Ridin' on the City of New Orleans

Well, it wasn't really the City of New Orleans.  I rode on the Texas Eagle from Longview, Texas to Chicago and then the Cardinal to Philadelphia.  I suggest you play the song below while reading this post.

 

The Texas Eagle was half an hour late leaving Longview and I settled in for the long ride to Chicago.  Boarding an Amtrak is the start of the adventure.  There is really no method for boarding.  The conductor stands at the door and the passengers storm the conductor each trying to board first as if there is a prize.  My car was a double-decker with the seats on top and the rest rooms and luggage compartment on the bottom.  I did not know this and struggled to get my luggage up a narrow stair case.  Directly behind my seat was the lounge/observation car.  This car was really great.  The seats were big with plenty of leg room and the views were fantastic.

The Texas Eagle travels almost due north through Texarkana, Little Rock, St. Louis, to Chicago's Union Station.  There was work being done on the tracks so the train detoured and was non-stop from St. Louis to Chicago.  As a result we were actually an hour early coming into Chicago.

The St. Louis Arch from the Texas Eagle

Crossing the Mississippi River on the Texas Eagle

Since we arrived early in Chicago that just meant that my layover was one hour longer.  I was really hungry but could not really leave my luggage in the crowed station to search for food.  Finally we were told it was time to board and the boarding process started all over to board the Cardinal.  After 45 minutes of standing in line I was on board and in my seat on the Cardinal bound for Philadelphia.  We left right on time!

This leg of the trip was certainly more interesting.  I sat next to a merchant marine that was able to tell me what to expect on the ship.  I got a lot of good information from him.  I also overheard some interesting conversations.  This car was not like the Texas Eagle.  It was single story and very similar to riding in an airplane.  One conversation I overheard was an old hippie telling a man that George W. Bush caused 9/11.  He claimed there were black helicopters guiding the planes into the twin towers!  When the man said he had seen the videos of the planes and he did not see any black helicopters.  The hippie then said they had been Photoshopped out.  Then he claimed that Bush had violated the Declaration of Independence (not the Constitution) and should have been impeached.  This same hippie also discussed being abducted by aliens back in the 60's and claimed he still had some good friends that live on other planets.

The train dipped down through West Virginia and traveled a ways beside the New River.  This is familiar territory for me and I thought how much I was going to miss Appalachia while in Europe.  The people of Appalachia are wonderful and the scenery is magical.  I did hear many people mispronounce "Appalachia".  There is no long "A" in Appalachia!

The train was getting further and further behind schedule.  By the time we reached Huntington, WV we were two hours behind.  The reason Amtrak is often late is that they do not own their tracks.  The tracks are owned by Union Pacific, CSX, etc.  Amtrak only rents the tracks and freight trains take priority over passenger traffic.

Eventually we made it to the Washington, D.C. Union Station.  It was kind of cool seeing the Washington Monument and the Capitol building from the train.  There we switched to an electric engine from diesel and the train really began to move.  Three hours late we arrived in Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.  I easily found a taxi and rode to my hotel in Bellmawr, NJ.  All I wanted was a quite, peaceful ride to the hotel but my driver had other plans.  He blared opera music loud enough to wake the dead.

Finally, around midnight, I arrived at my hotel.  It looked better on the Internet!  Oh well, it had a bed and a shower.  I made immediate use of both.

Tomorrow I will post about my stay in Bellmawr.  Check back then!