The Chopper Chronicles

Hello again folks. I know it’s been a few days since anything new has been posted. Things got a little crazy around here, and I needed a full day to recover from my adventure down a cattle grid full of stinging nettles !!!

I left off last time when we were headed off to ride the Chew Chew in Llanberis. ( for all you Yank Chihuahua’s, the double Ll in Llanberis, Llangollen, Llanarmon etc…is pronounced as a “CL” combination as in clan, but only at the beginning…double L’s in the middle of a welsh word is totally different ) Anyway…..after an exhilarating visit to My new Welsh Castle, Dolbadarn, we walked down the road a short bit to the Llanberis railway to ride on a Chew Chew train. This sounded like an excellent idea to me ! It was not my very first train ride. I have been on a commuter train that runs between San Francisco, California, and San Jose, California when I was going to the San Jose Airport headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. That wasn’t a Chew Chew type train however, and I really thought a Chew Chew train sounded fantastic !! I mean, how many trains actually allow chewing ?? That Bearded Guy went in the little station house and bought our tickets. I was slightly miffed about the fact that they misunderstood and my ticket said I was, of all things, ….a dog…( rolls handsome green Chihuahua eyes ) AND they misspelled Chihuahua and it said Ci under the dog part ( ok ok so Ci is dog in Welsh….a Chihuahua cannot be expected to remember EVERYTHING when excited about riding a Chew Chew ! ) The Chew Chew train had not arrived yet, but there was a fair amount of people milling about waiting for it. I, of course, received a great deal of adoring attention from quite a few admirers. There were also a steadily increasing amount of people with dogs showing up !!! Make sense that a handful of dogs would be riding this Chew Chew….As The Grand PooBah, King of North Wales, I was expecting a private car anyway. All was right in My world….New Castle, warm and snug inside my Mum’s bozo ( hooded sweatshirt to those of you new to my blog ) I had my two favorite servants attending me…it was all good to go ! Then…rattling and roaring up the track, clackity clacking it’s way towards us, was this hideous, loud…..thing….belching great monstrous Chihuahua choking clouds of absolutely wretched smelling, vile black and white smoke….and it screamed at me !!!!!! CHOOOOO CHOOOOO it screamed. Well I might be known as Chopper The Brave, Grand PooBah of All I Survey, King Of North Wales… but there IS a limit, folks !!!!! This was far and beyond anything I have ever experienced !!! I promptly left the warm snug confines of Mum’s bozo and tried to climb up over her head and into her right ear ! I couldn’t get a clear view of what it was exactly because it was sending great huge plumes of black and white smoke everywhere ! What I DID know was this idea just wasn’t going to work out…Chew Chew or not, I wasn’t going to stick around….I have plenty of perfectly excellent chew toys and rawhides at HOME ! Ohmygoddess me this was terrible !!! It screamed CHOOO CHOOO again and emerged from the smoke. Ok, so it wasn’t very big at all, in fact a LOT smaller then the train I have previously ridden on. It’s the smaller things one really has to look out for though !! A Rottweiler with a chip on it’s shoulder was more inviting than this ! The Torturing Twosome, for some reason, were terribly excited about this fume belching horrendous monster, and ignored all my protests and actually got into the last car this “Choo Choo” screaming monstrosity was pulling along behind it ! Ok, so maybe it would not be too bad if I burrowed deep into My Mum’s bozo…it WAS cold after all, and she was also wearing a nice fluffy down jacket. It gets worse here, folks ! That small but mighty noxious smoke spewing thing came chugging right beside us and made a huge lurching racket attaching itself right in front of our car !!!!! To put it mildly, I was NOT amused. Remind Me to put this Torturing Tetched Twosome on report ! Before long it started going, vile, smelly smoke belching out the side of a stack on it’s snout. That Bearded Guy was all excited…snapping a million pictures along the way. Mum was excited too and did a lot of ” oooh’ing and ahh’ing ” At one point Mum had the camera…so I decided I would be much safer tucked under That Bearded Guys arm….after all…he IS much bigger and stronger than My Mum is ! After what seemed like for-ev -ver, it came to the end of it’s tracks along the lake. Everyone got out and walked around for awhile….I stayed inside my Mums bozo. Others and their dogs milled about reading about the slate mine history of the area and letting their dogs run around. Not ONE TIME did I see any actual “chewing” going on ! Thankfully, during this small break….that horrid little CHOO CHOO screaming, smoke belching monster, jumped onto another little piece of track and went to the back of the cars to pull us all back to where we started from. That Bearded Guy was still snapping pictures like He had never seen a lake before, so I had to crawl into the back of Mum’s down jacket for safety and security reasons. We made another brief stop so the Engine Ear could feed and water the stinky monster. Guess all that smoke belching is thirsty work ! Personally, I was all for walking back to the station at this point…it was not all that far up the track. Sighs…unfortunately The Torturous Tetched Twosome were determined to ride all the way to the station. This time the Corn Duck Tier put a nice big Chocolate Labrador Retriever ( and his entourage ) into My car for added protection. This Chihuahua has never been so glad to get to any station of any sort before !!! While this seemed to be a very enjoyable excursion for My terribly Tetched entourage, not at any point was I amused. Worse yet….I did not at any time, see ANY Chewing going on !!! The walk back to the chariot was fairly uneventful aside from the fact the air was actually breathable once again. That Bearded Guy brought out the large roast beef bap…er….cob, ( nice round sandwich bread to us Yankee Doodle Chihauhua’s ) he had bought at Edwards of Conwy…..FINALLY, something to really chew !!! They fed me My bits minus the lettuce, purple onion,cucumber and tomato. It was a nice gesture on their parts I suppose…..however they are still going on report !

This ticket should have been My first clue…it said I was a DOG !!

The Chihuahua choking, bloody great red monster, belching clouds of absolutely wretched smelling, vile black and white smoke while screaming ” CHOOO CHOOO ” coming clickity clackity up the track.( I was trying to protect My Mum from the inside of her ear )

The Chihuahua choking, bloody great red monster, belching clouds of absolutely wretched smelling, vile black and white smoke while screaming ” CHOOO CHOOO “, as it came around to grab My private train car !

Ohmygoddess this is a TERRIBLE idea. Forget the Chew Chew Mum ! Let’s just get OFF this thing !

I think I see a place where I might be able to Chew Chew My way out of here !

Look over there ! A place to get off at…looks perfect to ME !

A perfect place to escape the Chihuahua choking, bloody great red monster, that belches clouds of absolutely wretched smelling, vile black and white smoke while screaming ” CHOOO CHOOO “

One of about a zillion pictures That Bearded Guy took of Llyn Padarn Lake.

Another lake picture and Welsh landscape.

The National Slate Museum as seen through Chihuahua choking absolutely wretched smelling stuff that the Chew Chew train spews.

Old slate workings

Due to multiple requests, I have added a slightly better picture of the Chew Chew engine. Since I was so busy protecting Mum and That Bearded Guy , they neglected to get a really good picture of the actual train cars being pulled by that The Chihuahua choking, bloody great red monster, belching clouds of absolutely wretched smelling, vile black and white smoke while screaming ” CHOOO CHOOO “

To see the entire set of well over a zillion lake and train pictures that The Bearded Guy took on the Chew Chew ride, ( ok ok…it’s really only 43 ) Click right >>HERE<<

This is Chopper The Choking Chew Chew rider, Grand PooBah of all I survey and King of North Wales, signing off for now……

I raise my Paw and Wag my tail in a *bark out* to my wonderful friend, Debbie with a new last name as of Oct 11, 2008, in Marana/Tucson, AZ !!!!! HellOoOooo and Thank You Debbie Of All Pet Travel ! HelloOoOo and Thank You’s to Rich and Erika, miss and love You’s ! You too,  Carmen,  All of Vail AZ, …. Lots of kisses and Wags.…Hiya’s to Maxx and Duke !

Chopper The Brave ” Going Where No Chihuahua Has Gone Before “

Tags: All Pet Travel, baps, Chewing, Chihuahua, Chopper, cobs, Great Little Trains of Wales, Llanberis, Llanberis Lake Railway, Llyn Padarn, narrow-gauge, National Slate Museum, North Wales, Railway, sandwich, Snowdonia, Snowdonia National Park, steam engines, steam trains, stunning views, Wales, Walks, welsh slate mining

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 4:54 pm and is filed under All Pet Travel, Chihuahua, Chopper, Dogs, Dolbadarn Castle, Llanberis, Llanberis Lake Railway, Llyn Padarn, North Wales, Sheep, Snowdonia, Snowdonia National Park, Wales, Walks, castle, cobs and baps, sandwich, steam engines, stunning views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.