Flint River Rambler

Churches and Railroads have at least one thing in common around these parts: both have been staples of South Georgia life for more than century and a half. Presbyterian churches, specifically, still dot the landscape of the state's southern counties, and steel rails have crisscrossed the Wiregrass region since the Civil War. These two fixtures of Georgia culture came together on a lovely fall Saturday in November, when more than 50 souls representing 10 Presbyterian congregations — in southwest Georgia, a regional communion known as Flint River Presbytery — climbed aboard the Azalea Sprinter for an excursion over the shortline's entire passenger route. More than four dozen church friends boarded at Willacoochee depot in the north, enjoyed an hour-long layover midway in Nashville, then traveled down into the city limits of Valdosta on the south end of the run. Then our engineer changed locomotives and our train changed directions, and happy Presbyterians enjoyed the entire route again, back home to Willacoochee. Along the way: Moody Air Force base, cotton fields, trackside homes, farm animals, pine forests, pecan groves, and a slow and easy river crossing. Older saints recalled growing up around trains, including one older Presbyterian who told childhood stories of train crews stopping to water steam engines and inviting him up into the red caboose to look around. What is it about the gentle rocking of sectioned rail that stirs up memories of happy times in motion? There's just something irreplaceable about riding trains just for train-riding's sake. Presbyterians have already given their lives over to a good and gracious God, but our dear friends at the Sprinter made another kind of convert out of every one of us: excursionists ... pilgrim travelors who discover that the getting there turns out to be most of the fun.