Day 31 - Wednesday 29 March - New Orleans to New York City riding coach
We deliberately chose to travel coach on this 30 hour journey for a couple of reasons. We had travelled coach around the US on 4 or 5 occasions but no journey was longer than about 12 hours, this was an overnight journey and we were curious.
We also enjoy longer Greyhound journeys, 24 hours+ up to a couple of days but couldn't fit a Greyhound into our schedule this time. Amtrak coach on the 20 Crescent was as close as we could get.
Because the seats size is generous, and because seat spacing is so much more roomy than a Greyhound, somehow an Amtrak coach car lost some of the intimacy of a Greyhound bus.
We know that sometimes intimacy on a Greyhound isn't always a good thing, in particular at the back of the bus, but it gets people talking which didn't happen so much on this particular trip.
Up at 4am, taxi arrived on the dot at 5. No traffic and it only took about 10 minutes to New Orleans Union Station. The driver was a very pleasant and efficient Indian man, we were to meet another Indian cab driver a few days later but not quite as efficient.
On arrival the building was open but there were only 2 other rail passengers waiting, no Amtrak staff although there were a few security people
About 5:30am NOLA station. Most of the folk in the photo are homeless, well behaved and just looked grateful of somewhere secure to sleep. By 6:15am they were all gone, security had quietly suggested that it was time to leave and they did, seemed like a good arrangement to us, full use of the facility.
Soon as the Amtrak ticket staff arrive we check a couple of cases and after not too long are allowed to board our car, by the time the 7:00am departure arrived the car wasn't half full, maybe a little up the line it will fill up?
About 30 minutes out of NOLA we start to cross Lake Pontchartrain at a sedate pace, this isn't a lake it's more like an inland sea. It certainly grabbed our attention as it appeared as though we were sort of floating above the water with no obvious support but with train noises coupled with clackerty clacks. This part of the journey will stay with us a long while.
Water to the left of us and water to the right
Soon after we slept for 2 or 3 hours, a 4:00am start was a little too early for us. Still tired we decide on a hot tea and coffee to get us going, met Susan the café car boss. Placed our order but she said nothing, just turned around and started to prepare our drinks. When asked if she had English breakfast tea she replied in a strong strange accent, and sounded a bit put out too. Ah well, can't please everyone.
When she turned around she was grinning and started to talk again. She was from Rochdale, England and they do have a very broad northern English accent, Susan had emphasised it a little too. We are still a little startled as we are sleepy and crossing Alabama on an Amtrak train it's the last accent we expected to hear. It was her party piece when she recognised passengers from England were on board and we got the joke eventually.
This lady who over the next 24 hours turned out to be completely charming, had met and married an American oil man and moved to the USA over 40 years earlier, they live in Louisiana. She spent a month every year back in Rochdale with her mum and had never lost her accent. When talking to Americans she sounded completely American too, good linguist probably.
The Crescent has good wifi and we learned that Article 50 had been enacted that day by the British Government, that's the document that formally starts Brexit, the separation of the UK from the rest of Europe. It felt a little strange reading about this in the online Guardian British newspaper while riding through southern states in the USA. It had been an odd day so far and another surprise a little further on.
We pulled slowly into Birmingham, AL, a large railway yard and station. It looked as though something serious had happened here as it looked desolate and abandoned. Enormous amounts of littler were everywhere and as though the station complex hadn't seen maintenance for 50 years, everything just looked broken.
We've not seen anything like this anywhere in the US, is there a reason it stands out as being so unloved? would really like to know.
Plenty of new passengers board here, this is how we expected coach to be as we are headed to the North East with it's major cities. We are around 1 1/2 hours behind schedule now, freight is the reason.
Passed through Anniston, AL and can't help be notice the Anniston Army Depot with all it's military vehicles and equipment. It's an enormous place and takes quite a while to pass. Anniston is and has been heavily connected into US military for quite a while with different branches of the military based here. It's a pretty impressive sight seen from a train window.
At the end of the day the Conductor came into the car to personally apologise for today's delays, nice touch.
Sleeping on the big comfy seats isn't too difficult, the foot rests help and the seats lay pretty flat if you want them too. It wasn't warm in coach but wasn't cool either, so a reasonable night's sleep was had.
to be continued...
Day 32- Thursday 30 March - New Orleans to NYC and onwards - day 2
A little tired as we wake up in Virginia. It's not due to the coach seats, just from time to time we would stop and start, people get off and on etc, but not too bad. travelling through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and into the big metropolises is very interesting for us, we don't live there and it's all different.
Apart from Susan in the café car there has not been any real conversation. There is a mid thirties man behind us trying so hard to impress the pretty girl across the way, but not sure that explaining he had had two spells in prison was the way to do it. We also learnt that the latest illegal drug could be had from the Empire State area of Manhattan. Apart from that we were happy enough chatting together and watching America go by the window.
At the end of this train journey we had our friends in NYC to look forward to, we'd planned on spending 5 hours with them before heading off to JFK for our evening flight, but we were now over 2 hours late. This was our second time at New York Penn Station, but the first time we had arrived there. It did all feel familiar as we exited the platform area, and we knew which exit to wait outside of for Juanita and Bradley. We quite liked waiting outside of Penn facing the huge US Post Office, there's a lot of life going past those doors.
The mid 30's man from our coach came out of the station while we were waiting, saw us and asked if we needed help, how kind is that? He also said he lived in the city and if we were hungry there was a good eatery just across the road, and at that he disappeared back inside the station. Can't judge a book by it's cover can you.
Bradley had to finish some work before they collected us, so they arrived an hour after we did. We did intend to visit the Chrysler Building as we love Art Deco and work with it too, so it was a pilgrimage for us. Bradley dropped the 3 of us at the door of the CB and said he'd be back about an hour or so later, we had to phone him when we were done.
Juanita used to work next door? at the old Pan Am building (for Pan Am) and didn't know the interior was so highly decorated, so it was a first for us all. The Chrysler Building owners only allow casual visitors into the ground floor, all the rest is active businesses that don't need a stream of tourists walking through their offices. Our view was, pure class and completely stunning to think that this was put together on such a scale. That it was important to spend so much effort and obviously money to impress staff and visitors as you walk through the doors. As mentioned elsewhere, we don't do tourists sites very often now, but this was for us just magic. The photos with our by now badly working camera do not do this building justice, but here they are anyway...
Interior is in immaculate condition, imagine if you have to work in an office being greeted by this every day
And one from the outside. Don't remember any other skyscraper with Gargoyles, they looked as though they were stainless steel an exciting new metal at the time. At a distance the Gargoyles did look similar in form to European cathedrals built around 1000 years ago and equally impressive.
After we had swooned enough Juanita took us into the old Pan Am building so we could see her former place of work. Huge staircase is what I remember and what did it look like full of people leaving work?
Another treat was Grand Central Station was close by. Had we been there? "No" was the answer. Would we like to take a look around? "Yes please" and so off we go. We were duly impressed have to say, it is a Grand building in any sense and with that amount of people moving around it reminded us of some famous Lowry paintings of Matchstick people who were always moving.
So here are our last photos before flying home, Grand Central Station in all it's glory, filled with travellers
The clocks on the main floor, these are our favourite from all the clocks we have seen from around the world
I've been to that station many times.
