What can I say. I drove the new old car around for awhile, and yes, it's loud so it probably needs some muffler work, but other than that, it was okay. We haven't heard from the garage yet about R's car, so it's anybody's guess what we're doing here. I went into work for an hour or so, walked around and took pictures, and did some stuff with R in the afternoon. Day done.But I mentioned the train yesterday, and Quirkybook left me a comment about how she loves the train but her parents have never been on it. So ...
*wavy lines*
I went to college for two years, as I may have mentioned, in Maryland, right outside D.C. Sometimes when I wanted to come home, I could get a ride, but after a bad one or two, I didn't prefer that. I only flew home once, not because it was expensive, because a student flight from Baltimore to Newark cost maybe $35 then. But it was inconvenient. Somebody would have to take me to the airport or pick me up at the other end. It was too much trouble. Mostly, I took the train.
Loved the train. I could get a short ride, or even call a cab, from campus, and my father would usually pick me up at Metropark, down the Garden State Parkway a ways. If I wanted to come home for a suprise, I'd take the train to Penn Station in the city, walk the few blocks to the Port Authority (yes, I wasn't a chickenshit when I was younger) and just take the bus out to my little suburban home.
I would take the Metroliner, if one was available; this "high-speed" train was brand new then and very nice. It cost about the same as flying. The regular train, round-trip, I think was about $18 from Maryland to New Jersey. The Metroliner was very classy and upscale.
I would meet interesting people on the train, and talk to them. Sometimes people would notice what I was reading and that would open up a conversation. And of course, if I went to the smoking car, people were friendly. Smokers are always friendly to other smokers in situations like that, isolated from non-smokers in groups. I don't know why, but it's true.
Even after I left Maryland to transfer to a local college near home, I still dated a guy from there, and we would visit by train, usually alternating weekend visits month to month. He would pick me up at the station in Baltimore, which was like a microcosm of every other big train station along the east coast: New York, Philadelphia, D.C. There's something comfortingly familiar about all of them, although Union Station in D.C. has got a huge modern addition to it now and is very up-to-date. The station in Hoboken is almost like a scale model of the bigger stations, but Baltimore was just like the big, beautiful station in Philly, only a little smaller.
About seven or eight years ago, my friend E and I went to a computers-in-teaching conference in Philadelphia for a couple of days, and we went by train. It's a fairly short ride from Metropark, barely more than an hour, and the trains were crowded so we didn't get seats. (Imagine ... no one got up to give a seat to a 60-ish woman. No manners, I tells ya.) It was okay, but not the best train trip I've ever taken. And last year, taking the train from London (Paddington Station; yes, the bear is there) to Cardiff, we were incredibly overtired and cramped in our seats, what with all our luggage and such.
*end wavy lines*
So I'm thinking that I will definitely go down to D.C. by train on the 29th, and I will just enjoy it. I'm taking one little bag, a book, and my iPod. (Okay, and a snack.) I may leave my car at the station for the few days, or get someone to drop me off/pick me up. Not sure of the details yet.
But I sure am looking forward to it.
