Trew Travels by Train: The First leg of the Trip

By: Dan Trew

Dan Trew Opening Picture (1)

I’m pretty sure that buried deep in my wallet is that cliché fortune cookie about journeys beginning with single steps. I keep all of my fortune cookies. Not because of some existential sense that they are intrinsically important to my understanding of the universe, and nor do I feel that they have any bearing on the greater course of my life. They do, however, make for good conversation, and every so often, a bit of inspiration.

My fist steps on this portion of my journey were into a few inches of fresh snow. I had to run out to my car to grab a spork because, as I was preparing to leave, I realized I had neglected to put one of those into my pack. Once those steps were out of the way, I headed down to the nearest ticketing station.

Altoona is a moderate drive on a nice day, but on treacherous snowy roads, it becomes a wee bit excessive. Despite the obvious attempt by the weather to impede my trip, I made it safely to the Altoona Amtrak station where I picked up my leaflet of tickets and my Rail Pass.

When the time for my departure arrived, I wheeled myself out to the train’s boarding platform. I’m not exactly sure what I was anticipating. The thought of large steam clouds and a man with a pocket watch telling me about his prospective oil adventures in Oklahoma filled my head. Sadly, neither of those things happened.

I am far from an outsider to air travel. I pride myself with actually being able to navigate most aspects of it with relative ease. I know where my bags go, I know the rough idea of where my seat is, I know how to board and deplane effectively, and I even understand what it is I am supposed to do in a water landing. I am not as proficient in traveling by train, however. The one instruction I was given was to step left or right after I boarded. Using my airplane knowledge, I figured I would stash my carry on in the first available position and go on to find my seat. I racked my first bag and continued to walk forward, beginning to work over how I would ask to sit next to one of the people already on the train, but as I was still searching for a home for my second bag, I did not stop. At this point, I was utterly confused and had no idea what I was doing, so I followed my gut and advanced to the next car; it was mostly empty. I marked that moment down as a powerful learning experience in the world of train travel and its seating.

The ride remained mostly uneventful, and with the sun setting quickly, there wasn’t much opportunity to view the quickly disappearing Pennsylvania landscape. My train got into Pittsburgh 20 minutes early and so my first day ended with a little longer wait in Pittsburgh’s Amtrak lobby than I expected.

 

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