It is 7:15 a.m. and it is dark very dark and when we roll past lights you can see the dense fog. We are somewhere in South Carolina and I just got a weather alert regarding the fog. Later there may be rain as we continue to move south towards Atlanta. The morning movement and the grey skies lulled me back to sleep and when I woke at almost 9 a.m. there was a gentle rain and we were on the outskirts of Atlanta. The tracks are smooth as we travel along and I enjoy the rhythm. A land boat that chugs and sways and at times lurches along.
You don’t have the opportunity to meet as many people when you have a sleeper car but one of the Ways you do is in the diner car. Last night at supper I met a young woman traveling from NYC TO Charlottesville. She is a sophomore in college and moved to NY from a Little Rock Arkansas. She was going to visit a friend for a couple of days and then her boyfriend was flying into Little Rock to meet her and go to her home for the first time. I kept listening to her story and seeing Myah. I was wondering what my grand daughter‘s stories will be like at this time next year. Hearing the nervousness and worry about Dad’s reaction to her boyfriend, counting on Mom to smooth it over, each word and inflection revealed the dance between grown up and a child going home. She rushed off as her stop was near and I was left with such loving wishes for Myah as I finished my wine and watched the train pull into the next stop.
This morning I had another Little Rock connection in the dining car. A couple, they each referenced their own children, married, maybe early 60’s, from Little Rock and they travel often. Have taken many Amtrak trips so we talked trains and sights and the inevitable adventures of riding on The train. The woman’s grandparents had a cabin on Lake Vermillion in MN, so we talked about woods and water and lichen mosses.
And now we are stopped. I don’t know where or why. I hear another train whistle so a freight train probably has the right away. It is all a part of the adventure. I may try to nap or maybe it is time for a little coloring, or there is always a book. I always read a book placed in the city I will visit. This time I am reading A Confederency of Dunces by John Jennedy Toole.
And we are off. Book in hand and gaining speed.
You don’t have the opportunity to meet as many people when you have a sleeper car but one of the Ways you do is in the diner car. Last night at supper I met a young woman traveling from NYC TO Charlottesville. She is a sophomore in college and moved to NY from a Little Rock Arkansas. She was going to visit a friend for a couple of days and then her boyfriend was flying into Little Rock to meet her and go to her home for the first time. I kept listening to her story and seeing Myah. I was wondering what my grand daughter‘s stories will be like at this time next year. Hearing the nervousness and worry about Dad’s reaction to her boyfriend, counting on Mom to smooth it over, each word and inflection revealed the dance between grown up and a child going home. She rushed off as her stop was near and I was left with such loving wishes for Myah as I finished my wine and watched the train pull into the next stop.
This morning I had another Little Rock connection in the dining car. A couple, they each referenced their own children, married, maybe early 60’s, from Little Rock and they travel often. Have taken many Amtrak trips so we talked trains and sights and the inevitable adventures of riding on The train. The woman’s grandparents had a cabin on Lake Vermillion in MN, so we talked about woods and water and lichen mosses.
And now we are stopped. I don’t know where or why. I hear another train whistle so a freight train probably has the right away. It is all a part of the adventure. I may try to nap or maybe it is time for a little coloring, or there is always a book. I always read a book placed in the city I will visit. This time I am reading A Confederency of Dunces by John Jennedy Toole.
And we are off. Book in hand and gaining speed.
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