Train trip home

Don’t think I’m a boring person since my blog posts don’t contain as many pictures as Beth’s posts.
We are somewhere in Maryland or West Virginia and an hour or two away from DC. I don’t envy the guys who handle the “traffic control” stuff for the rail lines. We were an hour late getting into Chicago last week. We left Chicago a few minutes late on our trip home and have gradually gotten to be an hour and a half behind schedule (the poor folks who got on in Toledo, Ohio who were expecting us to pull in at midnight had to sit around until 1:30am). On more than one occasion, we’ve heard the conductor mention that we got stuck behind a freight train and are travelling at 15 miles-per-hour.

I feel like I learned quite a few things about train travel.
There are some strange characters – the first trip we had the loud-talker/loud-snorer who was either giving the whole train his opinion on things or sleeping (much more of the former than the latter). On the trip home, we had the guy reading about the government’s mind-control program (who also seemed to have a huge garden in his carry-on bag – he pulled out carrots, lettuce, at least one cucumber, multiple oranges, and a few other things I forget).
Earplugs are a must – On the trip home, one of the people behind us was snoring in a way that sounded like some kind of wildlife. Though the earplugs didn’t completely silence the snores, they were extremely helpful.
I can’t read on the train – I get too distracted with different noises and the bouncing around of the train. I’m also always excited to look out the window and see the difference scenery.
[Just arrived in Martinsburg, WV at 1:27pm – 2hrs and 7 minutes behind schedule]
Movies, laptop, and EVDO internet are great – We watched several episodes of West Wing on the way out. Last night, we watched Oceans 13 before trying to get some sleep. We’ve enjoyed having access to email and our blog as we’re travelling. It’s nice to not feel like we’re isolated from the world while we’re on the train.
There’s a reason they can charge so much for the rooms – They have “roomettes” on the train that are two seats facing each other with two twin bunks. Having a door to close, somewhere to lay down flat, no strange kids running around, no obnoxious loud passengers 10 seats up that don’t realize the whole rest of the train is asleep, and on and on. (Turns out I misread the pricing for the rooms and they don’t cost nearly as much as I thought they did – my bad).
It’s probably more fun in groups – Beth and I enjoyed each other’s company but we both commented how fun it would be to have friends along for the ride with us. We could stay up late playing games and hanging out.
Have a complete change of clothes – On the way out, I travelled in sweatpants and a t-shirt. That didn’t work out so well. Coming home, I wore jeans, then changed into shorts to sleep, then back to jeans once it was morning. It felt incredible to wash up and put on fresh (un-slept-in) clothes.

I’m very glad we took the trip by train – and I’d definitely do it again (with a few adjustments).

It was great to see everybody. The time seemed to just fly by. Beth reminded me that it was vacation and so I should take opportunities to rest and relax. I think I did a decent job (though there’s lots of room for improvement) with the exception of Sunday when my fantasy football team bombed. That was sad and far from relaxing.
I’m glad it snowed for our trip home – there have been some beautiful snowy scenes on the ride back. I’m in the lounge car now, looking out the big windows at a river with snow/ice on all the rocks and tiny islands in the river. All of the trees are covered in snow on different branches and the ground is covered completely white. I was taking a ton of pictures before but Beth yelled at me for wasting the batteries.

We’ll probably run outside at DC to check out the Capitol building (without the storm/tornado/police incident this time) and some of the National Mall. Because we’ll get in late, our layover is just under 2 hours so we’ll have to be quick.