I went online first thing this morning and surfed over to the Amtrak website. I’ve become quite dependent on the internet to check on travel plans when they don’t involve driving my car to get there. Today will be my first journey on a passenger train, subway rides notwithstanding. The Crescent takes me down to New Orleans in time for an early dinner. Or so I thought. It appears that I’ll be starting the trip a little later than I thought. The train is currently scheduled to arrive approximately one hour later than originally planned. While live blogging is not possible (at least not for me, as I can’t justify the monthly cost to have that service available) I do plan on placing images from today’s trip on the Smugmug site late this evening, after I find somewhere to eat for dinner.
It’s interesting that I’m hopping on the train for my trip today. Bets and I just got back form the farmer’s market, where I spent a great deal of time drooling over vintage cars. We do have a love affair with the automobile and the independence that it provides us in this country. Checking some other things this morning online I came across this opinion piece published in the Seattle Times, written by Alfred Runte. (Forget gas, we need a plan to keep passenger trains running, Seattle Times, 5.30.2006)
It’s an interesting piece, one that should make us think about whether our yearning for independence is making us quite dependent instead (for all of the wrong reasons). Take a look at the piece. Then come back tomorrow morning and see how I fared on the train.
Cheers.
