King of the road

Magnet #309 - Amtrak

I love trains. Love them. If given a choice between flying and training, I'll choose the train pretty much every time. Traveling by rail always reminds me of that Roger Miller song, King of the Road.

Almost every year for Christmas, if there's enough time to lose, I'll take Amtrak from Penn Station down to Salisbury, NC. Our historic train depot (you can look it up here, dudes - we're in the Smithsonian! and Clooney shot a few scenes from Leatherheads there) is literally 10 minutes from home, instead of anyone having to drive the hour to/from the airport in Charlotte or Greensboro to come pick me up.

Mind you, it's a couple of hours as the crow flies, but on the train, I get 12 hours just to sit in my own little universe, staring out at the world whizzing by - with my headphones or laptop or book or manuscript, or whatever. It's like my own little me vacation before I get home, and after I've been home.

Of course, I keep waiting for the supercute boy to sit next to me, like in those Before Sunrise/Sunset movies - been waiting for years. Instead, I've gotten young kids, little old ladies, and even nuns. Just my luck.

After a very short time here at home, where I didn't get to do or see nearly enough people (or eat enough of mom's home cooking), we're hitting the road back to DC. Then tonight, I can take the train back home to NY.

It's two of my favorite activities in one day - roadtripping and training. Can't imagine a better way to travel.

Well, I could, but it totally wouldn't be nearly as much fun.