After my very enjoyable trip to Boston-Cape Breton last summer, of which I have posted no pictures because I’m lazy, I’m spending some time in New York. I’m going to a wedding in Connecticut and thought I’d enjoy a couple extra days off.

Aside from my plans to basically just walk around New York and maybe go to a museum, one big part of this trip was I wanted to take a train. Specifically, I wanted to take a train with a room so I could sleep on it. At this very moment, I am sitting in my room, car 4812, room 1 (on the Lake Shore Limited) and looking out at snowy New York. I had taken this train to Boston when I was in graduate school. But I was always in coach. And that was basically not that pleasant of a journey. This time though, I am in a roomette. The train left exactly on time at 9:30pm. It’s now a bit after 9am Eastern time and we’re getting close to Buffalo. Supposedly, we’re going to arrive in New York City around 6:30pm. My previous trips on Amtrak (and yes they were decades ago), make me doubt that arrival time. But we’ll see. Maybe things have improved.

As for the train itself, it’s old. The ride is like a flight with a constant bit of turbulence. It took me a while to get used to it. But I finally did fall asleep around midnight. I slept for around six hours which has been really pleasant. The ability to easily stand up to stretch and to lie down and sleep is great. Of course, I’m now sitting in my room and will be here for the next nine hours or so. Somewhere there’s a dining car on board. And when I feel like taking a walk, I’ll go and find it. I think they said it’s about six cars in front of me. The bumpiness of the ride means it’s been pretty much impossible for me to write in my journal. I tried last night and again this morning. Typing on the computer isn’t bad. And I’ve already watched a couple videos that I previously downloaded. Amtrak does provide wifi, but I doubt I could use it for streaming a video. It’s pretty sketchy because as we move, my equipment keeps getting messages that it found another Amtrak hotspot or I’ve been disconnected. Anyway, it has worked for me to check mail every so often. But I hadn’t planned on using it because I heard it wasn’t reliable, so I had planned for that.

One of the big reasons that I like taking the train is that I arrive right in Manhattan. I can just walk a few blocks to my hotel. I could have flown and taken public transit to the city. But I probably would have either rented a car to go to Connecticut or taken a cab to Manhattan. I’m happy to not do either of those. I like vacations where I don’t need a car. And I definitely don’t need a car in New York.

Here are some pictures of my room on the train.

my room

Here I am arriving at my roommette.

toilet and sink

My roomette has a toilet and sink, which I wasn't expecting. Have to be honest that this could be a little awkward to use with two people in the room. The toilet and sink also make up the stairs that a second person would use to get to the top bed.

about to go to sleep

After the bed has been set up, it was nice to stretch out and relax.

me

In my room, seeing if I can get any work done here. Writing definitely can't happen. Computer work is a maybe.