Hello again. We're in Vero Beach Florida. Hopefully you'll enjoy what I enjoy creating.
I spent the last two weeks since my father died helping mother get everything handled. The last 5 months since he was diagnosed with cancer seem like a blur. We are all ok with his passing, since he was ready, and died without having to go onto the strong painkillers many terminal cancer patients have to resort to. After all the stress of the previous months, I was ready for a break. Our friends Neil and Andrea have long wanted us to come back and visit them in Florida.
Well since it’s Thursday this must be Florida. We arrived safe and sound at Neil and Andrea’s house in Vero Beach yesterday. We chose a new mode of transportation for this trip. We rode the Amtrak from Raleigh NC to Orlando FL. This has given me much food for my musings.
We arrived at the Raleigh train station courtesy of Shaun, Vickie’s nephew. He is going to store our Tahoe for the duration of the trip. They had free parking at the train station, but it is not in the best part of town, and there are only 60 spaces available. We had visions of coming home and finding the Tahoe sitting on blocks sans its alloy wheels and new Michelins. So much thanks to Shaun who with his two young sons, Ian and Bradon, delivered us to the train station. The train master gave them both wooden train whistles, and they had a great time exploring the train station with their great aunt. Unfortunately they had to leave before they got to see the train, but had a big time in any event.
Because we had booked sleeping accommodations on the train, we were considered 1st class passengers. The station had a nice little lounge for the “1st class passengers”. We availed ourselves of that and waited in comfort for the train to arrive. While waiting, I explored the train station. It is quite old, and there were pictures on the wall of old steam locomotives sitting in front of it. It had been remodeled, but in the center they preserved two of the original brick columns.
Rail travel is quite different from air travel in many ways. When we arrived at the station, a jovial attendant, and no line greeted us. He asked us for our picture Ids, tickets, and we were done. He said he’d greet us around the corner to check our luggage. In 5-7 minutes we were done. (and no strip search as usual for me) Let me mention also that the train allows you to check three 50 pound bags PER PERSON and two 50 pound carry on bags PER PERSON. We could move with that many suitcases. (or at least take the same amount of stuff we took to Florida in the spring in the Tahoe)
While we were waiting in the lounge for departure, they made an announcement that the conductor would be coming around taking tickets. I decided I better check on things since we were the only folks in the 1st class lounge. I made a lap of the station and the jovial trainmaster said the conductor would certainly be to the lounge to get our tickets. While passing through the station back to the lounge I noted that a large number of folks had arrived to take the train since we went into the lounge. It was quite entertaining as there was a BROAD ASSORTMENT of folks waiting on the train.
Back in the lounge, we continued our wait, and they announced that the train would arrive exactly on time. Soon after, the conductor came in for our tickets. He was a very nice guy and noticed my Key Largo t-shirt. He said he was a diver and really loved to stay in Key Largo. I agreed what a great place it was while he processed our tickets. As he left the lounge, I commented to Vickie that any job where they still got to wear silly hats couldn’t be too bad. Many of the folks working on the RR still get to wear cool silly hats and uniforms. It’s like the military but with a sense of humor and no guns.
The train arrived, and we walked down to “position #6” which was our assigned boarding spot. (300 yards down the concrete boarding area) We were met by Silvia our car attendant, and escorted to our “Roomette”, Old #9. Here the fun begins. We already knew the dimensions of the Roomette from the Internet. But somehow that didn’t prepare us for the physical reality of it. First off, our carry on (measured to be smaller than the recommended carry on dimensions) wouldn’t fit under the seat. We tried laying it on the square toilet lid, which doubles as a table when closed, but it kept over balancing and falling off. We ended up putting it on the upper bunk, and putting the computer bag carry on on the ledge beside my seat. (we discovered much later, after Vickie had repacked the carryon to be thin enough to fit under the seat, there was another big storage spot up at the top level abo ve the toilet/upper bunk stairs) All that accomplished, we sat down in the two facing seats, and our knees touched. We tried putting down the convenient table between us, and it rested on my stomach. It was obvious these Roomettes had been designed with smaller folks in mind. I was a little in a funk, but we mixed up an adult beverage from the complimentary large cup of orange juice Sylvia (tips are appreciated) gave us and decided to make the best of it.
Vickie in her usual resourcefulness figured out how to make it all work, and we settled down for the ride. Then some more fun started. I thought I might read a book, so I turned on the reading light---it wouldn’t work. Neither would Vickie’s. We were able to turn on some of the lights, but they were these sun bright fluorescent lights that hurt your eyes. And then there was the issue of the light in the ceiling that was “sort of on” and wouldn’t turn on or off. We called Sylvia, and she said yea the whole car was electrically funky. She said every time they sent a train up to New York, they sent back all the old broken down cars, and kept the good ones. As I’ll elaborate later, this car really did have some issues.
In the meantime we had started traveling, and the train had got up to speed. It was obvious the Amtrak roadbed was not in the best of shape. The motion of the car was sometimes similar to a mechanical bull, and I often found myself hoping the wheels were actually going to land back on the track after that particularly high bounce. I decided I might want something to eat before the “Café/Bar Car” closed at midnight. We got out of the room into the hallway, and when you looked toward the other cars, the incredible motion was really evident. It reminded me of something you might experience at Disney World or like we were on a rolling Amtrak amusement park. We sort of lurched and staggered our way through the closed Dining Car to the Café Car. The pass-throughs between cars were especially exciting. I got a $3.75 nuked hot dog (Hebrew –National), and we lurched/staggered back to Old #9. After sitting looking out the window at the dark for a while, Vickie suggested we go to bed. I agreed, and we called Sylvia to make our room up. (tips again appreciated) We were in for a big surprise.
What the Roomette lacks in creature comforts sitting up, it is just the opposite made up for sleeping. Vickie took the upper berth and I had the lower. Both have windows that let you view the passing scenery (though dark). As I lay in my very comfortable bunk, watching the dark scenery, I made a note on my voice recorder that went something like this. I have to mention the quality of the Amtrak roadbed at this point. “This train flops around like a grey whale humping in the water”, very exciting. At this point I drifted off to sleep.
I awakened later to use the toilet that was incorporated into our room. Was quite an experience in the semidarkness with the train flying around in random directions. I noted that the Roomette is sort of like camping, but you bring the outhouse in the tent with you. As I drifted back to sleep, here is another rambling sort of muse on the motion of the train. “As I lay here rolling south it came to me, the variety of the motion of these cars is infinite. At some speeds they actually wallow, at some speeds they bob and weave. Over some crossings, they jump and leap, but always their gimungus tonnage ends up back on the rails. And then it really came to me---what happens, rolling along on the Southbound train, when that one wheel leaps and doesn’t end up back where it’s supposed to be. With that thought I drifted back to sleep.
Next musing was at 02:23 in the Charleston SC station where we were running about half an hour late. This is where I got back into the weirdness of the room lights. We had this one overhead light that truly had a mind of its own or was possessed. I’ll once again resort to quoting my favorite source. “Our fiercely independent light in the ceiling of our room continues its quest to be completely unpredictable. Now that it has chosen to be on, no manner of switch throwing or cussing, or thinking, or switch pounding will affect its determined electronic gremlin that wants to shine. Maybe we’ll leave the station and some wizardry will happen and the button will light up and the light will go off. Who knows it remains to be seen.” “As I predicted 8 seconds after the previous observation, the light blinked a couple times. The little button o n the wall lit up, and now it’s off.” So after we left the station and I was no longer staring at the huge sodium vapor light, we were back to the soothing relative darkness of “The Roomette”.
Some time after the episode in the Charleston station, we stopped for a while, then proceeded slowly. Soon we passed a bunch of CSX (railroad) service trucks alongside the tracks with a bunch of lights shining on a bunch of removed ties in a muddy wallery looking area. Seems like we must have had some kind of track malady. Perhaps it was caused by the rain we had been traveling through.
After the stop and wait for what appeared to be the broken tracks malady, we ran on for what seemed to be an interminable amount of time at a speed of about 15 mph. Always making forward progress (quite smooth because of the low speed) but wondering what was the hold up? Was there a slow freight in front of us? Was there some other track malady—had the track washed out ahead and they were fixing it? One can never know when you are on the train at night in the dark and it’s raining.
Just as we finally picked up some speed, the gremlin light decided to turn itself on. I ignored it, as I was lulled to sleep by the crash and bang of the car undercarriage over the undulating roadbed. And always, the whistle blows, sometimes twice a minute when we’re near a town.
Next we are traveling on a relatively smooth section of track at a pretty high rate of speed. This particular track is very smooth, but periodically there is this giant crashing noise (I think it may be road crossings) followed by violent sideways rocking of the car for about 4 or 5 oscillations. Quite unnerving.
04:51 AM and we are parked in Savannah (GA). Savannah is like a big deal for this train. Don’t know if we like change engineers, or fuel the train or what exactly. Later, we have left Savannah and are at serious speed. 5:05 AM and this particular roadbed is quite smooth. The good news is the overhead light has once again decided to turn itself out, the bad news is at this particular speed the car had developed a resonance that causes the door of Old #9 to rattle quite loudly. I’m currently holding my hand on it to stop the ratatattat ratatattat ratatattat ratatattat ratatattat etc. Later, I remembered the guy across the hall had a coat hanger wedged into his door. At the time I didn’t understand why he would do that. As it turns out, he must be an Amtrak veteran. I used his coat hanger idea, and stopped my door from it rhythmic rattling. Have to add if all the tracks were like t he tracks between Savannah and Jacksonville, it would be quite a smooth and rapid trip. But then if we fixed our railroad tracks, we wouldn’t be able to afford 4 billion a day for the war in the Middle East
Later, just got what seems to be the best cup of coffee in the universe. Sitting in my Roomette watching the sun come up and the world go by. Slept very well for a couple hours on the smooth track, lulled by the rhythmic vibration of the entire railroad car, and singing Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans” quietly to myself drifting off. An interesting observation, freight trains are passing us on the opposite track which is my side of the train. The closing speed seems to be about 120 mph. We’re going 60 or 70 and they are doing about the same. Can’t imagine what the impact would be like if we hit head on. A 300,000-ton freight hitting a 90-ton aluminum tin can head on. Oooops.
Just passed through the Tallahassee rail yards, cars sitting everywhere waiting to be a train. Leaving Tallahassee passed an active older food processing plant that said A & P Foods on the back. There is a name I haven’t seen in years, you got to wonder who owns it now.
Vickie has awoken, she slept through everything, and we find ourselves in the dining car for breakfast. The smooth track has given way to the same old undulating snake we are used to. Everything in the dining car seems to have a life of it’s own, moving quite significantly. There are waves in the coffee and orange juice. I think I saw little guys surfing in Vickie’s water. The food is quite acceptable and the view, while not scenic, is great. The waiter said “he has to drink a couple in the morning to be able to flow with the car movement”. You GOT to love trains.
An hour or so after breakfast we arrived in Orlando (pretty close to on time) and collected our luggage and rent a car without hassle. We had an uneventful drive to Vero Beach, and a wonderful reunion with Neil and Andrea. We are planning to go to one of their/our favorite clubs (right on the water) tonight for some adult beverages, dancing, and meeting old friends.
More later,
Wes
