Heading to the Midwest

Sculpture in the garment and bead district---oh so many bead stores---it would be heaven, but there were no quilt or dollhouse stores to make it perfect. Fashions made of very strange materials. Still crooked--still haven't figure out how to turn them.

The Acela Lounge at Penn Station, a bridge from the train, a scene from the train before it got dark at 8:15.

Monday August 9, 2010

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Woke up well rested after a night in a good bed that did not move about. Took our time getting cleaned up as we had a tub and used it. Then down to the street and on to McDonalds for a quick familiar breakfast. We took the coffee back to our room 905—and packed for the train trip. The packing was accomplished fairly quickly….actually we are just getting more efficient.

We had two hours to spare so we went out for a walk. On Broadway south of 39^th we found another bead store. It is really fun to look through their huge collections of beads and chains. Needless to say we found a few things. We worked our way back toward the hotel, window shopping as we went. Then gathered the bags, and waited for the elevator—we waited because we needed a whole elevator to ourselves and our bags—only took 15 minutes. Then out to the curb where the bellman hailed a cab large enough to fit our stuff, and off to Penn Station.

We entered this huge station from a different corner than we had left months earlier. We walked through the whole place to find the Acela Lounge where we could hide out until train time. We checked three bags through to Chicago and then went out in search of lunch. Quite a search—it was hot (no air conditioning in the general station)—it was crowded—and there were a number of choices. We settled on Nathan’s Hot Dogs, which is a New York name, because it wasn’t too crowded, and it promised to be quick. Not the best choice—the Pepsi was watery, the fries were greasy and undercooked, and the hotdog was a little dry. Neil compounded his error by ordering a large, thinking that was a bigger hot dog, but no! the hot dog was small, lots of crummy fries and extra crummy Pepsi to drink.

After lunch we took turns leaving the cool comfort of the lounge to survey the station and identify the track where our train would be boarding. Finally, the call came to board and with another couple from the Queen Mary rushed out to get it line. Only a short wait and then down the escalator to the platform to find car number 4911. The car was found, room #2 was found and with our carry-on bags we collapsed. The car steward was very nice to us and explained procedures and asked about time to make up beds and so on. We left New York pretty much on time and rode up the Hudson. We had the correct side so we could see the river the whole way. At Albany things began to go awry. The section from Boston was late so we sat at Albany waiting for them. At 7:05 we made our way to the dining car. We had reservations, but there seemed to be a number without. And the car was a bit confused and the waiters a bit harried. We were seated and had dinner with two men from Illinois. One of whom didn’t make it through his second bottle of wine and had to be escorted back to their room. Still for a while they were pleasant companions. The food while acceptable was a step down from the QM2. We finished dinner with a dessert and left as they were in need of seats for the 8:30 seating. On returning to our room the beds were made up, and we changed into jammies and read for a while. Really a let down that it gets dark by 8:30 instead of 10:00 or 10:30. Eventually the fatigue and tension of the last two days claimed us both, and we nodded off as the train rocked and sped through New York and Pennsylvania.

Steps. 6224