My Next Trip, Part 3

I have a lot of thoughts about future trips. I love to  take the overnight and tour the full day. Boston is a favorite trip, for this. A nice excursion involves Chicago to Memphis. Memphis has a hanging monorail, which is unique. From Cary, NC just take the Carolinian or Silver star to Washington and the overnight Capitol Limited to Chicago. One problem, the layover time means  Washington, overnight. There are a few other way, like going to NYC and transfer to the Lake Shore Limited. I came up with unique trip.

Take the Star or Carolinian to a transfer point for the northeast limited, overnight to Boston. There are several places to do the transfer. In Boston, wait a few hours and take the lake shore from Boston to Chicago. Instead of a motel room in Washington, sleep on the train. From Boston another overnight to Chicago. In projection would have me spend the day in Chicago touring. Than the overnight to Memphis to spend the day. Two overnight train trip going. Sleep on the train. That night return overnight to Chicago, spend the day in Chicago and overnight to Manasas, Why Manasas, you think? First, Take the Cardinal from Chicago would still mean an overnight stay in DC. Instead, stop in Manasas for a cheaper room, but still on the commuter rail line to DC. There we have a number of options for trains, including the Virginia Railway express, the Crescent.

I have been slow in taking my next trip. Now the holidays are upon us so I need to wait til after New Years. I will take my traditional trip to Richmond, VA. I do this around the First and I go to church that first Sunday of the new year. I go back to the church I attended before I became a pastor. The first Sunday was the most ideal time for a pastor to leave his congregation behind. He/She cannot go anywhere between Thanksgiving, and Christmas, because of all the church activities going on. Now, as a retire pastor, I still have family things to take care of, so I still put things off. However, the holidays are not a good time for exploratory travel.

My Next Trip, Part 2

I moved from Boston because of a girlfriend. She was an old girlfriend which I ran into, about a month before moving to Boston. She ask that I keep in touch. After settling in Lynn and about six months later, I was contacting old friends to let them know where I was. She was the only one who answered. A few months of writing, she came to Boston to see me and I made a trip back to Virginia to visit family and visited with her at the same time. I moved from Boston to be closer to her and her daughter, who she shared custody with. So, less than a year later I move from Boston. Because of the circumstance, I tried to tell myself that I did not like Boston. It was 25 years before I went back for a visit in 2010. I took a week off for this trip. I took Amtrak to Boston and took mostly the subway and commuter rail, to the places I wanted to see.

These were the days before Internet and personal computers. In exploring the area before and during my visit, I relied on maps and tourist information so I missed seeing a number of places, because I didn't know about them. I had more interest in returning to places I was familiar with while living there

I moved to a town near Hamlet, NC and put Hamlet and Boston into the website to see how they would take me to Boston. They recommended the Silver Star to Washington, DC and the overnight Northeast Regional from Washington to Boston. It is about an 7 and half hour layover in DC with leaving DC after 10 PM. I used an alternative by making the layover in Alexandria, VA. This lessened the layover by about almost an hour and but the station closed before the train arrived. I spent this layover touring the Washington, DC area.

I stayed near Copley Square, around the corner from where I worked, 25 years before. I did rent a car one day so I could take in the north shore where I lived. That gave me the ability to see High Tower and Lynn woods, in Lynn. I took a drive to Fort Independence in south Boston.

Just for fun, after getting home, I looked a planning a day trip in Boston. I would take train overnight to Boston and return over night. I would arrive early and just spend the day. I laid out a day of train watching, mostly north station trains and a piece of all 4 subway lines. I eventually took that trip. In thinking about another trip, I chose other, more I may decide to heading through Downtown Crossing and going to the commons and surrounding. Copley was nice along with the Prudential Center. Adding a lot of tourist sites and less trains.

My Next Trip, Part 1

I keep thinking ahead to future excursions. I have spent some time exploring the possibility of Florida as a destination, for one of my one to five (seven) day excursions. My first excursion plan included north Florida from Tampa back to Jacksonville. Some years ago, I drove the northern Florida train watching route and watched the streetcars and airport people mover, in Tampa. When I arrived in Orlando, it was Sunday and the commuter rail did not run on Sundays. So, on to Jacksonville and learned that their monorail did not run on Sunday, as well. So a return to north Florida would be nice. Another trip would be Miami, but that is a full day, and not over night, travel, from Orlando, Tampa or Jacksonville. It has some good things to see. There is the airport transit, the light rail (third rail metro style), downtown people mover, and commuter rail. Instead of taking the train, I could fly on the long hauls and watch from their. However, if I wait a few years, Brightline will be finished between Orlando and Miami. It is now in Miami and runs to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. I would be a wonderful train to watch and ride.

Recently, I have been thinking about Boston, again. My first experience in Boston was unintentional. In 1978, I took visit of New England, with the plan to bypass Boston, and visiting Plymouth. I had a problem with directions, so I pulled off the turnpike and found a place to park. It so happens that that place was overlooking the train shed of South Station. I did not know it at the time but learned it, later. I did got some nice railroad pictures. At that time, you could see anything run on Amtrak and Boston commuter rail. Thus an Amtrak pulled by a D&H diesel or on old BM pulling commuter rail could be seen.
My first intentional experience was when I first went to Boston to attend a work seminar in 1982. As I was waiting for the train to take home, I went to Downtown Crossing with another participant. We went to the department store so he could buy a souvenir to take home for his kid. The department store is still there, according to google but it has change names after a merger.

That summer I answered a notice about a job in Boston and moved that October. I first lived at the YMCA near where I worked, for about a month and than moved to a sublet in Cambridge, rented initially by a co-worker. I finally moved to the North Shore, three blocks from Central Square and train station, in Lynn (Lynn, Lynn, city of sin....lol). I did some train watching as well as touring, during that year. Of course there are traiins, both near South Station and in Lynn. Still, anything would be running. Note that old BM RDC's were used as cars. The motors had been disabled and using only for heat.
Besides trains, I did enjoy the sights of Lynn. It is remarkable that the only pictures. taken in Lynn, was those of the Goldfish pond a few blocks from where I lived. It was a nice place to go to just relax. It was not until I visited back that way that I took other pictures. That is remarkable because a lot of summer evening would have me walk the four blocks to Lynn Shore and spend an hour or so, after an early supper. That was before cell phones so it took work to lug my 35 mm camera.

(to be continues)