Ms. Mama: “You sure are having a travel-full and wedding-full year after staying put in one place for so long!”
Me: “I know! I’m reminding myself to appreciate the adventure and not throw up over the expenses. We may take a train to New Orleans, it’s cheaper— and novel!”
Ms. Mama: “Ooooh! Ive always wanted to travel by train— possibly because of all those Janet Lambert novels, and the girls on the train in White Christmas.”
Me: “It’s definitely White Christmas for me, no denying it.
Ms. Mama: “I suppose trains are different now; more businesslike and less musical, perhaps.
Me: “Well, if Danny Kaye’s not on board, I want my money back.”
Ms. Mama: “Would you settle for Bing Crosby?”
Me: “Hell no! Would you?”
Ms. Mama: “I like him, but no. Rosemary Clooney’s nephew George could stand in, though.
Alas,a train ride to New Orleans would take a whopping 24 hours, and the ticket price for a tiny bedroom is startling. No upper berth in the Pullman car for me, folks, and no gentle flirting or four-part harmony in the dining car… Someday!
Have you ever traveled by rail? Is it as fun as it looks?
I travel by train a lot, especially now that my gentleman friend is living in another city. Mind you these are shorter trips — a couple of hours to a half a day. It’s good, though, far far better than taking the bus (though admittedly my stint of commuting by Greyhound has biased my opinion) — I recommend it (at least in Canada) :)
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No Danny Kaye, no deal! My grandma used to live down the street from Donald O’Connor, and I’d stand for hours staring over his fence.
I’ve never gone anywhere by train, but The Rocket Scientist wants to take me on a train ride through a huge canyon at the southern part of the state.
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Rail is as fun as it looks (though I can’t speak for Amtrak). My ride through Switzerland from Milan will forever be imprinted in my memory as a great experience.
I’ve found (in Europe anyway) that sleeping cars are worth the extra, but the prices we saw for Amtrak were only for expensive private rooms. In Europe you can get often get a dorm style room of multiple stacked beds for reasonable prices. The Amtrak seats look like they’d be fine, but for that long of a trip, the private room would be very welcome.
But the time to commit really does hurt rail in this country. Alas. We really need some high speed lines here.
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The most extensive train-traveling I’ve done was in India. Second class cars, piles of people, chai-wallahs, strapping your valuables inside your pants while you sleep on the hard upper berth, the whole drill. Would not have missed it for the world but I think you have to be young and energetic. Trains in Europe are nicer. I’ve traveled once or twice by train in the US and it was fine, but I don’t necessarily have the patience for a super-long haul.
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Does the train in and about Greenfield Village count? If so, there is also one of a like make in Lodi Ohio. That would bring my train trips up-to a whopping three! We rode a train with our grandparents once. I believe it was in Canada although I can’t be sure. I don’t really remember much of the trip. I spent most of it watching my father’s face. I’ve never seen anyone so thrilled. ahh, the good ‘ol days.
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mum Reply:
April 14th, 2011 at 10:33 AM
Thrilled?
Ah…there’s where I fell short.
I wasn’t a train.
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Don’t feel bad, Mum. I’m not a train either. ^__^
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