{"id":6185,"date":"2016-10-25T01:57:37","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T01:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/?p=6185"},"modified":"2016-10-25T01:57:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T01:57:37","slug":"riding-a-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/?p=6185","title":{"rendered":"Riding a Train"},"content":{"rendered":"

It had always been a dream of mine to travel on a train.\u00a0 I’ve taken day trips on trains, but never slept on a train. I thought it sounded so romantic and fun.\u00a0 Watching old movies I have seen people traveling on trains, sleeping in the sleepers, eating luxurious meals on white table cloths in the dining car and singing songs on the train.\u00a0 \u00a0 People in those movies wore suits and dresses and hats and seemed to know exactly how to deport themselves on a train.<\/p>\n

Well, it’s the twenty-first century.\u00a0\u00a0 The train station in Chicago was big and there were long walks carrying our luggage to get to the ticket booth.\u00a0 Thankfully, there were redcaps who put our luggage on carts and took us to the train or we would still be wandering around trying to find it!<\/p>\n

People don’t dress up on the train anymore.\u00a0 Shorts, tees and jeans were the usual wear\u00a0 A lot of younger people.\u00a0 I felt overdressed in a nice top and black pants.<\/p>\n

Eating on a Train<\/p>\n

Breakfast and lunch was on a first come, first served basis.\u00a0 I only ate one breakfast while on the train.\u00a0\u00a0 You had to make a reservation for dinner.\u00a0 They said we could pick when we wanted to eat, so when the man came around to get our reservation we asked for 5:30.\u00a0 ” Oh, no, you can’t eat then,” He said.\u00a0 “We have 7:30 open.”\u00a0 Well, since we didn’t have a choice we chose 7:30.\u00a0 When your time came they would announce it and you would go to the dining car. A walk through several other cars. You\u00a0would lunge\u00a0from left to right walking down the aisles of the Coaches hoping you didn’t fall into someone’s lap.\u00a0 You finally get to the dining car and a very arrogant man with his nose in the air actually snaps his fingers at you and says, “Come, come,” and you run after him where you are sat at a table with complete strangers who are sitting just a few inches away from you.\u00a0 Thankfully, we were sat with a very nice couple and she and I talked to each other while the men ate.\u00a0 They were from south of Columbus, Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0 The man who waited on us was very nice, but I noticed the man\u00a0 who had snapped his fingers at us(who I started calling “the Jerk”) waited on people like it was the last thing he wanted to do.\u00a0 The whole time we were on the train every time I saw him I would tell David, “There goes the Jerk.”\u00a0 He always seemed to have a smirk on his face.\u00a0 Anyway, I ate three meals in the dining car.\u00a0 One time we ate with two ladies who were from Defiance, Ohio where my older brother lives.\u00a0 They didn’t know him.\u00a0 They also missed their connecting train because our train sat on the tracks for several hours letting freight cars go by.\u00a0 It was one’s first train ride and she said it was going to be her last.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t blame her.\u00a0 But it wasn’t as glamorous eating on a train as I thought it would be. I just kept waiting for Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, and Rosemary Clooney to come into the dining car and sing “Snow” from the movie White Christmas.<\/p>\n

Taking a Shower on the Train<\/p>\n

The shower on the train was just down the aisle from our sleepette.\u00a0 I could not go a whole day without a shower, so I bit the bullet and decided to try it.\u00a0 Our car attendant told me to be sure the door was completely locked as there had been some people startled in the shower because their door was unlocked.\u00a0\u00a0 I did not want that to happen.\u00a0\u00a0 I opened the\u00a0door to the shower\u00a0and gulped.\u00a0 How was I to take off my clothes, shower and put clothes back on a semi-wet body?\u00a0 It was smaller than any closets I have in my house.\u00a0 A small seat piled with soft, fluffy, white towels, Hm, that was nice.\u00a0 A little basket full of soaps which smelled very good. That was good. So, I carefully locked the door, checked it twice and proceeded to get ready for a shower.\u00a0 Once undressed, I turned on the shower. Cold water.\u00a0 I adjusted the handle. Cold water.\u00a0 Well, I was undressed and really wanted a shower so I took a cold shower.\u00a0 Very quickly.\u00a0 As the train rocked and rolled, so did I in the shower, but I managed to get washed.\u00a0 Then I had to get out and try to towel off as best I could.\u00a0 I kept bumping into things, but finally I was ready to dress. Ever try to dress in a two by two foot space?\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not easy, but I did it and I did it three times while riding the train.\u00a0\u00a0 Thankfully my other two showers I had warm water.<\/p>\n

Walking on a train<\/p>\n

When we took a trip to Alaska on a ferry we learned how to walk on a boat without falling down. Most of the time the ride was pretty smooth and we could walk very easily, but at times the sea was rocking and so were we.\u00a0 People would walk like drunken sailors.\u00a0 Well, on the train, you pretty much walk like that all the time.\u00a0 Lunging back and forth as the train rolled along.\u00a0 We had to go through several cars to get to the snack car where we purchased something to eat when we didn’t want to eat in the dining car or to the lounge car, where we sat and watched the scenery go by.\u00a0 We walked through the coach cars where people who didn’t have sleepettes would be laying across their seats covered up sleeping.\u00a0 I really did not want to fall into one of their laps.\u00a0 You learn to sway with the cars and hold on to anything you can grab to keep yourself upright.\u00a0 When we got off the train, David said his legs were still walking like he was on the train.\u00a0 It took him a day to get his “land legs” back.\u00a0 Same thing happened to him on the ferry. It took him a couple of days to walk right on land.\u00a0 It didn’t bother me at all.\u00a0 I was just glad to get off the train.<\/p>\n

Sleeping on a Train<\/p>\n

I always thought that\u00a0 sleeping on a train would be so relaxing and fun.\u00a0\u00a0 To get ready for bed, first we had to pull the two seats together to make a lower bunk and then pull down the upper bunk. Poor David slept in the upper bunk because he can sleep about anywhere.\u00a0 You are given two very thin blankets and pillows with hardly any stuffing in them.\u00a0 We didn’t know you could ask for extra blankets and pillows the first night. We got ready for bed.\u00a0 I wore clothes to bed because the bathroom was down the aisle and I didn’t want strangers seeing me in my pjs.\u00a0 That first night I froze all night.\u00a0 I didn’t know we could turn on a heater.\u00a0 I heard David snoring above me while I tossed and turned.\u00a0 Thankfully, I had my Kindle with me and could read.\u00a0 I watched the stars and just lay there\u00a0listening to\u00a0the train wheels clickety clack.\u00a0\u00a0 I will tell you the second night with extra blankets, the heater turned on and two pillows, I slept very well. Maybe if we had been on the train for a third night I would have slept like a baby.\u00a0\u00a0 It wasn’t like sleeping on the ferry, though, where I think I slept the best I have ever slept with the boat rocking gently and being in a warm cocoon in my little bunk.\u00a0 It was heaven.\u00a0 Anyway, sleeping on a train was an experience and I hope I haven’t made anyone not want to try it.<\/p>\n

\"dscn3832\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is my last post about our trip.\u00a0 Next, Grandchildren!\u00a0 Bye.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It had always been a dream of mine to travel on a train.\u00a0 I’ve taken day trips on trains, but never slept on a train. I thought it sounded so romantic and fun.\u00a0 Watching old movies I have seen people traveling on trains, sleeping in the sleepers, eating luxurious meals on white table cloths in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6186,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6185\/revisions\/6186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snicklefritz.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}