Amtrak Adventuring
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| Trying to see it all, 2011 |
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| The Adventure Begins, June 22, 2011 |
Thirteen years ago (almost to the day) our little family set out on our first Amtrak adventure. We thought three weeks touring the United States on a train with an infant made so much more sense than the alternative. The alternative being flying or driving (with the same infant) to a wedding in the middle of Cornfieldville, Ohio. Being young and foolish, it made perfect sense. Our baby did not yet sleep through the night, so sitting up in coach seating night after night wouldn't affect our sleep all that much. With a rolling ice chest filled with lunch sacks that prevented us from knowing in advance whether our meal was Option A, B, or C, we could avoid the pricey fare on board. We could circle the US without ever strapping the infant in his car seat. Well, yes, we did require the car seat for the brief jaunt in a rental car to actually arrive at Cornfieldville, but otherwise no five-point harness required.
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| Watching the world go by, 2011 |
That long ago trip accrued so many stories. Any time someone has, in conversation, tiptoed even close to triggering a memory of that time, we've settled back in our chair with an impish smile and relayed our tale like old men spinning a good yarn. Those three weeks are so replete with anecdotes that we never could tell it all, so we just share the pertinent detail and a hint of still more, and let it drop, shaking our heads to think how utterly, totally crazy we were.
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Another train, another adventure, same child, 2015 |
There's another Amtrak adventure that comes up in conversation less frequently because we'd gained some wisdom by then. We also had another baby and one on the way. Which is really why it made so much sense to take Amtrak again. I promise it made sense. It was one of our cross-country moves when I was 8+ months pregnant. Flying didn't seem like such a good idea, driving sounded pretty miserable. Besides, we had no housing waiting and we'd already come near to over-prolonging our stay at every guest room known to us, having moved out of our own home three months previously. We needed to take a long time to get from Point A to Point B, and that's what Amtrak is made for. We did spring for a sleeper family room, though. Wisdom had come with age (or maybe it was just because I was already sleeping nightly with a baby sitting on my bladder and didn't want to add two more).
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| An illustration of all the sleep we got in the family sleeper car, 2015 |
For nine years, we had no other sensible reasons to choose Amtrak. Driving or flying won out every time for reasons of efficiency and frugality.
But sometimes, memory asks whether the tale you've been recounting measures up with reality. You begin to wonder whether you need to check. Did the fish grow with each telling? Were you actually as crazy as you had to have been to strike out on adventure like that?
Ha ha! It turns out that confirming the facts has nothing to do with it, it is simply adventure calling. Nothing else.
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| Recreating our 2011 Adventure Begins photo, June 19, 2024 (Yes, I know I'm shorter.) |
Which is why a Wednesday in the middle of June had us hopping on a train to a spot that has little more going for it than walkable distance to a restaurant and a cookie shop and, here's the key, a train heading the opposite direction a few hours later.
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| The Adventurers and the Amtrak |
With our commuter train connections from the station near our home, down to Union Station and back again, we spent about eight hours on trains to reach a town that we'll drive to in under two hours later this summer.
Back down the mountain the next day, I overhear the kids talking about the trip. They've each got multiple adults hanging on every word, sharing bits of pieces of the day, knowing there is too much to tell all at once.
And me? I step back with a smile, and wonder when our next crazy adventure begins.
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