NYC Trip Day 1 Part 1- Attempting to get to Chicago

I had an early flight, but didn't think it would be too hard to get there. The light rail to the airport was having issues with the airport stop being closed. Also, the train I needed to take to that train was having ~staffing issues~ so there are delays of up to 38 minutes. So, I planned on a rideshare and just leaving extra time in case it took a minute to get a car. It took almost 20 minutes for Lyft to find me a ride, and then it said that pick up would be in another 20 minutes. It took the guy 30 minutes to get to me, but I chalked that up to Lyft’s estimates often being overly rosy.

Shortly into the ride the guy started describing to me his plan for a democratic economy based on divination using the art of college art students to predict the future. With his plan, we’d go back to the 20 hour work weeks we had in the 40s and earlier, before gender equality broke everything. He just kept talking, from how his divination method has been proven using it to predict silver prices.

Also, he drove an EV and it’s battery was low. There was a large screen on his dash showing the warning. Halfway through the ride his hazards came on automatically. I was just listening to ramblings, watching the battery tick down and also watching him miss 5 turns. The trip took way longer than it should have and I was already in 'if security is backed up, I'm screwed' territory. Also, I was seriously worried about his car dying before we got there and being stranded with this guy somewhere in the dark.

Then he went quiet for a bit. Then he started to apologize over and over again because he drank caffeine and every ‘future reality’ in which he drinks caffeine things go bad. He also started talking about seeing things. I should have made him pull over and launched myself from the car, even though that would mean missing both my flight and my train connection. I don't know if it's because I'd had two hours of sleep and was completely tunnel visioned on making my flight somehow, but I talked to him, got him calmed down and got him through the last few turns. I wish I hadn't. My report on him would have been taken more seriously by Lyft if I'd ended the ride early, but also like... would they even really care? Nothing works like it should now.

When he got there I told him to see where the nearest charging station was, the airport had to have one. He said he was fine to get home. I told him I didn’t want him stranded. He wouldn’t listen.

Then I got inside and got my boarding pass. I had trouble because I was so stressed from the ride I was literally shaking. It had been about 45 minutes of sheer stress. When the kiosk pulled up my info said ‘first class’ and my boarding class was ‘pri’ for priority. I figured it was just a boarding categorization thing. PDX’s redesign means that we have fast security, shoes stay on, and you have to pass slowly two at a time through a large area with sniffer dogs.

I made my flight, just barely. And yup, my seat was in the first class section, which is not what I’d booked. I went back and triple checked. I had booked seat 3A, but I'd booked the 'extra legroom' option on a small plane without a first class cabin. This is weird, because my impression is that surprise upgrades, like 'oops we changed planes and now you get to try first class' used to be a thing that happened, but not anymore. It was a marketing strat to make flying seem more exciting, twenty years ago. Maybe for reasons they are bringing that back, especially for Alaska Airlines flights out of PDX?

Anyway, the important part is that I was offered champaign as soon as I got on. I don’t typically drink before 7 AM, but if there was a day to do it. I felt a lot better after that. I was able to eat some of the food in first class, including some of the snacks. The food they offer is almost never edible to me, so I ate some because I could. I had champaign, orange juice, coffee, bacon, fruit and potato chips for breakfast.

I may break up my trip into a stupid number of posts, but yeah, just this post had gotten long enough. I still feel shitty about not launching myself from that car, but like what if the guy tried to stay with me? I just wanted to get to that airport so badly.

NYC Trip Day 1 Part 2 - When I'm back in Chicago

That concert I was just at? Their big hit is about being back in Chicago. End of Beginning by Djo if you are curious. That was playing in my head half the trip.

I am becoming pretty familiar with Chicago. I've done some cool stuff there like The Wild Mile and am pretty comfortable using their mass transit system. But I am never there for Chicago, it just keeps being my layover. When I did Grand Canyon fully by rail, my Empire Builder winter hiking trip, my recent Cali Zephyr trip and now this trip, Chicago is my connector. It's kinda weird to me how the city is becoming familiar to me when NYC really isn't. (more on that later)

My plan for the day was to just work in the Metro lounge rather than see the city. I'd packed for warmer NYC weather, not Chicago where it was snowing and windy. It was nice for most of the day, but then some guy came into the quiet section to have a very loud phone conversation, one of those over 60 guys that just projects at their phone, and it was medical stuff about both his daughter and also the kid he was traveling with. the kid was right there and clearly able to understand the conversation. I heard him go 'oops, scared some lady off' and realized other people were literally leaving to get away from this guy and I wasn't? So I also grabbed my stuff and went to go sit in the area where they play game show reruns all day.

Out train left too late for dinner service, but we were offered a free drink and snacks in the dining car:



I was on Viewliner, which is a config I haven’t been on in…. 30 years? More? The bedrooms and roomettes are taller and all on the same level, instead of the double decker set up of the superliners we use west of the Rockies.. One of the ‘features’ of this config is a private bathroom, a toilet right in your room, next to your bed.



As far as I know, this is the more popular config and the private bathroom is supposed to be a good thing. I am team ‘no thank you I’d rather not’ and also team ‘yeah I’ll go piss in the cafe car not next to my pillow’. I don’t know if my take is actually unpopular or if East Coasters are just louder, but I prefer my Superliner config. I do enjoy that the bathroom doubles as stairs so you can easily climb up and also there is a luggage cubby over the hallway. I sat up on a ledge near the roof of my car because I could. I shoulda taken a picture from hanging out near the ceiling, but didn't.

Bed mode:



I woke up in the middle of the night and we were stopped somewhere. It wasn't a station stop, we were just maybe waiting on something. I looked out my window and saw this, which was kinda cool:

NYC Trip Day 2 - Lakeshore Limited

I took the Lakeshore Limited to NYC. It passes by the Great Lakes and not far from the Finger Lakes, but not near enough to see them. Turns out, the pictures of the train by the water is the section is goes down the Hudson.

Seeing the Hudson river was cool, but I wish I had more context for what I was seeing. I know there is a lot of interesting and historical stuff there, but I was not connecting the sites I was seeing to the local history I learned back in middle school.

Yup, it was snowing:


Familiar places outside the window:





Train:



Islands in the Hudson had lighthouses:



I don't know what this place is, but how do I find it and live there?




Coming into NYC - The windows were super dirty. Annoying, or did they add to the atmosphere:?



Then I arrived and was in Penn Station, an absolute monument to the fact that modern NYC and the NYC I grew up next to are very different places. It was bright and clean and lovely, and not the dangerous hellhole it used to be. Me, being me, I stopped to take some pictures. Then some guy comes up to me.

Him: I was on your train
Me: Okay
Him: Are you also looking for the baggage pick up?
Me: Nope
Him: Because you look lost and it’s dangerous to look lost in this city.

As he said that last part he went from standing slightly closer than I’d like to way too fucking close. I switched to the local dialect and assured him I am fine, and am in fact from the area. That isn’t exactly what I said, but for this post I’ve translated it from New Yorker back into standard American English.

The man may have been on my train, but I doubt it.

Why does this keep happening? I arrive in a city, step off train, and immediately something fucking happens. I decided to just hoof it to my hotel. The lack of traffic in NYC these days is surreal. People talk gridlock sometimes, but old school NYC gridlock was on a whole ‘nother level. Even during ‘low traffic’ times, it wouldn’t be unusual for a light to cycle without a car even being able to move. You’d literally sit through green lights because the cars on the other side of the intersections hadn’t moved and you had no place for your car.



I enjoy staying at CitMs, but it’s starting to feel odd how I am staying in the same room, different view. The system remembers my lighting preferences, like the shade of purple mood lighting I want in the bathroom. Same layout, décor, etc. As it starts to become familiar to me, it’s strange to be having the same room different cityscape.