Monday, September 19, 2005

All aboard!

The train ride from Boston to Dallas was so eventful that it deserves two posts. This first one will describe our trip from Boston to Chicago.

We ended up getting to South Station in Boston about an hour before the departure time, and since we had already checked our bags, we had little to do but wait. We were very pleased when we got on the train that there were some seats that had been turned around to face each other (most seats are situated just like you woyuld find on a motorcoach bus.) This seating arrangement worked just fine for us and we were beginning to think that travelling in coach might not be so bad after all. Unfortunately, we switched trains at Albany, NY, and everything changed for the worst. Not only did the second train not have seats that faced each other, it was very crowded, so we couldn't all sit together and Shannon had to share a seat with a young lady with a less-than-optimal attitude. We had hoped to be able to eat while we were at the train station in Albany, but there was nothing worth eating there. Fortunately, this train had a dining car, so we immediately headed there for supper. The dining car was so cold (I'm guessing it was to keep the cooks from getting too hot) that some people behind us actually put on their hoodies -- with the hoods up! We all sat there shivering as we ate supper. Fortunately for us, our waitress took a liking to us (especially the kids.) She gave the girls all free salads. Then, halfway through the meal she gave us a full litre of milk (on top of the large glasses of milk we started with.) When we finished the meal (we couldn't drink all the milk) she gave us another full litre of milk to take with us to our seats! Our waitress was definitely the highlight of the second train.

When we got back to our seats after supper, the girl that Shannon had to share a seat with was asleep across both chairs. We left her alone and sat three to a seat for a while until she woke up. The rail car we were in was overly air conditioned so we were quite cold all night (we were all wearing shorts and t-shirts since it had been a hot day) and none of us slept well. However, it was only one night and we arrived safely in Chicago the next morning.