Day 27

This one picks up with the end of Day 26.

So after I blogged last night I headed to the Metra station in Hinsdale. I bought one of those big cans of Foster’s at the wine store across the street and got on the train. It was just a beautiful ride into the city. The sun was going down and I listened to Feed the Animals for the second time. This album is amazing. Greg Glllis mixed the best rapper alive with the best rock band alive; “Roc Boys” over “Paranoid Android”. It is just amazing. The Metra ride felt too short. But then I was at Union Station.

Oh yeah…the other thing that happened in Hinsdale…before getting on the train I got a message from Amtrak. It seems my train from New York to Boston, and my train from Boston to New York, have been cancelled. So that’s a pain in the ass. Now I have to call them sometime tomorrow and reschedule. So when I went to get my ticket to New York the lady seemed really confused by all this. I told her that I’m going to try and get on another train and she still seemed confused. But she gave me my ticket and that was that.

And then I went to the bar. I checked the Cubs score when I was on the train and they were up 3-1 in the seventh inning. This seemed good. I figured Marmol in the eighth, Kerry in the ninth, go home. But when I got to the bar it was 8-3 Devil Rays in the eighth. What the fuck? That was the final too. So that was no good. The Cubs continue to be not so good on the road.

Anyway…I went and got on the train and it departed at ten o’clock sharp. As soon as we got moving I headed over to the lounge car. It was only open forty minutes so I had to take advantage while I could. I had a couple Coronas and got to talking with a few guys about this and that. Then they closed the bar and everyone started bitching untl this one dude said he had some vodka. So he went over to the bar, asked for four cups of ice, and then went back to his seat and came back with the bottle. We all filled our cups, he made a toast to Nancy Reagan (sarcasm) or some shit like that, and we ended up hanging out there for probably another hour and a half. Turns out the dude works on an oil rig in Louisiana. So he talked about that and he made mention of something called the 3 F’s: Fur, Flesh, and Fluid. I can’t remember what the hell he was talking about but it had something to do with drug tests (hence the Nancy Reagan toast.) One of the other guys there is in the military and going to Syracuse to visit his buddy from Afghanistan. He kept talking about how the Afghanistanis (Afghans? Afghanis?) are “just like us.” Never quite figured out what that meant. But it was a nice time.

So finally I said goodbye to them and retreated to my seat. I popped in a Six Feet Under and ate some of the food my mom gave me for the trip. She packed a bunch of stuff for me because she did not want me to spend any money. Which is good but I am going to spend money anyway. And the bag broke so now the food is annoying me.

And then I typed this. Tomorrow evening I will type more and it will all be part of one big blog entry. You’ll see.

So sleeping on the train was not as pleasant as I had hoped it would be. I think it would have been better with the window seat. That way I would have had something to lean against. But as it was it was very fitful. I woke up many a time. Before I knew it the sun was coming up, which is never a great thing. I think we were somewhere around Cleveland when there was a full-blown sunrise. I just remember being stopped right next to the Cleveland Browns’ stadium for what seemed like an hour and not being able to sleep. But then after we took off I was actually able to get some of my most productive sleep of the night. I probably could have continued sleeping if some Homeland Security douche hadn’t woken me up to ask me if I were a US citizen. I still have no idea what the fuck that was all about but he methodically woke every single person on the train up to ask them the same question. We were in Erie, Pennsylvania I think. So I was kind of hungry so I decided I may as well get up and get some breakfast.

I went to the dining car at around 8:30. I ran into the military kid from last night and sat down with him. He was wearing an Afghani Freedom shirt just to make sure everyone knew that he did, indeed, fight in Afghanistan. I thought he should have written something on the back of it about them being just like us. I kid. He was actually a really nice guy. He bought me breakfast. I ate scrambled eggs and hash browns. And there were vineyards and Lake Erie everywhere we looked. It was very scenic.

After sitting in the dining car for awhile I decided to try and get a little sleep. When we got to Buffalo my seatmate got off the train, which allowed me to spread out and lean up against the window. I was able to sleep for a couple hours. It was very restful and nice. I woke up in Rochester.

The rest of the day was more of the same. Some nice scenery. I did not really do as much reading as I had planned. I was a little too enamored with the scenery. The train cruised alongside the Erie Canal for quite a while and ducked through some forests. I made a trip to the lounge when I needed to plug in my computer. Then we got to Albany.

In Albany I found out about something called “slack time.” This is when the train has been making such good time that you actually have to wait for an extended amount of time at a stop. In this case we waited for an hour and a half in Albany. This was good and bad. It definitely beats running behind. It was kind of annoying for me because I had just plugged in my computer and my phone and they shut off the power in the train. On the other hand, it was a nice opportunity to get out of the train for a little while and walk around the station. Not much to see there but I bought a much needed Dr. Pepper and stretched my legs. I also used a real bathroom which was nice.

I am writing this en route from Albany to New York. So far I can say that this has easily been the nicest stretch of the trip. The train track winds alongside the Hudson River and there are mountains to our west. I sat at my seat for a little while watching Six Feet Under but then my computer ran out of power again so I came back to the lounge where I am now. And I decided I may as well get caught up on my blogging. Also, I followed the Cubs/Sox game on my phone. Aramis Ramirez hit a walk-off homer for a 4-3 Cubs win. Rock.

So I arrived at Penn Station right on time. And I was a little confused about what to do and where to go. But I went outside and found the taxi stand. My driver wasn’t sure exactly where the Holiday Inn Express was so I had to call the place up and get directions. I was so sure that she was going to run up my fee. But she didn’t. We got there and it was only eighteen bucks so I gave her a big tip.

So here is where I experienced the worst part of my day. I mentioned the whole rescheduling my train to Boston thing earlier. Well once I got to the hotel I called Amtrak. After sitting and waiting for half an hour I finally got an agent. It turns out every train to Boston is completely booked. So I tried to reroute and go to Washington instead. I can get a train to D.C but I can’t get one from D.C. to Chicago. So that option is out. So basically there is nothing Amtrak can do for me. It’s just, “Hey. We messed up. Sorry, now your vacation is ruined.” I don’t know how they get by on this kind of customer service. So now I have no idea what I’m going to do from Tuesday on. But I’m not going to let it spoil my week.

So I took a shower. It was a great shower. But I broke the soap holding thing. I put my foot up on there to wash my leg and the whole fucking thing fell down. And then the toilet was all clogged up but that wasn’t really my fault. It was that way when I got here.

Isaac and Jeff arrived within two minutes of each other. Isaac was supposed to get here at the same time as me but his bus was oversold. Jeff’s flight was delayed. So they both got here after eleven. And we went out. What else were we gonna do?

Long Island City had no idea what was about to hit it. The first spot we hit was some blue collar bar that reminded me about the bar Isaac and me went to in Dodge City. But people were friendly. We were actually just looking for some food and they didn’t have any so we kept walking.

After walking several blocks we found a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant where nobody spoke English. I bought some rice and beans for three dollars. And a Corona for a dollar seventy-five. There was a three dollar disco ball for some reason and a song that went, “QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!” And the waitresses laughed at Isaac and me when we were bobbing our head to the QUACK music. FUN!

And then we headed next door to the Irish pub. It was a very nice little pub. They had something called Brooklyn Lager. Or something. We each had one. And talked about good times and prepared for more to come.

We got back to the hotel a little while ago. It is 3:05. We are watching American Beauty and having all kinds of difficulties plunging the toilet. SUMMER!

More tomorrow…