The trip to CiL was an adventure from start to finish. Lissa and I took an Amtrak train to DC. Neither of us had ever rode the train before. The Cardinal route travels from Chicago to New York via West Virginia every other day and is scheduled to take around nine hours each way.
The decision to take the train rather than fly was an easy one. Our round trip tickets from Charleston to DC were only $96 each versus the $5-600 it would have taken to fly each of us there. While my fees were being covered by the university, Lissa's were out of pocket. Moreover, I do not like to fly. The few trips that I have taken with the Army National Guard and with the WVDOH have satisfied any urge I have to travel by air. Lastly, I feel that air travel, except in the most urgent of instances, is a huge drain on the environment.
The ride to DC was nice and we arrived at Union Station only about one hour late. The scenery on the route is outstanding and near Thurmond, West Virginia you pass an area that contains dozens of fairly intact coke ovens.
The return trip was also quite comfortable though I was frustrated that the electrical outlet for our seats did not work causing us to be unable to view the movies we had brought along to watch on the laptop. The disappointing part about the return trip was that a tree had fell onto a bridge in a remote area of West Virginia and we were stuck for over four hours waiting on a CSX crew to arrive to remove the tree and certify the bridge safe for travel. Unlike the trip to DC, the Amtrak crew was quite uncommunicative while we waited leaving the passengers unaware of when we would get moving again. Our 8:10 pm arrival in Charleston turned into a 2:10 am one. Unfortunately, most of this section of the trip was out of cell phone range leaving our friend Jeff who picked us up waiting most of the evening for us. He was amply rewarded with a trip to Sitar the next day though!
Despite the delays, I highly recommend traveling via Amtrak. It was wonderful to be able to relax, read, listen to music, and move around when I wanted on the trip. It was good to not feel the guilt (and economic impact) of flying to DC and not having to drive once we were there was an extreme blessing. We are already looking at further trips by rail.
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The dinner at Sitar was great. Thanks guys!
It's such a shame that Amtrak has downgraded the passenger cars on the Cardinal. At one time it was a double-decker train with an observation and dining car (full service). Given the enormous cost of the war and disdain for Amtrak by Bush & Co., it's no surprise that funding has lagged almost to the point of service's extinction. Maybe that trend will reverse one day, and we'll have a nice modern national rail system.
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