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July 23, 2004
Riding Around America: the Crescent
The following has been written as I ride and, thanks to an unknowing home or business with an unsecure wireless network, has been posted from the train in a hurry while stopped at a station.
Approaching Charlottesville, VA... 9:30 pm yesterday
The green trees and lush fields of Virginia have given way to darkness as we speed along next to the Shenandoah mountains. All I can see now are black outlines of trees against the darkening sky. We're pulling into Charlottesville now and will be off as soon as passengers have disembarked or boarded the train. It's been a pleasant journey so far and we are running on schedule.
In New York earlier this afternoon I was the first to board the car I am seated in, and thus have secured myself a window seat. Upon leaving New York, our car attendant, Kelly introduced herself. She is an older lady with an extremely thick Irish or Scottish accent - you'd think I could tell the difference but I still have trouble. She made a few announcements and told us, "Yer all rich Americens so spend some o yer money in the dinin' car won't ye?" She just now went through the car to make sure we all have pillows because "dewn't let aneybodey say that old Kelly never gave ye a pellow". She's been having a great time with some of the kids in the seats behind me also. I wanted to ask her how she started working for Amtrak but her shift is over so we won't be seeing her again until 3:00 am.
This first day of the trip wasn't much for scenery. New Jersey is, well, let's just say it lives up to it's reputation. We had a bit of rain in Washington, and even some lightning but it didn't last long. Maryland and Virginia are pleasant enough as far as scenery goes, but I've done a lot of travelling in this area before, so it's nothing new for me.
I have NetStumbler running (a program that uses my wireless card to detect wifi networks) and managed to pick up quite a few access points so far. The train is going so fast that they only appear for a few seconds before disappearing again. I'm leaving it on, just in case something is accessible the next time that we stop at a station. If I do manage to find one, I'm going to have to be quick if I want to have a chance of connecting, much less checking or sending email. If this message is posted anytime before 8:00 pm on Friday then you can assume that I was successful.
Now it is completely dark outside. So dark that I can literally see nothing outside of the windows. That's right - nothing. Not even lights. From what I saw during the day, trees surround both sides of the tracks, just like they do along Virginia's highways. It's a strange sensation to be hurtling down the tracks, feeling the train sway from side to side, but unaware of what's on the other side of the glass.
Between Lynchburg and Danville...11:00 pm yesterday
It's 11:00 pm now and I am sitting in the lounge car. I've just finished "Red Badge of Courage" and a cup of coffee. The book was excellent (maybe I'll write up a little something about it later), the coffee was OK. We just left Lynchburg a few minutes ago. I still have NetStumbler running for kicks and have picked up a few more access points but we haven't stopped near any. I'd really like to be able to connect at some point along the way but that's wishful thinking.
Compared to my only other Amtrak trip, this lounge car is dead. There are a couple of young girls and their mom watching a movie on a laptop, and an Amtrak employee is doing some paperwork but that's about it. A bit disappointing. When I rode from Chicago to New York after Christmas the lounge was pretty crowded and everyone hung out and talked but that's not the case this time. Maybe things will pick up tomorrow. I'm heading back to my seat to go to sleep.
In Atlanta...9:00 am today
It's a nice morning here in Atlanta. I woke up about and hour ago. Right now I'm on the train and we are stopped at the station. I connected to a wireless access point and am posting this from my seat on the train. We leave soon and I'm about to lose the connection so this is all I can write.
Posted on July 23, 2004 at 8:47 AM