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21957. Ms. No - 6/12/2007 6:10:59 PM Whew! That's an early trip, Arx. Is it hard to find a seat at that time? --- I'm assuming that most of the passengers on the train at that time are coming from much farther away and have been sleeping all night through the stops.
I've taken the train from Sacramento into SF a couple of times and then out of Manhattan up to New Canaan in Connecticut, but I've always been sort of interested in taking a long train trip -- over a couple of days or even a week. 21958. Seamus - 6/12/2007 6:27:50 PM Days- or even week-long travel by train can be a revelation, Ms. No. Although not everyone ends up liking it, it is something I'd recommend you try if you are able.
Days on a train have a rhythm not found elsewhere. And in the US in particular, you witness cities and towns from a unique perspective. Sometimes even the countryside is seen from a different angle.
Absolutely my favourite thing about any long trip by train is the unhurried manner in which the people you meet go about their day. As someone quite used to and even fond of the speed with which our airborne world moves about, I still find a trip by train to be a wonderful way to slow down and take a different kind of breath. 21959. Ms. No - 6/12/2007 7:29:21 PM I generally fly because of where I have to get to and the time constraints involved, but I used to love car trips as a kid and even now, the road calls to me if I can drive through someplace that's interesting to look at -- the 5 freeway through the Central Valley of California is NOT one of those drives. I've heard the 99 is much better, but generally if I'm traveling between LA and Sacramento I'm trying to get there as fast as I can.
Where have you traveled by train? What were your favorite trips? 21960. arkymalarky - 6/12/2007 9:03:07 PM Just got back from class and headed back out the door after eating this late tv-dinner lunch:
No, the train goes through twice a day, once that early and again around 10:30
Judith, if it's like it was, meaning two hours late, it will probably be around 3 or 4. It's supposed to be in FW at 1:00 if it's on time. There's really no way of knowing according to the people who run Head Start, which is in the train station and opens at 6:00. No one works there for Amtrak, but they do have a phone service to let you know where your train is at any given time. Which is good, because even in a town that size it's the worst part of it to be sitting in the dark alone waiting for a train. 21961. Seamus - 6/12/2007 9:07:40 PM Oh my, where have I travelled by train?
Where haven't I been is a much shorter list.
I've not travelled by train in Alaska (and have always wanted to). Not in much of South America, except for Peru. Not in much of the former Soviet Union, including trans-Siberian. Not in some of the farthest reaches of inland China.
Favourite trips: Elipsos in Spain, France and Italy. TGV in France and Switzerland. My family are the other side of the island from Dublin and so when I'm among them I like to take one of the morning Iarnród Éireann usually from Ceannt in Gaillimh, stop off to visit with friends at someplace along the way such as Clara or Tullamore, then hop on another into the city. Amtrak between Denver and Salt Lake City (if you are the only other person on the train not asleep as the train pulls into Salt Lake City, ask yourself why and then come and join me in the observation car). A few of the segments in the Indian Rail system. Rail Canada, especially around Banff and then again Vancouver. The Bangkok-to-Singapore line of the Eastern and Oriental Express!!! Paris-to-Vienna, but they are just now shuttering that (a remnant of the Oriental Express you may know). Some of the GSP in Oz. I've only ever done the Indian Pacific, Sydney to Perth (and back) once, but that was among the most memorable I've ever taken.
How's that for narrowing it down? Sorry for not trimming more.
What are your favourite airports? and how is that for a strange question?
21962. Seamus - 6/12/2007 9:13:42 PM That should have said "not in much of western South America, except for Peru" Sorry about that. 21963. anomie - 6/12/2007 9:14:49 PM Seamus, you are quite the rail traveler. You point out one of the ings I like about trains, that is seeing the backs of things. Backs of Main streets in small towns, backs of farms, backs of factories, along with storgae yards of all kinds...oil tanks, etc.
I did the round trip from Emeryville (near San Francisco) to Chicago in the fall of 2003, (which is the same train route you rode from from Denver.) My train was on time so we went through the mountain ranges during the day and the plains at night. It was a beautiful trip. Long though. 3 days, 2 nights. I imagine if the train is off schedule it would be a bumber to miss the best scenery. 21964. thoughtful - 6/12/2007 9:24:07 PM We took an overnight train ride from vancouver to jasper through the canadian rockies...not a bad ride.
One on my list of things to do is the train ride through the Mexican copper canyon...hopefully we'll get there some day. 21965. anomie - 6/12/2007 9:26:18 PM Overnight? Any daylight time at all for the viewing? 21966. Seamus - 6/12/2007 9:48:18 PM I agree, anomie, I like to see the "backs of things" as well.
About missing the scenery if you are behind schedule, I also agree. Returning from Los Angeles once, the most forward engine was said to have lost and then run over something. Reassuring, yes? We weren't derailed or anything drastic like that, but it lowered our average speed to well under half of normal and it wasn't until many stops further on and much later that they were able to switch that engine out. And so all of the remaining schedule was off.
I did a rough accounting of my rail travel not long ago and was able to come up with an estimate in the tens of thousands of kilometres. But air travel, that is another thing altogether--it's my main form of travel to see clients which is all I am about. It's been several years since I passed the million kilometre mark in the air. I am fair certain I have also passed the million mark in miles by now. I had several years where I was well over 100.000 actual miles. We've slowed me down lately, but I was perpetually in motion there for a few years. (It's the impetus for my airport question.)
thoughtful, I'd not heard of the copper canyon trip--that sounds nice. 21967. Ms. No - 6/12/2007 9:53:25 PM Didn't someone here take the Copper Canyon trip this last year sometime? I know a friend of mine and his wife did it last year, but I thought there was a Motie as well. 21968. Ms. No - 6/12/2007 9:59:26 PM Hmmm....Airports. I'll have to give that a bit of thought. Mostly I travel within the States between the biggies - LAX, DFW, O'Hare, Atlanta, JFK but I've been to some smaller ones here as well. International travel not so much -- Heathrow and Gatwick and something out of Germany that I don't recall as well as in and out of Acapulco which was just nerve-wracking but that was as much due to my family (yes the WHOLE family) as it was to the airport.
Back to the desk for me for a bit. I'll think of my favorite and least favorite and get back this evening. 21969. thoughtful - 6/12/2007 10:12:02 PM anomie, yes we got to see quite a bit...we slept through the flatter part and it was a blast sleeping on the train.
this would be the copper canyon train trip we'd want to take...we've taken a lot of trips with these guys and have enjoyed every one. We've also used their itineraries to help us design trips to take on our own. 21970. anomie - 6/13/2007 2:07:09 AM Ms. No,
I can't say why anyone would prefer 99 over 5. I've traveled both many times and 99 is just as boring and less safe. It has more cross traffic and smaller lanes and shoulders. More deaths too I think. The scenery is even a tad better on 5 as is the general odor except for that stretch where the beef processing plant is. 99 has an variety of agricultural smells going on depending on the season. 21971. concerned - 6/13/2007 3:03:20 AM Well, shet ma mouf.
The president of the company where I currently work is Jewish, which I knew from before I accepted the position. No problem there. What I didn't know is that he was born in Turkey and he has hired a couple of Islamic Turks from his home country, as a gesture of national solidarity or whatever.
I'm really glad now that I haven't made any comments about Islam or the Iraq War there. You know, like some of the ones I have posted in the Mote:) 21972. Ms. No - 6/13/2007 3:06:57 AM Ha! I've often called the 5 the Road of Bad Smells. It kind of creeps me out --- I mean, there you are driving through hundreds of miles of food and it doesn't smell in the least appetizing. It's horrible.
Good to know about the 99. I've avoided it for being slow and also because once in a really bad fog I ended up in Chowchilla when I thought I'd been on the 5 the whole time. (This was my first trip between LA and Sacto, I wouldn't make that mistake now.)
I like driving around in the Napa and Bay area. That's gorgeous. Far Northern California is also beautiful as is the drive to Tahoe from here.
I miss the roads in Carolina and the South East, though. Little tiny highways and back roads that seem to go on forever and you never know just what might lie around the next bend. I even love those drives at night when you can't see the scenery and the trees creep in over the road and you seem to be driving through a tunnel. I suppose it reminds me of my childhood and good times. 21973. Ms. No - 6/13/2007 3:08:24 AM Ah, Tauk, an aquaintence of mine is one of their European guides and a dear friend is on their waiting list to become a guide --- probably one of the European river cruises to begin with. That seems to be where a lot of their guides first get their feet wet. 21974. Ms. No - 6/13/2007 3:21:35 AM Airports
The thing that matters to me about an airport is ease of use. This puts DFW way down the list because it's built in a feakin' horseshoe and you always land at one leg and have to catch a connection on the other leg and the shuttle that would save you the mile-long walk has always just departed and won't arrive back in time to get you where you need to go.
LAX is a traffic nightmare a lot of the time and again there's a lot of unnecessary walking it seems to me, but it's nowhere near as bad as DFW.
I like O'Hare because I've never had any problems getting around, also, the skylights there make it seem nice and open. This is the first place I ever encountered moving sidewalks in an airport. The only bad experience I ever had at O'Hare was running into an old teacher of mine from high school. We had a virulent and mutual dislike for one another but we were quite polite at our chance meeting. It was bizarre.
I barely remember JFK, but Newark wasn't bad. Milwaulkee was the pits --- everything shuts down there at night so if you're making a connection between 10pm and 7:30am you can't even get a cup of coffee or a soda. And again, there's too much ground to cover and no way to do it other than to hump your stuff.
The smaller airports tend to be more my style -- Love Field, Burbank, Greenville/Spartanburg, Sacramento, Raleigh/Durham. Oakland has it all over SFX.
Over the years I've gone back and forth between checking and not checking baggage. Ideally, I'd take a small carryon and not have to check anything, but sometimes that's not feasible. When I've traveled out of the country it's usually just me and a duffel bag, but if I'm going home to see family I generally check a suitcase.
21975. thoughtful - 6/13/2007 1:57:02 PM So sad.
Last night I heard some screaming of children from across the street...not the usual children having fun or playing in a pool screaming, but an agonizing wail. Hubby went to check it out and the neighbor told us their cat had just been run over by a car.
So sad.
Sad for our cat too, as, for the first time in his 10 years of life, he'd made a friend. The other cat, lucky, would come over to our yard and our cat would look for him. They'd kind of play a little bit, hang out together, occasionally bump noses and such. He spent quite a bit of time outside this morning, despite the rain. I suspect he was looking for lucky who'll never show up again.
Poor lucky.
Poor cas.
So sad. 21976. iiibbb - 6/13/2007 6:19:20 PM This has to be among the most stressful past couple of weeks of my life.
Long story short.
Really good job offer - deep south - good job for wife likely - we don't want to move deep south - wife especially ESPECIALLY doesn't want to go. Current jobs are only temporary appointments, and mine runs out in December.
This position is way out of spec from the standpoint of quality of life goals, but almost perfect from a professional standpoint and could be a great springboard.
The question would then be... how long would we be stuck there?
I just don't know what to do. This could get our lives going in a pretty lucrative way... but I know it would be hard socially. Not to mention the responsibilities of the job are daunting as well.
I've had a stomachache and headache almost since getting back from the interview Friday.
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