Wash ,'Jaynestown'
[NAFDA] "There will be an occasional happy, so that it might be crushed under the boot of the writer." From Zorro to Angel (including Wonderfalls and The Inside), this is where Buffistas come to anoint themselves in the bloodbath.
I'm all about taking time to travel, thus my support of trains and autos as means of travel. But yeah, most of the time I don't have the time.
The extra fun (as well as the chance to relax) of train travel makes it worth the extra money for me. Now if they'd only get WiFi....
So I have a plan for crafting christmas gifts. Any ideas on what can be done quickly on the cheap?
Kat, try spice-filled hot pads: [link] . Basically crushed cinnamon sticks, cloves, etc. fleshed out with uncooked rice, sewn into a cloth bag. If you have a sewing machine, takes about 5 minutes to whip one together. The year I did several by hand, I got one per day done sitting in front of the tv while at work.
I used old jeans and cloth I got from remnant bins for mine.
I forgot to mention that I was almost hit by a car after I got off the bus.
You should try to avoud this, if you can.
Especially when they cost as much or as more as the plane -- there needs to be a tradeoff.
I don't want to ride American trains. I want to ride European trains. In America. It's a Thing. I want the Platonic not-quite-Ideal of trains, in which there is reasonable cleanliness, reasonable frequency, and reasonable price.
Amtrak, in my experience, has sucked in customer service, cleanliness, and reliability.
I wasn't even considering those (I'm not sure if Amtrak was the train we took from Montreal to NY those times). Cost and duration, which are much bigger changes for them to make, are my primary hangups.
I do like the train. But time is a valuable commodity for me. Money's not unimportant either. Cost-effective high-speed rail. Bring it on.
Amtrak, in my experience, has sucked in customer service, cleanliness, and reliability.
I think they've been improving, although I haven't ridden them enough in the last ten years to make a statistically significant sample. But in the trips I've taken in the last few years they've been clean and had adequate customer service. And the last half-dozen trains I've taken have been on time.
Also, sleeper cars rock.
I took the Capitol Limited between DC and Chicago a few times a year when I was in college. It was great. I get the time issue, but I was trading efficiency for stress reduction. It was worth taking a 17-hour train ride to avoid O'Hare. Especially at Thanksgiving.
Plus, at both ends the train stations were more conveniently located than the airports were. The train still took longer than a flight would have, of course, but door-to-door it was a choice between 20 relatively pleasant hours and 10 stressful hours.
Strega! I need your address. Please to send?
Amtrak, in my experience, has sucked in customer service, cleanliness, and reliability.
The Downeaster from Boston to Portland is quite nice, but it does take 2 3/4 hours. However, perception-wise even the most efficient bus trip on the same distance, which is around 2 hours, feels twice as long.
Plus - bar car and the beers aren't priced much more than they would be at a bar.
I routinely took the Cardinal from Indiana-DC and the Montrealer from DC-White River Junction in college. Unfortunately, that was 20 years ago and neither route now exists; the Cardinal goes far north and the Montrealer is mostly by bus due to track conditions.
I want high-speed trains, too, but the conventional wisdom in Congress seems to be that trains are a boondoggle while roads and airports are an infrastructure investment. Sigh.