amtrak

July 8, 2005
Amtrak to Jacksonville

Families that travel together, stay together. That should be the Amtrak motto; it might get them more business.

So the thing I notice about this train traveling business is that there are a lot of African-Americans that travel the rail system on the southern half of the east coast. And they travel as families. It’s pretty amazing really. There seems to be a whole other side to the culture that I haven’t seen much of. They are mostly kind (even to white people) and it’s almost like it is relaxing or something. There is kind of a calming effect that the train has on people anyway. It’s like magic. (except in the middle of the night when they are going 80 miles an hour over really old tracks and make you rock back and forth so bad you feel like you may fall out of your seat, it feels funny)

I’ve heard rumor of the government cutting spending so much for Amtrak that they are no longer going to have continuous service to the places they have had. Which is a travesty I think because my children may not be able to take these types of trips when they are my age or even younger. And they won’t get to hang out with the stuptifying weirdo’s and the African-American families and the older Jewish couples that ride the rails. The great American equalizer, for the most part. I mean there still is business class and probably first class, and there are sleeper cars for the overnight stints, like the one I just did from DC to Jacksonville, but the majority opts for the abundantly spacious seats and leg room of the coach class rail. Sleeping was defiantly a challenge, but once you get tired enough you just kind of pass out for a couple of hours.

The changing landscape of the east coast has also been a plus, though I hate to admit that I slept through my favorite parts of the states, southern Mass, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Now speeding through southern Georgia the massively mixed foliage of pine trees, oak trees, Spanish moss, shrubbery is nice. Much better than railing through the slums of places like Boston, New York City, Newark, Baltimore, DC. Pretty much everything outside of those places has been pleasant. It’s like the parts of America that they don’t want you to see. Parts that you never fly over on your way to big airports. That’s the other part of the Amtrak that I like, the honesty of it all. It isn’t pretentious in any way; it just doesn’t apologize for what you will see. The conductors don’t apologize for who you will be passengers with, nor with their vastly varying flares do you feel like you are being patronized, “water, juice, soda?” “watch your elbows”.

Ah yes, the great American railway system. A tragedy to ever lose, should be preserved for history’s sake. A wanderer’s best friend.

You should at some point in your life take the train down the east coast, or maybe up the east coast (it’s much less expensive on this side) and experience for yourself some of America’s richest culture. Do yourself a favor and ride the Amtrak.