Being Barnes: The Nightmare Express

Text from my aunt Terilyn on Monday: Hey since you like Halloween so much you should check out the Stringtown nightmare express in Lindon. It's free. It's kind of a silly little train but if you go with friends its a lot of fun. They have a website.
My response: Oh sounds fun i'll have to check it out!!
Terilyn: The lines can be a little long and they only run through Wenesday.
Me: Oh darn might not be able to make it then.
Terilyn: Check out the website anyway.

I knew that with my crazy school schedule this week I just wasn't going to be able to make it, and I was actually pretty disappointed because I DO love Halloween. And obviously, anthing free = the best.

A few hours later I decided to be a good girl and go to FHE. And I was rewarded for it, because guess what? WE WENT TO THE STRINGTOWN NIGHTMARE EXPRESS.

I'll admit, my expectations were low. I hadn't even checked out the website yet, but I had heard from a few sources that lines could be long and it was just a cute little train ride that was put on by a few houses in a neighborhood. What we found when we arrived blew us away. Let me tell you what friends, this is not some small little get together. It is a big deal. I would definitely compare it to a haunted house run by big companies that people pay tons of money for... except that it wasn't quite as scary maybe. I'm not going to lie though, I jumped and/or screamed several times both in line and on the ride. There were people dressed up as scarers everywhere. Scarecrows on stilts, big hairy monsters that blended into bushes, little kids dressed in all sorts of terrifying costumes, figures in coffins that I could have sworn were too small to be real and then next thing I knew they were jumping out at me. Waiting in line wasn't even bad because they made a highly amusing little film to watch while waiting for your turn. From there you were moved outside where they had a display of all sorts of Halloween decorations and lights and they played a SUPER cool song (song in the video above) while the lights flashed and pumpkins/skeleton heads sang in time. Then it was time to board the train. Which was actually pretty tiny. And I felt like I was going to fall off. But hey, that just added to the experience! The next 5ish minutes were awesome. Winding all around and through the yards of houses... I actually could never really tell where we were because of the thousands of lights and decorations and tons and tons of scarers scattered throughout the route. There was even a real horse guys... with a headless horseman. I mean seriously, this thing belongs in the big leagues. We topped the whole thing off by taking a picture with Jack Sparrow (who pretty much captured the heart of every girl there in two seconds) in front of the giant pirate ship they built into their front yard.

FHE this week: definite success.

The first year they did this in 2006, they had 900 guests. Last year they had over 13,000 guests. And that is only over the span of one week! Also keep in mind, this thing is FREE (though they are asking for $2 donations now so that they can keep the production going). It takes over 300 volunteers with all the costumes, decorations, building, food, etc.

Everyone who lives in Utah should check it out. Since today is the last day... just mark this down somewhere so you remember to go next year. Look at their facebook page by clicking: HERE. Their website: HERE. Watch an awesome little preview of the ride that KSL did: HERE. You'd think they've hired me to promote their business. But really... I am just really excited by the whole thing. I mean really, what a COOL thing for a neighborhood to pull together and do every year.