here is my train diary.
the station in longview, tx was pretty run down. i went about 85 the whole way there b/c i thought i was going to be late. when i got in my car, 'love train' was on the radio and there is line that goes something like this "i hope you don't miss your train, if you do, i will feel sorry for you". creepy. needless to say, that seemed to be a bad omen.
turns out that longview is much closer than advertised. i was about an hour early, which was ok b/c it gave me a chance to grab some juice from a corner store for my on-train entertainment.
lots of people were waiting in that tiny room when i got back. so many that i didn't even have a seat. which, after i thought about it for .03 seconds, was a great thing. who wants to be sitting down before 20 hours on a train? not me. chumps do though.
the person taking tickets was and continues to be a real pain in my ass. him and his lackey are constantly telling me that i can't sit by one of the few precious outlets. one more warning from them and i'll have a warning FOR them. i've been nice up to the point of me writing this, but anymore shit and i am going to say "screw the karma buildup i'll get for letting this just 'be' and give me some heads to chop. their problem seems to be with logic. and that is most people's problem i find. i've deduced that they need to have a really tight understanding of which seats are taken by either a group of odd numbered or even numbered groups. but, i'm afraid that they mistook my initially welcoming smile for being a jackass. a vocation i'll not deny, but i will deny putting 'jackass' as my starting pitcher in this game i seem to be playing with them. me sitting here by myself, after someone else who was sitting by themselves is just the same thing.
ok. i'm done talking about that. for now at least. if i get kicked off the train, what a good story that would be!
the train is comfy. infinitely more so than any plane i've ever been on. for one thing, there is a foot rest, a leg rest and a drop down tray. the others i could take or leave, but just ask karlito how much i love a good footrest. malcolm also knows this information, but he is less likely to talk about it with inquiring parties.
the seats are nice. two seats, then and aisle, then two seats. from the back, there are three passenger cars, then one observation deck, with the lower level being a snack bar. (beer is $5!!!) and then a dining room with the kitchen below it. then the first class sleeping cars and then the engines.
i was first relegated to the farthest back car, but now i have ninja'd my way to the second to last. we'll see how that works (see above).
things i saw out of the window last night:
darkness.
some street lights.
a car wait for 2 seconds and then turn around to speed off, presumably to circumvent the train that didn't have any more cars left to pass
i woke up a lot in the night. not too bad of a night's sleep actually. at some point, little rock i think, someone had sat next to me and went to sleep. like the guy across from the aisle, he had an older windows pc that he used off and on with the screen super bright. i knew i wouldn't have to worry about that for too long. just like the guy next to me, his battery went dead super fast.
i got up for good at 6:30 and we're still in st. louis as of 8. i'm gonna go check on my breakfast reservation. i didn't get dinner. i am 100% sure that they do not carry enough food for every passenger to eat every meal.
8:08- earlier i went and got a number for breakfast. i wanted to make sure i got one b/c i didn't get any dinner, other than the snack bar hamburger. the guy told me i was number 7, to wait up to 45 minutes, and sit in a place where i could hear him. naturally, i thought i had some time to kill, so i went outside for 15 minutes, and then back to my seat. then i waited for more time to pass and after 45 i headed back to the dinning car, like the guy said, to inquire about my food. i asked his assistant if #7 had been called and she scoffed and said loudly, "number - 7 - is here!" the guy turned around from taking someone's order and said "man- i called your number 9 times. so go take a seat in the lounge like i told you to earlier and i'll see if we can fit you in." i was a little confused, but i said "okay man, no big deal." and here i sit.
i guess he really had earlier meant that i was to sit in the lounge where i could hear him. i just thought that since i had heard his initial call in my car in the back, that he would again make calls on the intercom. i guess not. maybe i'm terrible at riding trains. i hope the rest of the day gets better. b/c right now i feel like i'm doing something wrong. maybe this is a really stressful job, and i've underestimated the crew's unhappiness. i thought it would be a really cool job.
8:14- i'm confidant that the next 5 hours will be a joyous sightseeing adventure that i'll never forget.
8:53- breakfast was ok. french toast. i sat with a nice lady from dallas. she said, out of the blue that the staff was not very nice, which made me feel a little bit better about feeling like i was getting the shaft on a few points. over the course of our meal, the conductor called on the intercom that they were checking all tickets and that everyone had to be in their seats. i think that was a boon, b/c now that i'm back at my seat, it looks like i'll have it for the duration. don't ask/don't tell where you're supposed to be sitting. there was a guy sitting next to me, but he moved over to an empty bench, which is all fine with me. as long as i have this plug i'll be happy. i'm not even going to use it that much, it is the principal.
now the train is going backwards....that's a first.
during the night i decided that i should sit on the sunny side of the train. there were two reasons behind this. one- it would be the least populated side and two- the glare of the sun would give a more picturesque aura to the heartland as it scoots by.
9:01 i thought there would be a more rigorous check of my carry-on luggage. i had a small thing of vodka and some cheezits. i was really concerned that they would take away my cheezits, but there was not metal detector, no x-ray no nothing. i guess if you're going to blow up a train, you don't really need to be on it. in fact, that's the worst place to be.
9:26- whoa! the arch! it was right behind the station the whole time. that thing is huge and silvery. i would try to take a picture, but it wouldn't turn out. now we're over the river. there is a huge barge. i've never been on a railroad bridge before. i like it. whoa! we're making a circle around the northern part of the city and it is giving me another great view of the arch. i hear you can go up there. it is very silver. i just remembered that my new women's league team is gonna be here in st. louis. i'll have to take the train to the games!
11/24
i'm here in wisconsin now. the rest of the train trip was spent sitting in the observation deck watching the farms and small towns. i read and snacked on cheezits.
i'm currently in the Sheyboygan public library looking at a city covered in snow. we woke up a few hours ago and i had a feeling that it had snowed. sure enough, about two - three inches covered everything. it is really pretty. anyway, Shea has a meeting here once a week or so. it is about 70 miles north of the city, and a nice drive. except for the occasional icy patch on the road.
last night we went to one of her friend's houses. i can't wait to go back with my camera. they have an incredible house. more on that later i'm sure. then we went to one of the billions of local corner bars. we had a few beers and got the sweet hookup from the bartender. Shea knows everybody, and everybody is punk. i forgot about that. everybody is punk
11/25- today is pretty bad ass so far. woke up late after a fun night of local bars and beers. my favorite things. milwaukee is up there with alaska as far as good local beers go. after tomorrow's brewery tours, it might surpass the great alaskan lagers of deliciousness.
but that is for tomorrow to tell. today is all about being in the downtownish area around shea's work. i'm trying to find a bookstore, but having no luck. so i ran across a cool coffee shop. i hate coffee, but this lemonade is kick ass. and free wifi. later we are going to eat sushi, and then shea goes back to work. and then i'm going to eat thai food and then check out a comic book store i saw near her office.
11/27 Today's thanksgiving; sean and i dragged ourselves out of bed this morning and had brunch with my mom and her partner after one more debacherous night of drinking. While the meal with my mom in itself was not noteworthy, it was entertaining to remember sean and my mom's first interaction the last time sean came to visit--the both of us getting kicked out of her house and sent to crash on friend's couches. Throughout this week's it's been nice to think back over the decade that sean and I have known each other and the varied memories we've accumulated along the way.
November's a rough time for someone from the south to come visit Wisconsin. To help with the frigid temperatures sean and I spent most of our time inside--talking around petyon and julie's wood-burning stove, cuddling with wendy on her couch watching movies and eating popcorn, and seeking refuge in one of the hundreds of bars in milwaukee as sean attempted to drink every microbrew made in Wisconsin. He did pretty well; I was impressed with his persistence.
11/28- back on the train
i've been on the train for about 4 hours now. i've spent 99% of my time in the observation car. this really is the best car. especially when the amtrak people are (again) dicks about getting me a seat with a plug. i've found a plug in the observation car and i will continue to exploit it until they tell me otherwise. the people on this train are also asshats. i'm now convinced that it is a trait required by amtrak HR people.
there are a surprisingly large number of people on this train that were on my train up here. sadly a few of them are little kids that asked for DVD players for x-mas, but no headphones.
this time i'm queued up for dinner. i'm not really excited about the price, but i do need another meal today. besides vokda and juice. and yes, i'm more prepared this time around. i have more drinks, an extra book, two apples (1 down), some sour craps, some organic peanut butter pretzels from the co-op, annnnnnnnndddd...... yeah, that sounds like it is it. i'm ready.
there is a cute girl at the end of the train who is drinking wine and editing a notebook of sorts. wish me luck.
kidding!! but seriously, this would be an amazing kind of trip to take with a lady friend. like i said on twitter, this train is full of people who either want to be left alone or want to never stop talking to me. if those are my options, i'll take the solitude of my mp3s and my .txt program.
yesterday and today were mostly consumed with 1 thought: "should i goto the dakotas?"
the answer was no. but it would have been yes if i had my druthers. right now adventure sounds like the only option. a few days ago my dad wrote a blog post about a time in his life when his only responsibility was his dog. and he even left Louise with a fisherman's family for a month while he went out on a shrimp boat. i also know that he hitchhiked around america for a long time. i know that he once had a gun pulled on him and was mugged while hitching rides. maybe my travel bug is genetic. i'd like to think so. i certainly don't need any help wishing that my feet were not tied down, but i'll take what i can get.
Malcolm is indeed a big part of my life. i wouldn't want to leave him. he'll goto NZ with me for sure. maybe in the next few months i can leave him somewhere while i hobo around. but realistically, will i come back? i hope so. i don't want to hop trains for a living. and i don't want to live a life of poverty. i feel a strong desire to relinquish all desire and possession (pun?) but i'm not sure that's the right path. i have a business partner and he needs a certain level of my commitment.
the next time i take a train somewhere, i'll keep two things in mind.
1. just like the police, the train company will lie to you
2. minimize the nighttime travel.
re: 1 - these guys are assholes. serious contemplation on my part has yet to enlighten a reason for this, but i'm sure that if you work on a train, you are an asshole.
re: 2 - i can't see shit right now. and i have 13 or 12 hours left.
one of the best things i've done for this ride back regards my RSS feeds. of which i have many. i went into my google, excuse me, Google Reader at the last minute to switch on the 'offline' mode. i've had a great time this week, but one thing i've missed is my continuing feed of information via the interwebs. especially when it comes to the warhammer online blogosphere. with the offline mode, this wasn't a bane but a boon! i have been reading the past month's articles on my laptop for the past few hours and i couldn't be more content. the only issues are two.
1. pictures, for some reason, don't display. meaning that dozens of articles that point to pictures to properly illuminate their meaning i've had to 'keep as unread' so that i can later get back into my RSS feed and take in their full meaning
2. well. honestly, while writing point number 1, i've forgotten the point to number 2. i'm pretty sure it was the fact that when an item is read, then it goes away, only to be forgotten. but that doesn't seem right. b/c that is basically the point of point 1. it is just another instance of me needing to mark items 'keep unread'.
WAIT! i remembered it!!! the real point #2 is that some chumps (@evilolive) think it is a good idea to only have the first 4-5 lines printed in the RSS feed. meaning that an online connection to their site is required to read the full article. this is maddening on a train. there is no internet, but there are tons of articles that have very interesting intro sentences. and wouldn't you know that the most prolific sites have this policy of teaser sections. oh well. i'm off to dinner and then to charge the laptop for the long 30 rock marathon that is to come.
/cmnd + s
lots of x-mas lights are visible through the plexiglass. my usual complaint of "it isn't even thanksgiving" no longer applies. great. now what am i going to gripe about?
5:29- too much time spent trying to get too little sleep. i had a really good rest from about midnight to 2:30. when i woke up i thought- man! it must be almost 9! it was not. it was almost 2:30. sweet. the indian guy sitting next to me is cool, but he was listening to his ipod a little too loudly. i think i would have been able to get back to sleep if it wasn't for that. but maybe not. he made the mistake of getting too much sleep during the day, so he's awake too.
6:09 - after a quick stop in texarkana to stretch legs i'm back in the observation area. vic, the guy i was sitting next to is very chatty and not hint taking. i'm so tired. i don't want to talk about politics or the weather. not to mention that i want the damn sun to come up. i want to see the sunrise, but the set up i have with my power cord has me on the other side. its a matter of principal that i do not relinquish my furtive grasp on delicious electricity. earlier i heard that we would be stopping in marshall, texas for an hour. b/c we're an hour ahead of schedule. fucking great! one stop away and i have to sit for longer than the trip to the next and final stop. maybe the next time i go amtrak (yeah right *cough*plugs*cough) i'll start and end in marshall. i'd rather be driving farther than sitting in marshall for an hour.
thinking back on dinner, i'm glad i went. i was seated at 6:30 and was put next to a couple who are in a sleeping car. the guy was mr. badjoke and the lady was pretty nice. they were both nice. i ordered a burger and partook in the small talk that is required. i must have been friendly and nice, b/c when the lady's steak came, she said that she had recently had gastric surgery and that she could in no way finish the steak. kick ass for me! i got 1/2 her steak. they even had a-1. no amount of a-1 however, could save the burger. i feared that all civilization must have been made a sacrifice to unholy demons in order for a burger to be that horrible. maybe it was the bread that had a wood plank undertone, or maybe it was the meat that was more lifeless than a food product should be. the steak was fuckin good though. 22 dollars, but good. then the couple had dessert. didn't you just not eat this steak so you could lose weight? why are you eating an equal amount of ice cream? the two items have the same mass.
6:25 - just realized why i can't see the sunrise. too foggy.
