On the Saturday before Mother’s Day I boarded a train for Atlanta, Georgia in Pennsylvania Station in New York City. It was a planned event for my mental health, eighteen hours between leaving the tension of the bad economy and the stress of my job in the north for ten days in the south with my mother and siblings. It would be my first time home since my father’s death, my first time alone with my mother in almost 30 years. Since I did not know what to expect I used the train as the break between job and vacation. I needed to move at the speed of the life I wanted. I needed down time and you can’t get that on an airplane in a less than 3 hour trip.
Most of us think nothing of travel on a jet. The word itself expresses the type of quickness in which one reaches ones destination. Without a moment to notice anything beyond cloud cover you are there. Seldom do I fly- only when the situation calls for me to be there yesterday. I prefer to move at a pace where I can see life. Therefore most of the time the train.
In making my case for travel by rail let me tell you that it is a great place to write and read and just debrief ones self if decide to travel what is considered in one of two levels of first class, private spaces that can be affordable if you can travel on specific days. It is nothing like rail travel in Europe, it is nothing like train travel used to be. Traveling on National Train Day I expected something of a celebration in Penn Station. There was nothing except a sticker for my luggage and a button. In Washington, DC several people got on who had taken the train to our nation’s capital for just that day to get a chance to board historic cars, like the Georgia (which I mentioned in a previous post about National Train Day) as the caboose that took President Obama and family to his inauguration. A few celebrities and a few of the surviving Pullman Porters came to that celebration. It was sad to see the lack of enthusiasm for a dying means of travel that several people enjoy.
I traveled in a view lounger, a tiny space a little wider than a lounge chair, but with an abundance of privacy. It is considered the lower part of first class but it still carries the first class amenities of privacy and free meals. Closing the curtains on the door after I gave my ticket to the conductor and settled in I sat back and watched the countryside whisk by. At first the east coast was rainy and ugly but once we hit Pennsylvania the clouds parted and I had a bright sunshine tour the rest of the way. I went to the bar car and got some wine, and a wine glass I might add and returned to my book, my journal and my musing at the world outside. I called my daughter when I hit Philadelphia where she attends Drexel University. I called my sister in law in DC as they changed the engine on our train. I called my mother after dinner to let her know I was on the way.
And in the dining car where the food is quite good and Amtrak is changing the menu so as to add more local cuisine (Saturday night’s had a rather salty Jambalya and a flaky trout with almonds) I was treated to good conversation with people who also love trains as well as an amazing red, orange, purple and pink sunset that went on for miles until dark.
Back in my little space the porter put the bed together by connecting the two chairs that face each other and covering them with a prepackaged mattress, sheet and blanket. It takes some finesse to change into pjs in such a confined area but I have done it several times. I plugged in my computer and put in a DVD I had never seen. For two hours I was jostled down the tracks in my own bed sipping wine and watching a movie. The train rocked me to sleep later as it always does while speeding through the night. Sometimes I’d awaken and laugh at the thought of being thrown out of bed. I never was.
Sunday morning I arose at 7am to the tree lined roads of the south bright green with a velvety carpet of grass everywhere where my citified eyes looked. Cars were stopped at railroad crossings probably on the way to church, stores were closed, parking lots abandoned. Sunday in the south had not changed. There was peace in this valley. We were detained a few minutes from the Atlanta Train Station, a tiny space for such an important city because a high speed freight train was passing. I did something I hadn’t done since childhood, I counted the cars. There were over 200 transporting much needed merchandise and equipment somewhere. Do that by plane I laughed.
The arrival in Atlanta was heralded by a delay in the removal of luggage from the train. Impatient people visiting the south from the north tried to upset the station master who was completely unmoved by their need for their belongings right now. Each time he was asked he would reply with a smile and a clear and slow worded “They’re getting them off the train right now. Won’t be long before they get up here.” Looking out the window and seeing no movement was frustration for some. I reminded myself it was the train and it takes longer. I also realized this was Sunday in the south in a bad economy and that there was one person removing all the items for the several people waiting inside the cool station. Once the luggage and packages arrived we were not allowed to rush and grab what was ours tossing the ticket at an attendent as we would at the airport. Atlanta had a system that caused a little more ire to some of the passengers. The attendant and station master would read off the last three numbers of the claim check and only then could you present your ticket and get your suitcase. Surprisingly it didn’t take long to do this with their pre-established rules of order.
Did I accomplish the previously mentioned rest that I needed? Indeed I did. It is a strange way to travel in a world where everyone wants to be there immediately but it is the best way to travel and breathe. My husband says it takes too long. And I agree. There are too many occassions when the train seems to stop for nothing. I swear they could knock off at least three hours. But it is a peaceful transition from the rushed life of the big city to the methodical pace of the south. Try it some time when you can create a diversion in your life. Grab a book you want to read or a movie you want to watch alone and some comfy pajamas. Travel at a reduced speed of life and relax.
