Green Maned Lion
Engineer
My trip starts not on the 10th, but late at night on the 9th. We were parking at a local boutique shopping center-cum-apartment-complex that is right on the beach and boardwalk, when I got out to a loud hissing noise, which was the passengers side front tire deflating itself. Lovely. Then I got out my jack, lug wrench, tire-lug guide, and full size spare, and proceed to loosen the lugs using the time-tested kick method. Then I attempt to jack up my car using its original crank jack, which promptly jumped its track. YAY!
So I call my dad and ask him if he'd do me the favour of bringing me the hydraulic jack and arm out of my other cars trunk, which he agrees to do. He manages to forget the arm, but fortunately I use my lug wrench as a substitute. Nice big rock jammed in the tire treads. I'd been using Michlen Pilot MVX-4 V-rateds for the longest time, but this time I decided to try Continental ContiProContacts, and, while road obstacles are road obstacles, I never had a problem with the Michelins, but twice with the contis. Also it was raining.
Then, I got home and dropped into bed, getting up at 6AM. We drove to Little Silver and boarded the NJTransit train at 7:07. The train ran fine. It was the... girls in the seat in front of me that were more of a problem. Let me give you an excerpt of the conversation I was forced to listen to.
"Well, like, I had like sex with him like because I like thought that, like, it might lead to like something with him, like, something, like serious. But like Mike is, like, bigger and this like doesn't seem to like be going anywhere." Like, like, like, bloody like. I was seriously restraining myself to not interrupt them and say: "I, like, challenge, like, you, like, to, like, formulate, like, a, like, sentence, like, without, like, misusing, like, the, like, word, like, like, like, once, like."
Also, in my years, I came to be under the impression that you form a relationship with a member of the opposite gender which, if successful, might lead to having sex (among other, more important, things). Rather than the other way around. Guess I was wrong. It was entertainingly absurd for the first five minutes. After that, I was wondering why she was getting so descriptive (The above is borderline for this forum, the rest of her diatribe was clearly beyond it!) in a public place and really wondered why I didn't bring earplugs.
Anyway, we thankfully got to Penn a tad early, at which point Audrey and I were in the vestibules the moment after we passed A Interlocking, and were off the train like race horses. There were tons of fun things going on at Penn even that early, and it only got more interesting as the day progressed.
We started waiting by the gates 30 minutes before the #91 Silver Star was called and the moment it was called we were literally the second person in line. OBS Gone Freight had let the crew know we were coming looking for lunch in the Diner, and the first thing the person at the gate said to us when we displayed our ticket was, "Oh, are you [OBS Gone Freight]'s friend? We've been expecting you!" I just had this sudden feeling the trip was going to go well. And it did!
As soon as our tickets were collected, we started heading forward. One of the coach attendants, James, stopped us, and told us the lounge was closed. I mentioned that OBS told us to go up as soon as our tickets were collected, and he directed us immediately to the dining car. We sat down and had a fabulous lunch with a great crew, and a fascinating lunch companion, too. It was nice riding in one of the Heritage diners again, even if this wasn't a Timoinsa refurb.
After, we went to the lounge car and spent time looking at the windows, and chatting with James as well. We had a blast. We got off at ALX on time, and went wondering through Alexandria's King Street, eating at Bertucci's for lunch. Bertucci's is pretty good- not a stitch on Giordano's though. When we got back to the station, there were some railfans there. They were on the tracks with their scanners, looking at a notable kink in the rails, discussing CSX maintenance practice. I stood by the side of the track watching them and noting there was indeed a notable kink in the rails.
Then I saw CSX freight highballing it coming up behind them, at which point I shouted "FREIGHT!", and they literally jumped off the tracks in the nick of time. Rail fans like those give the rest of us a bad name. First of all, you shouldn't be on the tracks. Second of all, if you are going to be on the tracks, at least have the bloody sense to check behind you every few seconds or at least have a friend spotting you! But even better, don't go on the tracks!
Anyway, they announced the Palmetto on time, and we went to wait for it. Just outside of ALX they had an engine problem and we ended up boarding 15 minutes late. At which point we found out the Cafe was not functioning. This could easily have been a disaster Amtrak, in their usual customer-service oriented way, loaded bags of chips and sodas on board and gave them to all passengers complimentarily. They even offered cold chicken sand which dinners to people complete with more chips and drink. They didn't have to do that, but they did- they made good out of a bad situation!
At Washington, they changed engines. Then we moved forward about 150 feet and ground to a halt, finding out that the engine they attached was defective. They had re do the procedure, and we left about half an hour late. We got into New York a bit tired and weary (without the Cafe car, we didn't have much to move around for), about 20 minutes late, and took the NJT train back home.
All in all, it was a good trip, and Amtrak once again demonstrates that their people are the reason they succeed as much as they do!
So I call my dad and ask him if he'd do me the favour of bringing me the hydraulic jack and arm out of my other cars trunk, which he agrees to do. He manages to forget the arm, but fortunately I use my lug wrench as a substitute. Nice big rock jammed in the tire treads. I'd been using Michlen Pilot MVX-4 V-rateds for the longest time, but this time I decided to try Continental ContiProContacts, and, while road obstacles are road obstacles, I never had a problem with the Michelins, but twice with the contis. Also it was raining.
Then, I got home and dropped into bed, getting up at 6AM. We drove to Little Silver and boarded the NJTransit train at 7:07. The train ran fine. It was the... girls in the seat in front of me that were more of a problem. Let me give you an excerpt of the conversation I was forced to listen to.
"Well, like, I had like sex with him like because I like thought that, like, it might lead to like something with him, like, something, like serious. But like Mike is, like, bigger and this like doesn't seem to like be going anywhere." Like, like, like, bloody like. I was seriously restraining myself to not interrupt them and say: "I, like, challenge, like, you, like, to, like, formulate, like, a, like, sentence, like, without, like, misusing, like, the, like, word, like, like, like, once, like."
Also, in my years, I came to be under the impression that you form a relationship with a member of the opposite gender which, if successful, might lead to having sex (among other, more important, things). Rather than the other way around. Guess I was wrong. It was entertainingly absurd for the first five minutes. After that, I was wondering why she was getting so descriptive (The above is borderline for this forum, the rest of her diatribe was clearly beyond it!) in a public place and really wondered why I didn't bring earplugs.
Anyway, we thankfully got to Penn a tad early, at which point Audrey and I were in the vestibules the moment after we passed A Interlocking, and were off the train like race horses. There were tons of fun things going on at Penn even that early, and it only got more interesting as the day progressed.
We started waiting by the gates 30 minutes before the #91 Silver Star was called and the moment it was called we were literally the second person in line. OBS Gone Freight had let the crew know we were coming looking for lunch in the Diner, and the first thing the person at the gate said to us when we displayed our ticket was, "Oh, are you [OBS Gone Freight]'s friend? We've been expecting you!" I just had this sudden feeling the trip was going to go well. And it did!
As soon as our tickets were collected, we started heading forward. One of the coach attendants, James, stopped us, and told us the lounge was closed. I mentioned that OBS told us to go up as soon as our tickets were collected, and he directed us immediately to the dining car. We sat down and had a fabulous lunch with a great crew, and a fascinating lunch companion, too. It was nice riding in one of the Heritage diners again, even if this wasn't a Timoinsa refurb.
After, we went to the lounge car and spent time looking at the windows, and chatting with James as well. We had a blast. We got off at ALX on time, and went wondering through Alexandria's King Street, eating at Bertucci's for lunch. Bertucci's is pretty good- not a stitch on Giordano's though. When we got back to the station, there were some railfans there. They were on the tracks with their scanners, looking at a notable kink in the rails, discussing CSX maintenance practice. I stood by the side of the track watching them and noting there was indeed a notable kink in the rails.
Then I saw CSX freight highballing it coming up behind them, at which point I shouted "FREIGHT!", and they literally jumped off the tracks in the nick of time. Rail fans like those give the rest of us a bad name. First of all, you shouldn't be on the tracks. Second of all, if you are going to be on the tracks, at least have the bloody sense to check behind you every few seconds or at least have a friend spotting you! But even better, don't go on the tracks!
Anyway, they announced the Palmetto on time, and we went to wait for it. Just outside of ALX they had an engine problem and we ended up boarding 15 minutes late. At which point we found out the Cafe was not functioning. This could easily have been a disaster Amtrak, in their usual customer-service oriented way, loaded bags of chips and sodas on board and gave them to all passengers complimentarily. They even offered cold chicken sand which dinners to people complete with more chips and drink. They didn't have to do that, but they did- they made good out of a bad situation!
At Washington, they changed engines. Then we moved forward about 150 feet and ground to a halt, finding out that the engine they attached was defective. They had re do the procedure, and we left about half an hour late. We got into New York a bit tired and weary (without the Cafe car, we didn't have much to move around for), about 20 minutes late, and took the NJT train back home.
All in all, it was a good trip, and Amtrak once again demonstrates that their people are the reason they succeed as much as they do!
