Riding Down to Miami on the 91
On board the Silver Service along the Eastern Seaboard
As I began to write this, I was passing through Delaware somewhere, I think. It was 1:20 in the afternoon on Amtrak train 91 Silver Service/Palmetto in my Viewliner Roomette. We boarded at New York Penn Station at 10:30am and I rode until 6:00pm the following night to Miami. Thirty two hours on a train. This is part of my vacation and I am traveling my preferred method.
In a previous article, I wrote how I hate to fly. I only do so when there is no other option available. Even when I am traveling from Boston to Miami, if I have the time, I take the train. I not only hate to fly but I also love to travel by Amtrak.
The only drawback to the train is time. Aside from that, there is every possible advantage over taking the same trip through the atmosphere.
This time I take the 91 Silver Service/Palmetto, one of two that go from Penn Station to Miami. It is the less expensive route because there is no dining car. A small grill is in the café car that serves quick hot and cold meals and snacks and drinks.
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The roomette becomes my office. I sit here with all of the Eastern Seaboard passing by me to my left like living in an Americana museum. It is January, there is no snow on the ground, only in New England did I see any. The trees are all bare and the grass is brown as we speed towards Maryland through Joe Biden’s home state. I see neighborhood after neighborhood: little cul de sacs of American life: Salt boxes, Ranch style homes, empty baseball fields that in three months will begin to fill with aspiring MLB stars, row houses, empty swimming pools that will be cooling off neighborhoods and families in six months, rivers, creeks, Huey helicopters at Quanitco, trailer parks, large farms, bare trees with an exposed eagle’s nest, graveyards, cattle ranches, orange groves and northbound trains, it is all outside that window.
Amtrak is a relaxing way to travel and that is why I take it as I listen to Siriously Sinatra through my T-Mobile Galaxy tablet and sit here and write.
Does it get better than this? No, actually it does not.
One of my favorite memories is of another ride I took on the Amtrak Crescent to Atlanta. I enjoyed a cold drink while passing through Virginia and listening to the Grand Ole Opry live from WSM via an internet app on my phone. No actually it does not get better than that.
I know the route well. I will experience the respite in Washington, DC. I will have supper somewhere in Virginia, breakfast south of Jacksonville. I watch the flora change from evergreens, maples and oak trees, to the more tropical in Florida.
I will sleep through part of the Carolinas and all of Georgia. I will relax. No need to worry about whether or not I am thin enough for my seat, whether I have enough time to get off the plane to catch my next flight, and most important whether I will have to go to the bathroom when the aisles are blocked by the food cart, the trash cart or the block the aisle for the latest reason cart.
I always remind people who never tried the train for the cross country route that if I really have to get off the train, I just get off the train. I do not have to worry about landing to address an urgent issue or finish some office work that I could not get done prior to my leaving. The roomette has internet access, a nearby onboard snack bar and a beautiful view from the window. I can use my phone and my computer too, just like I was in my office.
Since, I live in Boston, getting to the 91 train adds to the adventure. It was a cold day in January as I wrote this. Winter in the Northeast means the hotels in New York have lower prices. I stay at the Hotel Pennsylvania next to Pennsylvania station. (Yes the number still is PEnnsylvania 6–5000). So that becomes part of the adventure — a train from Boston to New York, a the night at Hotel Pennsylvania in a room that cost me less than $94 in Midtown Manhattan no less. Breakfast at Gregory’s on 33rd St., a visit to the chapel at St. Francis Church between the hotel and the coffee shop and then back to Penn Station for the Amtrak route 91 to Miami.
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Once I had to return to Boston from Atlanta in early February. There was a terrible blizzard that struck Virginia to New York. Washington, D.C. was so socked in that people were literally skiing through the streets. Obviously, flights were cancelled. What did I do? Nothing, I was on a train. It was delayed, but was still in service. The cold outside was so bad that the doors on some train cars froze up to New York. Inside was comfortable and heated. I got home late, but home. Nothing stops a train but ice. That is also why I take the train in January. There is always a chance of a blizzard that will stop my flight. It can happen with trains too, but not as often.
My ride finished, I completed one short story, put the latest newsletter I edit to bed, did some business by phone, wrote two articles, including this one, slept comfortably and arrived in Miami.
Do you really think you can convince me to begin my vacation flying to Miami? Good luck.
Signing off from Florida.
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