On the Crescent from Charlotte to Atlanta, I was in a different kind of roomette. This one was in an older style car. It wasn’t the usual long-distance double-decker car, but rather was a single story and maybe the car was a touch wider overall. The roomette I had (all of them were like this I supposed) had its own bathroom, but still taking up almost no space. It had both a sink which opened (note the drain holes in the back–it drained when you closed it) and a toilet tucked in.

The train also had a cool older diner car with a great door. Here’s a look into the car from outside its door.

I will be taking the Crescent northbound when I leave Atlanta on Wednesday. It will take me to Alexandria and then I’ll grab another train for the short jaunt to Richmond. I wonder if the facilities will be the same…

There is a convention of Forensic Accountants at my hotel here in Charlotte. Yeah, baby!

[train miles so far, upon arrival in Charlotte]

As I’m writing this (on 4/24, to be posted later, since I have no connection on the train) I’m on the Carolinian, somewhere north of Rocky Mount (just passed a sign..it’s Weldon, NC). I just realized that this is my 6th state-ish thing today (and some people came from NYC so they have 8!). I started this morning in Philadelphia (where you can’t go into Independence Hall anymore…how wrong is that?!), then went through Delaware, Maryland, DC (the “ish” mentioned earlier), Virginia, and now North Carolina. Pretty impressive for 7 hours of travel (of which about one was just sitting still, thanks to the federal inspectors who randomly decided to inspect the train in Richmond, VA).

It’s been a nice ride and I’ll be taking the same route (different trains, though) in the other direction after Atlanta, so maybe I’ll get to see the other side. All the cool stuff in DC was on the other side of the train, so no great pics for you. Sorry. I did get a brief glimpse of the Jefferson Memorial (very near the tracks) and the Washington Monument peeking out from between buildings in the distance. I also saw two Marine One-looking helicopters in the air–wonder if the Shrub was coming/going someplace. But taking a picture would have been difficult at best as there was an unhappy businessman I’d have had to shoot past/through.

This is a non-sleeper train, so I have a business class seat (well, two since there’s no one next to me) rather than a compartment as I generally prefer, but it’s comfortable enough and the bottles of water and coffee (all non-booze, actually) are free, and the attendant attends well. There’s not a dining car on this train, but there is a cafe car with sandwiches and the like if one gets hungry. Most of the food isn’t very healthy, though, so I’ve been filling up on raisins and almonds which I brought with me…though I did break down and have a small bag of Doritos earlier.

That’s the one difficulty with traveling–trying to eat a healthy diet. I’ve been avoiding the bad stuff with rare Dorito-like exceptions so far, but at the same time I know I haven’t been eating enough protein (I ate my last power bar-type thing this morning waiting on the train–must get more in Atlanta). So, though I feel as if I’ve lost some weight in the 9 days I’ve been gone, I’m afraid it’s muscle and not fat. Not exercising enough hasn’t helped either. I think the past two days of walking around Philly (not a ton, but some) were very good for me and I’m pretty sure there’s a pool at the next hotel (and at this point I should have some time to grab a swim tomorrow, depending on workload), but mostly, I’ve been feeling like a slug.

On a completely different note…there’s a British couple behind me and her voice is exactly like some actress, but I haven’t been able to figure out who and it’s driving me crazy. He sounds a bit like Arthur Dent from the HHGTTG TV series, but more like the guy who played Susan’s father-in-law-to-be on Desperate Housewives the other week.

I hit the 3000 mile marker somewhere in northern Indiana I figure, after going 128 miles on the Pacific Surfliner, plus 2728 miles on the Texas Eagle (LA to Chicago via Austin), then another 144 on the Capitol Limited (to Pittsburgh, for a total of 481 miles on that train). Add on the Pennsylvanian to Philly (353), and I’m at a total of 3690 train miles so far, and that’s all in one week!

I posted an image of a roomette in its seating configuration earlier, but I thought some of you might be interested in what it looks like as a bed. That’s on the Capitol Limited, not too far west of South Bend, IN. I went to sleep not long after that and slept right through our delay near Toledo (due to a minor derailment of a freight train). So, rather than seeing dawn in Pittsburgh as planned, I saw it in Ohio.

Once we got to Pittsburgh, it was onto the Pennsylvanian, which they held for us though we were quite late. As this train does not overnight, there are no compartments. This leads one to not only see the scenery (like Latrobe), but also the actions of your fellow riders. On this trip that meant watching the gag-able actions of this guy. Yes, that’s a can of Spam and yes, he was eating it with a spoon. I wonder if he wonders why he is so large, what with the spam and multiple Pepsis he had. Makes my stomach hurt just to think of it.

Anyway, the Pennsylvanian took us across the state and through amazing scenery. While this one isn’t beautiful, I wonder if you can identify it. So as not to bore you, I’ll only share this other image snagged as we passed lots of Amish. The train dropped me in Philadelphia, where a brief walk from my hotel (at Penn’s Landing on the Delaware River) made me all pissed at our government again. I found myself apologizing to the ghosts around Independence Hall.

So tomorrow I meet with a client or two then get locked in meetings for the rest of the day and all the next. After that, it’s onto the next train…this one Charlotte bound.

This is what a roomette looks like. The seat I’m in (taking the picture) and the facing one fold into a bed at night. It’s quite comfy, but small.

I like the bedroom better (another shot), but it’s much more expensive.

That train that went through Crawford? Also goes through Hope, Arkansas. No kidding.

Thursday…

While in the dining car for lunch today, we sped through Crawford, Texas. Probably just as well I was in public, so I didn’t do something silly like moon the Shrub’s ranch. With my luck I’d have the Feds quite literally on my ass.

Right now, 1:30pm CDT on Thursday, we’re approaching Ft. Worth (actually, we’re in Cleburn). Once in a while, we pass by derricks which are, I believe, for drilling oil. It’s odd to see. While I’ve seen many oil pumps in my life, the derricks are something I don’t know if I’ve ever seen in real life–just in old Hollywood movies (think Giant) and Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Ft. Worth. Took us some time to get here as I think we caught every red signal en route. Once here I thought for a second that I might actually be able to connect to the internet, but alas, it was just a tease. There is a signal, but it lets you only connect to the University of Texas Arlington pages. Darn. Maybe in Dallas.

Anyway, Ft. Worth has lots of older buildings. I’m guessing the old oil boom built many of them as they look to be from the 30s, 40s and 50s mostly. I took several pictures. Also, we met up with our southbound Texas Eagle counterpart.

Now here’s an odd thing–we’re backing out of the Ft. Worth station. Why? I dunno. Maybe we have to get past some switch to get to Dallas. Hmmm. Odd.
…yup, that was it.

Friday morning, St. Louis, Mo. I had breakfast with two gentlemen from Longview, TX. One was a Baptist and the other Episcopalian, and it was interesting conversation. The Epis. (at least) expressed frustration with Bush, though he had voted for him the first time. As I have heard other Texans say, he was a good governor then something (bad) happened when he became president. This guy said he met the Shrub (when he was gov.) and that he’s short!  Anyway, even though it was clear that we differed in some significant ways (the Baptist has a kid working with Dobson!), I think these men were good proof that most Americans are decent, well-meaning, respectful folk who want nothing more than happiness and a better life for everyone.

Illinois
Farms. Looks just like home with its black earth. The trees are just barely in bud, which I noticed in MO when I got up this morning. That surprised me as I had somewhat forgotten how barren the trees look without their leaves. But many of the fields look as if they’ve been planted and when you look closely, most of the trees have that hint of green, promising leaves soon.

Frankly, it’s just great to see real trees–not stubby things that are hardly more than bushes. In San Diego, the only tall trees are palms and eucalyptus (occasionally a cedar). Even the pines are mostly twisted, stubby things and any maples or the like are ornamentals and stunted.

Corn was growing in Texas, but not here yet.

(Posted from Chicago)

On last Saturday night Christopher and I went to a club/music venue for an 80s “new wave fest” featuring Cure tribute bands. We didn’t go to watch a bunch of people emulate The Cure (what an odd thing to do–tribute bands make no creative sense to me). No, we went because old friends of C’s from his youth were going to be gathering at the event in a sort of club class reunion.

We met with Mike Labonte and Big Dan and off we went. When we arrived, there was a huge line going around the corner–just to get in! 9pm and the joint was loaded! Someone gave us extra tickets (cool!) and we jumped the line with a bunch of “old friends” (bad karma, I know). We had to go through a search and being wanded, then we got into the place.

Once there I felt like I had been transported into some Twilight Zone version of a John Hughes film. 80s music, people dressed mostly as they would today but a few in bad 80s outfits (not even good 80s outfits–just bad ones–especially women who simply should not have been wearing the minis and fishnets–yikes!–we started placing bets on which women would flash their tits first) and the cliques were forming much as they were seen in Sixteeen Candles (though that was set in Illinois, as are most Hughes films). I told one of the guys “I keep expecting to see John Cusack or Molly Ringwald walk by.

Suddenly I realized that it wasn’t so much John Hughes as it was the Fast Times at Ridgemont High reunion. For those of you who don’t know, Cameron Crowe went to high school at Clairemont High (get it–Ridgemont/Clairemont…and yes, the very same Clairemont where I now live). Mike Labonte went there too–he had class with the real Mr. Hand. Many others in that room had the same experience.

This film that my friends and I thought was a completely unreal representation of high school life was, in fact, based on a lot of reality. And there I was slap-dab in the middle of it–just 20 years late…and those were not Phoebe Cates tits.
Odd how pop culture works: a pseudo Fast Times reunion with Cure tribute bands, all organized via MySpace. For a girl from Columbus, Ohio, it was an odd evening.