I'm penning this piece because in the last few months I've personally traveled on Amtrak, its Northeast Regional service to be exact, several times now and I just cannot get over how much I enjoy traveling by train. I really, really like it alot. Thus far all my experiences regarding train travel have been very pleasent and for me personally, it's very comfortable and relaxing. Now I realize that just as with any other mode of transportation, train travel probaly does have its downfalls too but for myself, so far so good, no complaints here.
Granted, I think it'd be alotta fun to travel on that high-speed train, the Acela but quite frankly, those tickets are almost twice the price of a regular train fare, regardless if one is going one-way or round-trip. They say that mainly business people and commuters mainly travel on the Acela and all I can say is good for them; but, for folks like myself who have a bitta extra time when it comes to business trips and leisure trips, saving the extra bucks and taking the slower trains works just fine for me. I'm perfectly content with that.
I never thought that I would ever fall in love with train travel as much as I have but there is good reasoning for that. I've never mentioned this before but I'm the type of person who is plagued with travel sickness, not so much the motion angle of it, but I'm literally what you call a nervous traveler, especially when it comes to flying. Things like Dramamine dont even begin to phase my system. It's funny in a way, one would think that after all the years of flying I've done and the fact that I've never once been in an airline mishap that I shouldnt be so nervous about flying, but I am - or at least I use to be. The only times I fly nowadays is when I go back to the midwest to visit my Gram and other relatives for the holidays; but, when I use to fly more regularly, it was very rough on my entire system.
What would happen is that I'd develop a terribly nervous stomach every time I flew, to the point where I literally had to take tranquilizers just in order to fly. I dont know if it's because of my fear of heights or not, but there's something about flying on a plane that makes me an extremely hypersensitive wreck. After several years, I did force myself off those flight-time tranquilizers by doing something that I would never suggest anyone do just in order to fly, especially if one has any major health issues such as I have - I would fast for a few hours before boarding my flight, and then straight through until I landed at my destination, whether the time frame was 4 to 12 hours, that's what I had to do if I wanted to fly comfortably without even entertaining the thought of tossing my cookies all over my fellow passengers.
I remember it use to grind me sometimes, watching how so many people could eat meals at the airport and even on board the plane without even flinching once. Sure, you get pretty gawddamn hungry when you fast like that but dealing with those gnawing pangs sure beat the hell outta of feeling like you were about to hurl in every direction possible.
I suppose if I drank, like some folks do before boarding a plane or while on board, maybe it does indeed take the edge off those pre-flight jitters but I'll never know.
Now that I think about it more intently, I do think it's an issue of the height versus being-on-the-ground-as-you-travel concept. For some reason I feel a lot less nervy when I do non-air travel and I think that's because there's no place to fall to. I mean, sure, God forbid, you could end up in a horrible car crash or bus crash and go flying 150 feet into the air, but with the exception of those less common accident scenarioes, there's something about being on good ole' terra firma that sooths the living hell outta me (note: I'm the same exact way with sea travel - no nervousness, calm as can be).
Naturally, the other modes of transportation havent sent me into a nervous tizzy as much as flying has. Traveling by personal car has never bothered me, nor has bus travel, though I will admit that one of the many reasons I am now, at the age of 46, finally fallen in love with train travel, is because the seats are just so damn much more comfortable than the airlines and the bus lines. Hell, on Amtrak you have a nice large comfortable seat you can move around in and there always seems to be alotta leg space all around you, so that right there alone has also sold me on train travel.
Again, I'm sure there are down-sides to train travel and alotta folks out there who have had beyond terrible experiences on Amtrak themselves, but again, I havent had any such problems and perhaps that does make me extremely lucky. In fact, I think the only anxiety I have about train travel is the issue of finding enough overhead space for ones carry-on luggage and then finding a seat close-by. Alotta folks who travel on Amtrak arent the most neighborly, you see TONS of passengers sitting in one seat and putting their purses, briefcases and/or computers on the seat next time, sort of their way of saying "Look, I dont want anyone sitting next to me." Hey, I guess that is a person's choice but on those oversold trains the conductors do request they move those items so everyone else can have a place to sit down. But with that one single exception, I'm as calm as a leaf when I travel by train - and I have never been calm when traveling, not ever in my entire life, until now.
One more thing I like about train travel is that you really get to people-watch, which I've always thought is alotta fun; after all, what gay man doesnt enjoy some half-way decent eye candy from time to time, ya know? But one thing I will say about all of that is this - the route that I travel on by Amtrak, moreso for my medical trips and mini-holiday trips back-n-forth between here and the burbs, is that I still have yet to see anyone I know from Facebook on any of those trains. I know, that makes me wanna laugh too but it's true. You see, alotta my fellow Hiv/AIDS activists, you know, the really big-wig famous ones who are constantly blabbering that they travel here-n-there? I have never ever seen even one of them on the Northeast Regional route, which really doesnt make any sense because it's the main train route all the way from Boston, down to further-away places such as NYC, Washington D.C., Baltimore and even Newport News, Virginia. Dont get me wrong, I realize there are indeed perfectly logical explanations as to why this is the case, such as they dont travel by train, they go by plane, personal car, etc., etc.; but alotta those people are like the rest of us, they arent Rockefellers either, so I still think it's kinda unusual I havent seen any of them on Amtrak thus far. Justa observation.
What I should tell people is that the next time they are traveling on Amtrak's Northeast Regional route, right after boarding the train, they need to give a shout out and say "Hey! Are ya here, Spice??" Wouldnt that be a hoot? I gotta admit, it'd be a great way to meet some of the folks I know online and if nothing else at least it'd be an excellent way to start a conversation. Whatta icebreaker, heh?
In closing, I guess the only thing left I can say about train travel, whether it be on Amtrak or any other train lines, is that if you're curious about it, give it a try sometime. Personally, I've always wanted to travel by train, especially after watching "Murder on the Orient Express"(1974) umpteen times during my childhood, as well as reading about all the fancy boat trains that would transport passengers from all points outwards to waiting ocean liners, such as the QUEEN MARY, ILE-DE-FRANCE and EMPRESS-of-BRITAIN. Granted, Amtrak's Northeast Regional route is nothing as fancy or glamorous as those trains of yesteryear, but it is enjoyable nonetheless and I'm glad of that - and so is my stomach. Thank you for reading.
Posted via email from Luctor Et Emergo
No comments:
Post a Comment