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'The Usuals' do NY, Part 1
Alexis, Carrie, Jarrett, and I boarded the train in Savannah on a warm evening, bogged down with carry-on luggage containing sweaters, coats, and scarves for when we arrived in NYC. We had decided to take the train because, well, we're giant nerds and thought four kids on a train was the best cliché ever (Harry Potter? Chronicles of Narnia? Kids on trains. That's the thought progression, there), and also because we figure that trains will be obsolete by the time we could afford another trip like this. That, and I really hate airports. Riding a train is a very interesting experience. For one thing, it seems like everything involved with trains is stuck in the 1970's. The decor of the Savannah Amtrak station, for example, was this very vintage eggshell blue with mod chairs and murals of shipping on the Savannah River. It was all very retro. And then we got ON the train. The entire time we were preparing for the trip, Jarrett, our resident computer geek, had been excited that there would be plugs on the train so he could use his laptop. Well, when the train pulled up, we got on and were directed to four seats... nowhere near a plug. In fact, there was one electrical socket on the entire car, and that was just so they could vacuum when we all got off the thing. Jarrett was, to say the least, heartbroken. To be honest, he kind of whined about it. A lot. But we shuffled him along to the lounge car (another very retro experience, burnt sienna benches and all), which had plugs, and he was fine after that. One thing about trains, there are very interesting people that ride them. On the way up to New York, we met a guy, whose name we never got, who just sat in the lounge car and listened to Alexis and I banter back and forth at 4 a.m. He was a little bit creepy, but he laughed in the right places, so we figured he was okay. There was another guy (who looked vaguely like Stephen King) who spent the entire trip in the lounge car. That's impressive, considering it was about sixteen hours from Savannah to New York City. He even slept in there, and I know that couldn't have been comfortable. He, like Jarrett, appeared to be drawn to the plugs in the lounge car, as he had the most adorable wee computer that he typed away on for hours. He also had on giant air-trafficcontroller headphones, so we were never sure if he could hear us or if he was listening to music, so we kept our comments to ourselves. I've been commenting that things on trains are stuck in the 70s. The food in the dining car, I think, was actually put on the train during that particular decade. You haven't lived 'till you've had cooked, frozen, then recooked scrambled eggs. Thankfully, I ordered grits, which were just fine. It's hard to mess up grits. But the rest of the food was just awful. If you go on a train, pack a few sandwiches. You'll want them, I promise. We finally got to New York, arriving at Penn Station at some vague hour of the morning that all of us were too tired to really remember. We stood with our luggage in the middle of the station for about ten minutes trying to figure out where to go to get OUT of the station and catch a couple cabs, and a nice man with a cart and a red cap came along and helped us, piling all our non-rolling luggage on the thing and hauling it out to a line outside for us. Red Caps are a godsend in Penn Station, I'll tell you. So we get outside Penn Station and get our first glimpse of New York City, and I'll tell you... It was completely awesome. And it was snowing. Not sleet, not slush, but real snowflakes that you can catch on your tongue (I did). It was a perfect introduction to the city. But then we had to catch a cab to our hotel. And that is a story for another day.--Katelyn Moore is a reporter for The Forest-Blade and may be reached at katelyn.forestblade@yahoo.com
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