3000 plus miles
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.