again. Through the un-lit dark tunnels again. Around those sharp turns with a 2000 drop to view beside us. It will be ok.

And it was ok until we heard a loud banging and popping noise and find out that the brakes have failed. YES! THE BREAKS HAVE FAILED ON THE WAY DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!

Thank goodness for emergency brakes because they were quickly turned on and we were stopped. With a 2000 foot drop off one side of the train.

I was panicking a bit. But I saw the conductor some out of the land side of the train and try to fix things for a 1/2 hour. The most nerve-racking 1/2 hour of my life because did I mention that there was a 2000 foot drop off one side of the train?

The conductor comes back on the speakers and says, “We are having break trouble but hopefully it’s fixed. We will give this another try.”

What!!!!??? Hopefully, and try!!! These are two words I could have lived without hearing.

And they tried.

And all was well for a minute until we proceeded to ride through that pitch black tunnel I mentioned. The train nor the tunnel were lit and the breaks decided to fail again. And the emergency brake decided to go on again.

Everyone was using their cell phones to light up the place.

The tour guide was walking through the train cars when I stopped her and asked her why they were putting our lives in jeopardy like that. Seriously, I asked her that.

And guess what she told me! She said that this happens 2 or 3 times a season. What??!! Did I hear her correctly? Is it not time to get a new train?!!

The conductor came on and told us that they cut out one of the engines and that hopefully that would solve the problem.

It did.

But my fear didn’t go away.

I was excited to get on the airplane.