The Return Trip - Train Pt. 2

Somewhere between South Boston and Richmond, 2 hours of this mist and rain, bleck

Union Station, DC layover for engine switch.

Union Station, Washington, DC

I'm sure you saw this coming, but the return trip wasn't quite as pleasant as the ride down. However, I'm still glad I took the train vs. the plane.
After the 2-hour drive, in the rain, from So Bo to Richmond, I was definitely not in the mood for airport security, yeah Amtrak.
The train was 25 mins late leaving, booo, but still not stuck on the tarmac, unable to get up and take a wizz.
So, not all train cars have outlets at every seat, only the newer cars, lesson learned.
The food this time around, not quite as good, I made 2 trips to the cafe car: Trip 1 - Tuna Salad Sandwich, tuna salad was borderline frozen, preferable to borderline hot and spoiling, and still ok tasting, 2 Stars. The Sam Adams, however hit the spot! Trip 2 - Cheese Pizza, I had to go back for additional nuking, after that it tasted like your avg. nuked pizza. Compared to nuked pizza 3 stars, compared to Two Boots, well that's really just not fair is it? Once again the Sam Adams hit the spot.
Note: If you travel through DC, at least between north and south, there's always a layover to switch engines. North of DC is electric, south of DC is diesel, there's some social commentary statement in there I'm sure...
So I could have gotten out in DC and eaten, and that would probably have been the wisest and cheapest choice, but I was halfway through a movie at that point.
I think it could make for a fun trip, to take a train, and bring along a sixer, though officially against the rules, I can't imagine anyone checking your private stock. I was actually thinking of hanging out in the cafe car and tossing back a few, but both times through there weren't any more seats left. Oh well I got some reading in.
So up this point not so bad, food underwhelming, I had to ration power, still relaxed.
Then we get to Philly. The person sitting next to me leaves, and waddling down the aisle comes this gianormous woman, and of course sits next to me. I've seen prize-winning bulls at the county fair, smaller than this woman. (Sorry I just spent 4 days in the country, couldn't resist) Her thigh is bigger around than my entire body. So she plops down, and remember what I said about the big seats before, and plenty of room for the seat tray, well for her, not so much. She pulls out a huge Styrofoam deli dish of Shrimp linguini. Of course she doesn't need the seat back tray, she's got a natural food tray, in the form of her huge stomach, which she uses. Linguini, big long strings of linguini, that yes, she lifts six inches above her face and sucks into her mouth. Smacking all the way. But at least she manages to devour this huge plate of food in about 10 minutes, and the slurping and smacking is done. I could have eaten on that for at least 45 mins, and still had enough for leftovers. So now that feed time is over, she proceeds to break out the cell phone. On this trip total at this point, I've been on the train 6 hours on Sat, and about 4 hours on this trip, with no cell abuse, until this woman gets on and starts to yap away. When I sense this is not going to end quickly, power rations begone, I break out the iPod and go into sleep mode. She blabs on her cell for at least 45 mins. I continue to feign sleep. Eventually the row of seats next to us opened up, so she moved there. Peace at last, I thought to myself. NO! She puts on headphones, and of course she's starts doing that half singing thing, that sounds more like she's kind of moaning and singing at the same time. Then again, with amount of food that she just woofed down, maybe she was moaning, I certainly would have been. I never thought I could be so happy to get out and walk through Penn Station at 2am.
So in about 2 hours this single woman seemed to break all the most annoying rules of train etiquette, amazing. But here again where I give credit to the train, if I had been going much further, I would have moved to the cafe car.

Needless to say, I'm very happy to be back home in Brooklyn, and have survived the holidays. Happy New Year!