The Great Train Ride

(New York, NY 18 April) I love trains. I've always longed to ride on a train. To sit in the plush seats and watch the scenery flying by has always seemed so romantic and exciting to me. HAH! Maybe I'll have that experience someday but this first time produced quite a range of emotions in me none of which felt romantic or exciting! Mostly I think terror was my main emotion. We grabbed a taxi from our hotel to Penn Station to catch the New Jersey transit back to a town close to where Bill and Sara live. To give me the opportunity to ride a train Bill kindly offered to pick us up at the station. Our first obstacle came in trying to find out where to get our tickets. People everywhere and we were absolutely confused. Got in one line and realized it wasn't right. Fortunately, our trusty tour guide Bill was just a phone call away. He quickly directed us to where we needed to be and we purchased our tickets and were told that the track would be revealed 10 minutes before the train left. As the track number came up a great rush of people scrambled towards the doors. We obligingly became one of the "herd" and found our way to the train and it was great. Nice big plus seats like I imagined and we were able to get by a window for what would be a fantastic view I was sure. Suddenly an announcement came on which informed us WE WERE ON THE WRONG TRAIN!!! We had 3 minutes to get to the right one. We grabbed our bags and ran with another "herd" of people to the right train only to find NO SEATS. So we stood. At this point I was not feeling very pleased with the whole situation and I'll admit I was in a bit of a snit. However, this first train was just a 10 minute ride and then we would switch trains. So, okay, that sounds better. Upon disembarking from the first train we were told we had 3 minutes to get to our next train which was "up the stairs and then down the stairs". Off we raced where we found the train (which fortunately was the right one the first time) found a seat just as the train began to move. Phew! So the seats weren't quite so plush but I did get to sit by the window and the scenery was pretty and the rhythm of the train was soothing. I guess it was somewhat of an appropriate end to our New York City trip. All the hustle and bustle and lines and crowds and chaos ending in a final hour of quiet peacefulness (if you discount the guy sitting in front of us with his ipod on that put out an annoying thump thumping bass sound!).