1645 hours on Thursday, my usual quitting time. I'm done with work for the week, and it's off the the Gathering! Down the elevator pulling my rollerbag. Out the door, across Pennsylvania Ave., up 13th St. to the Metro Entrance at G. Down the escalators. (Thank God they fixed the down escalator, it wasn't working this morning, and I had no desire to muscle my 30 lb rollerbag down the steps.) Into the Metro with its (relatively) luggage-friendly turnstiles, and long live my new Geezer Smartrip card with it's half-fare Senior Citizen rides. A short, not too crowded Metro ride, and I'm at Union Station. Through the turnstiles, up the escalator, and over the the Club Acela. My train, Acela Express 2124, leaves at 1750 hours, and I'm riding First class (points redemption.)
They announce our train, and I'm out the door hoping to snag a decent single seat facing front that doesn't have a rear facing seat behind, so I'm sure I have full recline. I get that, plus I snag space in the luggage rack at the end of the car so I don't have to hoist my 30 pound bag into the overhead bins. I'n now comfortably set, and one of the 2 car attendants comes and checks my ticket before he serves me the free booze. (Woodford Reserve Bourbon on the rocks, in my case.)
We pull out on time, and my, this first class car is the most full I've ever seen. I guess the 1750 departure is primo for the New York power players returning from a day in the Capital. Usually, the car attendants are ready to take your order within a couple fo minutes of leaving the station, in this case, they didn't take our dinner orders until we were almost at Baltimore. But I didn't care, I had a nice generous pour of bourbon to keep me happy.
No stopping here tonight!
On we went, and it was time for dinner. The selections were a bit thin this weekend: breaded pork cutlets, some sort of vegetarian curry, a "fruit and cheese plate," and a shrimp cocktail. I made my choice, but please don't tell my rabbi!
This was accompanied by a nice full glass of Korbel Brut, and, let's just say, I enjoyed the rest of the trip in a pleasant alcoholic fog. I certainly didn't put out my smartphone and fiddle with the GPS app to see if we were doing 135 or 160 or whatever mph for that 30 second stretch in Central Jersey that was upgraded at a cost of zillions of taxpayers dollars. Anyway, I didn't care, we ended up at New York Penn Station at 2049 hours, right on the advertised, a 3 hour trip from Washington. Sure beats driving.
Now I was in midtown Manhattan, but I had to get to my hotel in Brooklyn, located in the gentrifying frontier between Park Slope and Gowanus. Careful study of a New York subway map led me to estimate that there were about 50 different possible one-seat rides between the Penn Station area and Atlantic Ave. I opted for the D line from Herald Square/34th St. This seemed to have the fewest stops and crossed the East River via the Manhattan Bridge rather than a dark tunnel, like the 2 train does.
To do this I had to make sure I left the underground rat's maze pf Penn Station on the 7th Ave. side so I would be in position to head for 6th Ave and Herald Square. I exited from the Rotunda and got a little turned around, so I was on 31st st. instead of my desired 33rd. St.
No real problem, but when I got to Herald Square I couldn't find the elevator that was pointed out to me in detail in an earlier discussion thread regarding local transit during the Gathering. I did find an escalator going down, however, and found myself where I needed to go. This station has 3 levels of tracks -- the 6th Ave. Line, the Broadway line, and the PATH line with mezzanines to match. I found a ticket vending machine rather than going to the booth and getting the senior discount round trip metrocards. (My senior Metrocard, for which I applied over 6 weeks ago, finally showed in in my mailbox last Friday.) I ended up getting a 7-day pass just so I wouldn't have to fiddle with paying fares during the weekend, and I think I made enough rides to make it worth my while.
On the D line, I'm off to Atlantic Ave.
Finally, I arrived at Atlantic Ave, up the elevator and on to 4th Ave. in Brooklyn. Somebody's taking this global warming thing seriously and trying to cut back on electricity, or maybe the city is just trying to save money, but this major throughfare, like most of the streets in New York, seemed to be very dark. Or maybe it's my cataracts, one of which is being fixed this week. Anyway, I had a 10 minute walk down a street that looked like a set from one of the seedier neighborhoods in "West Side story," except that developers were building apartment houses that were advertising apartments for over a million dollars each. And this is apparently considered to be a reasonable price. God only knows what places are going for in the more fashionable neighborhoods in Manhattan. Despite the darkness and a few street people, I didn't feel I was in any particular danger. There were also a lot of hipsters and middle-class looking folk walking dogs and so forth. I was really most in danger from tripping over the curb in the dark.
I finally reached my hotel, a small 4-story structure converted from what appeared to be a former industrial or warehouse space. I checked in and went up to my room on the 4th floor. The elevator worked fine, and in the room, the plumbing, A/C, electricity, and door lock were fully functional. However, the room had less space than the average Superliner roomette. Part of that was because it had a queen size bed, which took up most of the space. The mattress was very comfortable, by the way, and I slept very well during my stay. Well, who can complain, it's hard to find a hotel room in New York City in September for under $200 a night.
I arranged my stuff, found an outlet for my power strip, set up my CPAP and phone charger and it was off to sleep.
In my next installment, more on my Gathering experiences that nobody else got to see.
--to be continued.
They announce our train, and I'm out the door hoping to snag a decent single seat facing front that doesn't have a rear facing seat behind, so I'm sure I have full recline. I get that, plus I snag space in the luggage rack at the end of the car so I don't have to hoist my 30 pound bag into the overhead bins. I'n now comfortably set, and one of the 2 car attendants comes and checks my ticket before he serves me the free booze. (Woodford Reserve Bourbon on the rocks, in my case.)
We pull out on time, and my, this first class car is the most full I've ever seen. I guess the 1750 departure is primo for the New York power players returning from a day in the Capital. Usually, the car attendants are ready to take your order within a couple fo minutes of leaving the station, in this case, they didn't take our dinner orders until we were almost at Baltimore. But I didn't care, I had a nice generous pour of bourbon to keep me happy.
No stopping here tonight!
On we went, and it was time for dinner. The selections were a bit thin this weekend: breaded pork cutlets, some sort of vegetarian curry, a "fruit and cheese plate," and a shrimp cocktail. I made my choice, but please don't tell my rabbi!
This was accompanied by a nice full glass of Korbel Brut, and, let's just say, I enjoyed the rest of the trip in a pleasant alcoholic fog. I certainly didn't put out my smartphone and fiddle with the GPS app to see if we were doing 135 or 160 or whatever mph for that 30 second stretch in Central Jersey that was upgraded at a cost of zillions of taxpayers dollars. Anyway, I didn't care, we ended up at New York Penn Station at 2049 hours, right on the advertised, a 3 hour trip from Washington. Sure beats driving.
Now I was in midtown Manhattan, but I had to get to my hotel in Brooklyn, located in the gentrifying frontier between Park Slope and Gowanus. Careful study of a New York subway map led me to estimate that there were about 50 different possible one-seat rides between the Penn Station area and Atlantic Ave. I opted for the D line from Herald Square/34th St. This seemed to have the fewest stops and crossed the East River via the Manhattan Bridge rather than a dark tunnel, like the 2 train does.
To do this I had to make sure I left the underground rat's maze pf Penn Station on the 7th Ave. side so I would be in position to head for 6th Ave and Herald Square. I exited from the Rotunda and got a little turned around, so I was on 31st st. instead of my desired 33rd. St.
No real problem, but when I got to Herald Square I couldn't find the elevator that was pointed out to me in detail in an earlier discussion thread regarding local transit during the Gathering. I did find an escalator going down, however, and found myself where I needed to go. This station has 3 levels of tracks -- the 6th Ave. Line, the Broadway line, and the PATH line with mezzanines to match. I found a ticket vending machine rather than going to the booth and getting the senior discount round trip metrocards. (My senior Metrocard, for which I applied over 6 weeks ago, finally showed in in my mailbox last Friday.) I ended up getting a 7-day pass just so I wouldn't have to fiddle with paying fares during the weekend, and I think I made enough rides to make it worth my while.
On the D line, I'm off to Atlantic Ave.
Finally, I arrived at Atlantic Ave, up the elevator and on to 4th Ave. in Brooklyn. Somebody's taking this global warming thing seriously and trying to cut back on electricity, or maybe the city is just trying to save money, but this major throughfare, like most of the streets in New York, seemed to be very dark. Or maybe it's my cataracts, one of which is being fixed this week. Anyway, I had a 10 minute walk down a street that looked like a set from one of the seedier neighborhoods in "West Side story," except that developers were building apartment houses that were advertising apartments for over a million dollars each. And this is apparently considered to be a reasonable price. God only knows what places are going for in the more fashionable neighborhoods in Manhattan. Despite the darkness and a few street people, I didn't feel I was in any particular danger. There were also a lot of hipsters and middle-class looking folk walking dogs and so forth. I was really most in danger from tripping over the curb in the dark.
I finally reached my hotel, a small 4-story structure converted from what appeared to be a former industrial or warehouse space. I checked in and went up to my room on the 4th floor. The elevator worked fine, and in the room, the plumbing, A/C, electricity, and door lock were fully functional. However, the room had less space than the average Superliner roomette. Part of that was because it had a queen size bed, which took up most of the space. The mattress was very comfortable, by the way, and I slept very well during my stay. Well, who can complain, it's hard to find a hotel room in New York City in September for under $200 a night.
I arranged my stuff, found an outlet for my power strip, set up my CPAP and phone charger and it was off to sleep.
In my next installment, more on my Gathering experiences that nobody else got to see.
--to be continued.
Last edited by a moderator:
