Travel Journal

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="002285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.chapmansfriend.com</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="default.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.chapmansfriend.com"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="001d2c00dkelyh.gif"> <div> <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="New York City Serenade"><U>New York City Serenade</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pictures"><U>Pictures</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Traveling Man"><U>Traveling Man</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Travel Journal</B></div> <div> <B>January 7:</B></div> <div> <B>1:40 AM EST</B></div> <div> <B>On the train to New York</B></div> <div> It's only been a short travel day but it's already been wearying. The Dwight to Chicago train-- scheduled for 5:49 this evening-- got in at a leisurely 7:30. This left enough time to make the 10:30 train in Chicago, but... Guess Again! Delays pushed this departure back to 12:05. Where I am right now. I'm going to occupy myself as best I can for a bit before I try to get some sleep. Romance of the rails, indeed...</div> <bR> <div> <B>5:03 PM EST</B></div> <div> <B>Somewhere in Pennsylvania</B></div> <div> The train is still wending its way to New York. Last night, Indiana and most of Ohio passed by while it was dark. We hit Pittsburgh at around 11 AM, but have been proceeding with all deliberate speed ever since. I believe that in Native American dialects, "Pennsylvania" originally meant "land of many Amtrak stops."</div> <div> I think we are near Harrisburg, and may be stopping there. I know that Philadelphia is a stop, and from there it's straight through Jersey to get to New York. Yes, if we can make it there we can make it anywhere, but will we make it there anywhere close to the scheduled 8:10 arrival? Not that I had much in mind for tonight after arrival, anyway...</div> <bR> <div> <B>11:54 PM</B></div> <div> <B>Finally in New York</B></div> <div> And the train just kept rolling on... and never getting out of the state of Pennsylvania. It didn't leave Philadelphia until about the time that it was supposed to be pulling into New York. So it never did make up the hour and a half it was late in leaving Chicago, because we finally got to Penn Station at 9:40. Overall, train travel was a little more wearying than I expected, but on the other hand there's the $26.60 one-way fare to consider.</div> <div> A series of subways to the 59th Street stop, near Bloomingdale's (and also, I think, near the Serendipity restaurant... that movie is a very guilty pleasure of mine!), and then to the hotel. A little too late to do any walking around, so I'll just make a clean start in the morning. Plans are still up in the air...</div> <bR> <div> <B>January 9</B></div> <div> <B>12:39 AM</B></div> <div> The end of this day was a little frustrating, which is why these notes are not being posted as we speak... There has been a massive foul-up with my ISP concerning my on-the-road access, which culminated in a 4-hour long series of calls to customer service and technical support... but NO! This is not the place for that!</div> <div> The day was a hodgepodge of several different themes. First was the <I>Amazing Race </I>theme, as I visited the starting point (Bethesda Fountain, Central Park) and the finish line (Unisphere, Flushing Meadows Park in Queens), and fondly remembered the days of <I>Amazing Race Classic</I>. "Look at those stairs! Kevin and Drew and the Guidos ran up those stairs for their baggage!" "This is the subway stop where Team Danza was <I>certain </I>they were gonna win!" "Here's where Team Esquire jogged to the finish line!" You have to be a fan of the show to appreciate this...</div> <div> Then I combined lunchtime with a famous landmark and ate at Katz's on the Lower East Side... and the sandwich was huge. Yes oh yes oh YES! YES! YES! (Had to bring at least one <I>When Harry Met Sally</I> reference.) Then the rest of the afternoon was in midtown-- the Rockefeller Center rink, Times Square, trying to spot Ashley Judd going into the theater before tonight's <I>Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</I>, gawking at the interior of the Plaza, ect. I even found Serendipity! Looks just like it did in the movie. I'll bet the scene at the Bloomingdale's gloves counter was shot in LA or Toronto, though...</div> <bR> <div> <B>January 10</B></div> <div> <B>9:20 AM EST</B></div> <div> Let me update before I get going today... Yesterday I took one of the tours of Carnegie Hall, and then headed downtown to the Village. The John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street is, I think, the original location (there are at least 3 others), so I had a pizza there-- no sign of Woody and Soon-Yi. After wandering around the Washington Square area a little... at least as much as I could with the weather being so cold... I made a stop at the Chelsea Hotel, remembering that Dylan stayed up for days there writing <I>Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands</I> for Sara, and also remembering that Sid and Nancy checked out there. Other songs for the area-- <I>Chelsea Hotel No. 2 </I>by Leonard Cohen and the brand-new <I>Hotel Chelsea Nights </I>by Ryan Adams. "I'm even tired of 23rd Street/ Strung out like some Christmas lights/ Out there in the Chelsea nights."</div> <div> I had a notion I might want to have a drink at the Algonquin Hotel bar, in honor of the Round Table, but I couldn't bring myself to desecrate the place. A walk through the lobby will do for now. Then back to the hotel. I'm getting ready for my last full day in town right now...</div> <bR> <div> <B>January 11</B></div> <div> <B>12:26 AM</B></div> <div> The central fact about today... it was COLD. Colder than the first few days. So cold I had to structure the day around periodic stops inside wherever I could warm up. After an early lunch, I made the traditional trip to Central Park West and the Dakota, but any lingering retrospectives were cut short by the COLD. Where can you warm up? The subway. So a long subway journey downtown was just the thing.</div> <div> I didn't know if I wanted to go back to the WTC site or not. I ended up near there and the difference from a year and a half ago was interesting. The site itself is still basically a construction site, but there's a less haphazard feel to the area. There are official-looking exhibits up, like you might see at a national memorial, and what looked in 2002 like it was still in the aftermath has now been cleaned up a lot. Less plywood hiding damaged buildings. The church nearby which became the place where flags and posters and pictures were placed now no longer has the impromptu memorials, but it's opened to the public again.</div> <div> From there, I went south to the Battery, checking out Wall Street on the way. The Wall Street area was the only place where I really have noticed a stepped-up security presence... streets closed off, plenty of NYPD around, dogs searching vans. </div> <div> Back uptown, trying to stay warm... a stop at St. Patrick's and back to the hotel. Later on, I had a beer at the legendary P. J. Clarke's, and then had a notion to visit Elaine's. No place at the bar to sit, though, so only a look around.</div> <bR> <div> <B>January 11</B></div> <div> <B>8:43 PM</B></div> <div> <B>On the train back to Chicago</B></div> <div> We are on the rails again, leaving Penn Station at around a quarter past 4-- again, about an hour and a half late. So far it's been fairly smooth traveling. I think the train is somewhere approaching Syracuse.</div> <div> This morning, determined to get a few more sights seen, I stopped by the Flatiron Building on 23rd Street, one of my favorites. It's nearby Gramercy Park, which always fascinates me because it's closed off to everybody but residents of the square... and guests at the Gramercy Park Hotel. It's mysterious enough that I'd almost want to stay there just to get in! I had enough time for one more subway ride south to see the Brooklyn Bridge, then a walk slightly north to Chinatown/ Little Italy. I couldn't do much more than walk up and down a few streets, though. Then back to pick up my bags and check out. The rest of the day was based around getting to Penn Station, then waiting out the delay. We were lucky, though... the 12:15 to Chicago had not yet left when we finally left the station...</div> <bR> <div> <B>Epilogue</B></div> <div> I guess I just realized I never provided "closure" to this journal... It's nearly a week later and yes, the train did eventually get to Chicago on Monday morning. After a little walking around downtown, the train to Dwight left that evening on time that's right I said <I>on time!</I> I was back home only 10 minutes behind schedule.</div> <div> What was my impression of long-distance train travel? The chep fares mollified a lot of my problems with the delays and long travel times. Paying regular fare, I'm not sure how forgiving I would be. It's unfortunate, because with good customer service and efficient schedules (i.e. no mystifying stretches where the train sits in the midst of nowhere for 45 minutes, or is over an hour late even leaving the station where the route originates), train travel would be a great option. But now I'm starting to sound like Campbell Scott in <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Perpetua" ><A HREF="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105415/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105415/"><U><I>Singles</I></U></A></FONT><I> </I>pushing his light rail plan prior to getting shot down by Mayor Tom Skerrit. "If you had comfortable trains... and good coffee..."</div> <div> New York was great as always... But the cold really did affect sightseeing. No meandering walks up and down streets, not if I wanted to actually feel my face afterwards. I did keep one travel tradition alive... on several occasions, <I>I </I>was approached by fellow tourists asking for directions, apparently thinking I was a native!</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>