Ridin' The Rails

Ok, now that we're all back home, safe and sound, let's finally talk about the train ride to Maryland, shall we?

First things first: did you know you're supposed to get to the train station an hour before your scheduled departure time? Yeah, we didn't know that. Know WHY we didn't know that? Because instead of posting a note about it, say, on the registration confirmation page, they posted notes about it IN THE TRAIN STATION. Because THAT'S helpful.

And as it turns out, if you don't get there an hour early, you don't get to check any luggage. This actually ended up being the best possible outcome because if you have a baby, a backpack, a large-ish duffel bag, and a very large carseat and you can't check any of it, it all ends up getting piled in the seat next to you. End result: FREE SEAT. On behalf of all the slackers of this world: You rock, Amtrak.

So on the plus side, we didn't have to worry about bothering the passenger in the seat next to us. On the not-so-plus side, we had to worry about bothering the passengers IN THE WHOLE REST OF THE TRAIN. Because Luke was not pleased about the fact that the ground was moving. Or that he couldn't go play with everyone he saw. Or that he couldn't take the banana that belonged to the lady across the aisle. (By the way, Dear Lady Across The Aisle: The kid is ONE. I can pretty much guarantee that your lecture about personal boundaries and respect for other people's property was completely lost on him. Furthermore, he never actually even TOUCHED your precious banana, so not only was the lecture aimed at the wrong audience, but it was also COMPLETELY UNWARRANTED.)

And when I finally got him to go to sleep, the man (and by "man," I mean "probable drug dealer") in the seat behind me started talking very loudly on his cell phone about how some woman owed him money and the BILLIONS of Bad Things he was going to do to her if she didn't pay him back. So after about an hour of that, we decided to head down to the dining car.

People, the dining car is AWESOME. Okay, we never actually made it to the dining car, so let's amend that statement. The SNACK car is awesome, so I'm guessing the dining car would have been doubly so. We spent a good two hours eating an orange and a hot dog and a turkey sandwich. Mind you, I almost had a heart attack when, at the end of those two hours, I thought to look at the ingredients on the turkey sandwich and they were "Turkey, Corn Starch, Artificial Turkey Flavoring." ARTIFICIAL TURKEY FLAVORING???? Just let's not even go there. (Also? Let's not talk about the fact that the turkey was kind of...spongy.)

So all in all, the trip was...okay. In that we got there in one piece. (In a manner of speaking.) But next time, I am TOTALLY paying the extra $200 to get a room so that I don't have to worry about neurotic old women or loud drug dealers or people who are trying to nap on the train and are (justifiably) unhappy at being interrupted by a curious toddler. And I'm bringing our own lunch.